Why we have trouble

The sefer Kad HaKemach questions the wording of the pasuk “And Yitzchak beseeched Hashem opposite his wife, for she was barren etc'”. We ought to hear the situation, that his wife was barren, and then the response, that Yitzchak prayed for her. Why is the order reversed, first telling us that Yitzchak prayed, and then saying that she was barren? The answer, says Rabbenu Bachaya, is that the reason that she was barren was so that Yitzchak would pray. Hashem loves to hear righteous prayer. So the purpose of it all was to hear Yitzchak’s prayer, and the barrenness of his wife was simply to cause him to pray. So the cause, Yitzchak’s t’filah, really is written before the effect. What a lesson to us! When we are faced with a challenge, a difficulty, with pain and trouble, sometimes this is for no more than to cause us to turn to Hashem and cry out to Him.