The truth is that we are always in a situation of confession, whether it is the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) or the midnight prayer of "Kriyat Shema."
And we ask Him to erase our sins, not by pain and suffering but—if He does not mind—by forgiveness and mercy.
It does not always work out.
We are not always given what we ask for, at least in the manner or at the time we want it.
But actually, all that happens, the good and the evil, are aspects of His manifestation.
Except that our recognition is limited to those moments when we know that it is so.
At such times the situation is altogether different.
One can relate differently, not that there is less pain and suffering.
It is merely that there is not that feeling of the concealment of His countenance.
So long as He is not altogether absent, we can accept all that happens to us.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Sustaining Utterance by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz