The Lord Reigns cont.

5. God trains us

We as human beings are God's most amazing creation, and this proves evident throughout the Bible. God has this incredible ability to take our pain and turn it into something good. Joseph in the Bible was his father's favorite son, and his brothers were well aware of this. They become so jealous and bitter, that they threw him in a pit to be left for dead, and Joseph was later sold into slavery. Sounds like some pretty bad luck right? Not even. If Joseph's brothers never would have let him be taken to Egypt to be later thrown into jail (which, I know, doesn't sound that great either), then Joseph never would have become second in command behind Pharaoh himself. God used Joseph's suffering and trials as an opportunity to train and ready him for God's bigger plan that was to come. While in jail, God spoke to Joseph, and prepared him to not only help rule Egypt, but also to show mercy to his brothers when they came to him for help in the midst of a famine. In Genesis 45:7-8 Joseph makes the crucial realization that it was not his brothers that sent him there, but that it was all God's doing. Later in Genesis 50:20 he says to his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." 
Sometimes bad things happen, because God is training and positioning us, but not always.