The One Year Bible - Day 132

We often misunderstand the idea that God can be both loving and also allow us to suffer. The Old Testament uses phrases like "His hand will be heavy on you" and we get all confused and decide that God in the OT is not the same as the God in the new. We need to understand that the things that God does are all for love, even allowing us to suffer so that we realise where we have gone wrong and therefore return to God. The warnings for Israel apply to us as Christians as much as the Israelites all those years ago because they are based on the principle that God will do whatever He needs to do to bring the best outcome - some of that can be very ugly. If, however we remember who God is and pay Him the honour due to Him then we might find that we don't suffer in the same ways. I don't want to put too fine a point on it since some people suffer for no obvious reason and others who are bad people don't seem to suffer but we should always seek to do what God wants and the best outcome will always result.