Bitter Reality

Being the Easter time of year, I feel I should express my sentiments regarding prayer and “thanks be to God.”
Although I believe that prayer, and the Bible, can have a positive effect on one's health, I'm bewildered by the notion that God would “allow” any suffering or, even more important, cause one praying couple's child to survive an illness while allowing another such couple's child to perish, and even with great suffering.
I believe that prayer changes things, which scientific studies have even proven; but I believe such prayer works on a metaphysical level rather than on a divine level.
Furthermore, I cannot but reluctantly find that, for example, by saying grace before a meal – because of the bitter reality of Earthly starvation – we, the well-fed, are in effect assuming/concluding that our Creator has found one portion of this planet's populace worthy of nourishment while allowing another to starve.
My perplexed musing is not simply a matter of “why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” Rather, my query is, why do so many fortunate people believe that God would bless “us” while neglecting “them”?
Perhaps it's all because God has permitted humanity's insistence on having the right to choose, while many innocents have to suffer because of those choices.