Having recently experienced my first hurricane with Hurricane Isaac and its aftermath, and found these thoughts especially insightful from today's reading from Melanchthon's Apology of the Augsburg Confession.
Therefore, troubles are not always punishment or signs of wrath. Indeed, terrified consciences should be taught that there are more important purposes for afflictions (2 Corinthians 12:9), so that they do not think God is rejecting them when they see nothing but God's punishment and anger in troubles. The other more important purposes are to be considered, that is, that God is doing His strange work so that He may be able to do His own work, as Isaiah 28 teaches in a long speech. When the disciples asked about the blind man who sinned, Christ replies that the cause of his blindness is not sin, but that "the works of God might be displayed in him" (John 9:2-3). In Jeremiah it is said, "If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it..." (49:12). So the prophets, John the Baptist, and other saints were killed (Mathew 5:11). Therefore, troubles are not always punishments for certain past deeds, but they are God's works, intended for our benefit, and that God's power might be made more apparent in our weakness. - Apology to the Augsburg Confession XII: 61-63.
Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. 1st edition. St. Louis: Concordia, 2005
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