Punishment

This week I was thinking about some of the dark things that have been going on in the world.  Then I remembered a sermon that the Pastor o my Church gave on Easter Sunday.  He talked about how Jesus died for our sins, but then went to go on to say that if a bad thing happens to you, it doesn't always mean that God has abandoned you.  God may let bad things in you life happen to test you and see how dependent you are on your faith and God.  Like in Jesus situation, he died on the cross and was testing his son, but then lots of good came out of his son's death.  Through Jesus' death, all the sins of every man and woman has and will be forgiven.  The same happens to us, but perhaps not on such a large scale.  God lets unfortunate events occur in your life, God is not always punishing you.  Sometimes it draws you closer to him and you learn life lessons from the incident.  The main thing to take away from this is that God loves you and always will, and just because he lets bad things happen to you it may not be because he wants to punish, but it may be because it may be because he wants to draw you closer to him. 

http://toscanyacademy.com/blog/education/291