Discipline or Warfare

There have been times where I have heard a brother or sister in Christ attribute a bad situation or string of negative circumstances as a result of spiritual warfare from the evil one. Other times I have heard Christians talk about the discipline of the Lord they are or have experienced. And sometimes there are circumstances that happen because of sin in the world. My question, or rather my thought is, since God is sovereign over all creation, is he not in control? And if he is in control, can we not say that when we experience things that do not go our way, that we don't automatically call it a spiritual attack, but maybe it is a lesson to learn, a suffering to persevere under, a test of our faith, or an endurance to run? I am not saying that there is no such things as spiritual attacks from the evil one, (see Job, and Ephesians 6) but maybe it is that God is allowing an uncomfortable situation to happen in order to attract our attention back on him, and not ourselves? Your thoughts?