Welcome back to the podcast on this Monday. Last Monday, we looked at God's active role in our suffering in APJ 2171.

One of many episodes on this podcast devoted to answering your most painful questions about personal trials and chronic suffering so much so that I try to give you a summary

of the ground we've covered in the past in the APJ book on pages 365 to 394.

If you have the book handy, you can see more of what we covered there.

But personal suffering is tied to personal discipline, too.

Just yesterday in our Navigator's Bible Reading Plan, we read Proverbs 3 together

on God's discipline, leading to this question from Andrew, a listener who struggles with a lot

of pain in his life. Pastor John, good morning and thank you for this podcast. My question is about

God's fatherly chastening in Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12.

How do we distinguish this chastening from the decay and difficulties that result from this sin-filled

world? For example, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the genetic kind at age 7, and later

developed other health issues, including chronic joint pain.

I wasn't a true repentant believer until my late 20s when I also began to have

digestive issues that needed medical attention. Are all these physical issues disciplined from the

Lord and were the issues I faced before becoming a believer God's wrath rather than his discipline. How do I discern between

God's discipline and the physical difficulties that could also be explained as decay in a fallen

world or judgment from him in my sin? There is one particular question in this cluster of questions that we haven't dealt with as directly as we have some of the others.

We've talked before about how to distinguish or whether we should distinguish God's chastening in our pain from the ordinary pain that everyone experiences

because we are all part of the fallen world. But we have not dealt with as directly the question,

which Andrew asks, were the issues that I faced before becoming a believer, God's wrath, rather than discipline.

That's a unique question. So let's ponder that for a few minutes, because I think it will

shed light across the other questions as well. I think the first thing to realize

...