Why God Allows Us to Suffer

2 Corinthians 12: 7 - 10 (NIV): To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We don’t know what was causing Paul to suffer, perhaps an illness or headaches or eye trouble, but Paul says it was for a reason - to keep him humble and dependent on God’s grace and power. But notice that he asked God to remove the suffering and God said no.
Sometimes God allows us to suffer. Sometimes God says no. The other day both of my children needed shots. I don’t like someone inflicting pain on them, but I knew it was for their own good so I not only allowed it, I paid for it. God in his wisdom knows what is best for us and we must trust him even if life makes no sense at all.
We must never trivialize someone's suffering, and we must be careful not to tell them why we think they are suffering - that may be something only God knows, but we can find in the scripture reasons why God allows suffering. I want to share some thoughts on this.
God allows suffering to humble us. As in this passage, God cannot use us if we are full of pride. God allows suffering to test us. In the book, Job, we find this. This testing is to prove to us that our faith is genuine. God allows suffering to prioritize us. Suffering tends to keep us focused on righteousness and on God. If we never faced trials, we might just forget about him. God allows us to suffer to discipline us. Hebrews 12 says God uses hardship to discipline us like a loving father. It is painful at the time, it says, but produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.
God allows us to suffer to prepare us for future blessing. James 1 says to rejoice in trials because they make us stronger, more mature, and prepare us for a crown of life. God allows us to suffer for his own glory. When Jesus heals a blind man in John 9, the disciples asked who sinned to cause him to be born that way, Jesus said he was born blind so that God might be glorified. God allows us to suffer to prune us. In John 15, Jesus says God prunes those who bear fruit. His one goal for us is to make us like Christ, so he lops away anything in our lives that hinders that.
We may never know why we face many of the trials we do, but we must trust God in all things. God is always up to something good and one day we will fully understand.