Job proclaims: "Shall we receive good at the hand of God? and shall we not receive evil [trouble]?" (Job 2:10). The psalmist says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous..." (Ps. 34:19)
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, cried in Lam.3:1: "I am the man who hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath." But he also said: "He does not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men" (Lam. 3:33).
Suffering is the crucible that God uses as a change agent. A sculptor was asked how he could make a horse out of a rock of marble. He replied that he simply takes away everything that doesn't look like a horse! The psalmist said in Ps. 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word." "It is good that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes" (Ps. 119:71).
Suffering, whether it be an ordeal, punishment, discipline, trial, affliction, adversity, disaster, or troubles come to Christians as a given. They are part of Reality 101 and every student of Christ is enrolled in this school: consider it a joy to suffer for Christ's sake like the disciples did. Christ did not exempt himself from difficulty or pain of suffering. Paul shared that he wanted to obtain "the fellowship of sufferings" of Christ. Most of us have our "thorn in the flesh" like Paul and we all have our crosses to bear. Fortunately, our problems are "Father-filtered." Nothing happens apart from His providential guidance. Suffering is par for the course! It comes with the territory!
Adversity builds character and that is the good news. There is an upside of down, as it were. Suffering and success are correlated: Judson said that if you are suffering and not succeeding, it is so that others may succeed; if you are succeeding without suffering, it is so that others may succeed. So, lay out the welcome mat and welcome adversity and trials as friends and rejoice! They help us conform to the image of Christ. God sees the long-term result and the goal is Christ-likeness. If we let the world change us we are conformers if Christ changes us we are transformers. We have Christ's sympathy, for He did not exempt Himself from suffering.
Life is no bed of roses and God never promised us a rose garden. But we are not to get paranoid or develop a martyr's complex either, thinking the world is out to get us. "For it has been granted unto you not only to believe in Him but to suffer for His sake" (cf. Phil. 1:29). Christ learned obedience from what He suffered and was a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (cf. Isa. 53:3).
Grief or trouble makes us bitter or better. NB: experience is not what happens to you but what happens in you. The same sun melts the butter and hardens the clay. Christians are like tea bags that you don't know what they're like till their in hot water. We should refrain from pity parties and have the attitude of Viktor Frankl, Viennese psychiatrist captured by the Nazi's, that "this too shall pass." He said that man can survive any "what" if he has a "why." Our attitude cannot be taken from us and it determines our altitude.
When we see others suffer we are not to gloat or feel superior, but think, "There but for the grace of God, go I." Scripture says in Obadiah 12: "Do not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune." God wants to teach us by other's examples but may have to get our attention by other means. It has been said, "God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains." All suffering is to bring glory to God and conform us to His image that we may share in His holiness. God had said what great things Paul would suffer for the kingdom and some are mentioned in 2 Cor. 11:16ff such as shipwreck, stoning, exposure, scourging, et cetera. "When times are good to be happy; but when times are bad to consider: God has made the one as well as the other" (Eccl. 6:10).
Remember, that it only takes a night to make a mushroom, but many years to make an oak. A good summation would be as Job said: "The Lord knows the way that I take; when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). Hebrews says not to despise the chastening of the Lord! Job said in Job 5:7 that "But man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." And "Man, born of woman, is of few days and full of trouble" (cf. ob 14:1). So, why do bad things happen to good people? There are no good people in God's estimation and also, bad things happen to bad people, too.
Pertinent verses are as follows: "He gets their attention through affliction, "(cf. Job 36:155). "Many are the afflictions of the righteous..." (cf. Ps. 34:19). "I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." But God's crucible is Father-filtered so that all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28). What faith Job has: "Though He slay me I shall trust Him" (cf. Job 13:15). Soli Deo Gloria!