Repentance or Rebellion
When God allows suffering because of sin, it’s purpose is to bring about self-reflection and repentance, resulting in restoration. Restoration to God and to each other.
In the absence of reflection and repentance, our flesh races toward rebellion, intensifying God’s judgment until we repent and cry out for mercy and deliverance.
“Many times He delivered them; But they rebelled in their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, When He heard their cry; And for their sake He remembered His covenant, And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.”
Psalms 106:43-45 NKJV
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
II Peter 3:9 NKJV
“We have sinned with our fathers, We have committed iniquity, We have done wickedly.”
Psalms 106:6 NKJV
“And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.”
Daniel 9:4-6, 9-10 NKJV