Isaiah 26:16-17. "O Lord, in distress they sought thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs, when she is near her time, so were we because of thee, O Lord".

This turning back to the Lord in our distress is one of the reasons God allows suffering. God does not like to see us suffer, but He knows us so well, He knows that we often go so far away from Him that the only way we will turn back is in our suffering. These kinds of sufferings are called chastisements, as Isaiah references here, saying the Israelites "poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them."

These chastisements can come in our individual lives, as wake up calls when we are personally going astray, or they can come to larger groups, like the Church, our nations, or even the world. We are living in a time of chastisements now, and it is not difficult to see why. As Isaiah says later in this chapter, "For behold, the Lord is coming forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity" (Isaiah 26:21). There is plenty of iniquity to go around right now, and God wants to drive it away from each of us. Chastisements are His way of doing this.

But even in the midst of the chastisements, we can take refuge in God's love. Isaiah tells the faithful to "enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is passed." (Isaiah 26:20). Like the Angel of Death passing over the houses marked with the blood of the lamb, God's wrath will not destroy His faithful ones. Chastisements are for our own good, and the good of the world, so while they are certainly difficult to live through, we can always cling to the assurance that God is accomplishing something very good through them. And we can trust always in His protection and His love.