A. He has a loving reason for everything He does:

ROM 8:28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

GEN 45:4. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

GEN 45:5. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

GEN 45:6. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

GEN 45:7. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

GEN 45:8. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

GEN 50:20. But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

PSA 119:71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

JER 37:15. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.

JER 37:16. When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;

JER 38:28. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

JON 2:1. Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,

JON 2:2. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

JON 2:3. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

JON 2:4. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

JON 2:5. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

JON 2:6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.

JON 2:7. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

JON 1:15. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the

sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

JON 1:17. Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

JON 2:10. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

B. Suffering is often God's loving chastisement:

PRO 3:11. My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

PRO 3:12. For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

HEB 12:5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

HEB 12:6. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

HEB 12:7. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

HEB 12:8. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

HEB 12:9. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

HEB 12:10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

HEB 12:11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

HEB 12:12. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

REV 3:19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

DEU 8:5. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.

JOB 5:17. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

1CO 11:32. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

C. God's chastisements are righteous:

NEH 9:33. Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:

PSA 119:75. I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

PSA 19:9. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

PRO 26:2. As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

JER 17:10. I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

EZE 14:22. Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.

EZE 14:23. And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD.

HEB 12:11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

D. Our suffering is less than we deserve:

EZR 9:13. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;

PSA 78:38. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

PSA 78:39. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

PSA 103:10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

PSA 103:11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

PSA 103:12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

PSA 103:13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

PSA 103:14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

E. Continue to trust Him even though you don't understand:

PRO 3:5. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

ISA 55:8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.