Many people throughout the ages have always considered that running into trouble meant that God was mad at them. Therefore if someone is dealing with sickness or injury or loss or any other difficulty, many people have always felt that these things must be consequences of God’s displeasure with the person. But that is not always the case.
Dr. Packer’s quote below reminds us that certainly the trouble we face could be God’s discipline, and therefore we should think through and pray through the issue to make sure that we consider whether we have disobeyed God in some way to receive His discipline. But he reminds us that every sign of trouble is not a sign of God’s displeasure with us:
Trouble should always be treated as a call to consider one’s ways. But trouble is not necessarily a sign of being off track at all; for as the Bible declares in general that “many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalm 34:19), so it teaches in particular that following God’s guidance regularly leads to upsets and distresses which one would otherwise have escaped. Examples abound. God guided Israel by means of a fiery and cloudy pillar that went before them (Exodus 13:21-22); yet the way by which he led them involved the nerve-shredding cliffhanger of the Red Sea crossing…. And Jesus’ disciples were twice caught by night in bad weather on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:37; 6:48), and both times the reason why they were there was the command of Jesus himself (see Mark 4:35; 6:45).
–J. I. Packer
There are many times that we will face difficulty because we live in a fallen world that has many troubles (including disease, pain, injury, death, etc.). And there are some times that we might face difficulty because of God’s discipline. But there are many other times that we will face difficulty even when we are doing God’s will, as the directions He takes us may be to build our faith so that we will be better witnesses for Him. And there are also times when we are doing His will that the enemy will desire to thwart our efforts and engage us in spiritual warfare (as He did with Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”).
It can be hard to discern which of these you are experiencing, but please don’t credit every problem you encounter with God’s discipline. In fact, it may be that you are right in the center of His will, right where He wants you to be. And He loves you and He is walking with you through each and every difficulty. And do know this, even when we do experience God’s discipline, it is always out of love to bring you back to a place where He can use you again.