"FOR I AM WITH THEE, SAITH THE LORD, TO SAVE THEE." The Lord also will correct. Sin procures correction, and God in love sends it. Every child is chastened because every child sins. But though we are corrected for sin, yet not according to the desert of sin. Our Father chastens us in measure, not in wrath, but in love; not to destroy but to save us. There is no wrath in His heart, for He has sworn that He will not be wroth with us. Yet He will visit our sins with the rod and our iniquities with stripes. He is reconciled to our persons but not to our follies; therefore He says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent." Let us not despise His chastening nor faint when we are rebuked of Him; for it is the common lot of all His children, and if it drives us to Him, and humbles us at His feet, it is evidently sent in love. It is a Father's blessing, a mercy sent to purify and cleanse us. If we sin and are not chastened, are we truly sons? For what son is he whom his father chastens not? But if we are chastened, God deals with us as with sons; and our sufferings are the fulfilment of His promise, as He said, "I will correct thee in measure." 

For Meditation:
Though ten thousand ills beset thee,
From without and from within;
Jesus saith, He'll ne'er forget thee,
But will save from hell and sin:
He is faithful
To perform His promised word.