Why Do Bad Things Happen?

"Have you ever asked yourself the question: Why do bad things happen? In 2 Corinthians 12:7-13 we have the Apostle Paul and God used him in a great way to preach the gospel and to establish churches for the Lord. Paul was even a prayer warrior and he knew what it was like like to have the power of God on his life. But right in the midst of Paul being in the will of God, doing the will of God, Paul has a thorn in the flesh. We need to realize here that God is in control of everything, for He brings blessings and the burdens, the good things and the bad things, the high times and the low times, the mountain tops and the valley's, the sunshine and the storms. We do not know what Paul's thorn in the flesh was but we know that Paul has something that torments him day and night to the point that it drives him to the Lord and he begins to spend time in prayer asking God to remove it from his life. Paul says in (Verse 8 "for this thing" he doesn't label the thorn in the flesh. You see, the Lord allowed him to just put the word "thing" in there because that allows you and me to to just crawl right up next to that passage of Scripture when we're going through some trials and sufferings and say I have the same thing and sometimes we may not even know how to label what it is we're going through but we can say "for this thing." Sometimes it doesn't matter how close to God we get, or how deep in the Scriptures we get, or how much we pray: there are going to be things that will happen and come into our lives that we have no control over but God is still on the throne and we must always remember His Grace is Sufficient for us. 
1. Sometimes God sends things into our lives to show us where we need to be and what we need to be doing. (To destroy Pride in our lives.)
2. To drive us to Him and to make us appreciate Him. 
3. The Lord wants to use us as His children as a frame to display His goodness. 
God wants to display His grace in us everywhere we go so that others see Him in our lives. 
4. He wants to demonstrate His power. (Verse 10) "therefore" because His grace is sufficient, because He is in control, we can take pleasure. Thank God, He will give us the power to take it, to shake it, and to make it."