Pain, humility, and knowing God

Is there any connection between knowing God, humility, and pain? At first we may not think so. 

Let's take a closer look. 

Since humility is key to knowing, seeing, and experiencing God, we should embrace and receive, with thanks, anything that helps humble us, including and maybe especially pain and suffering.  

Instead of bristling at pain and pursuing ¹anything we can find to distract or relieve us from it, we should embrace struggles and be grateful for them. They can be a vital means of drawing us nearer to God. 

Knowing God is far more significant and beneficial than short-term relief from our struggles (though it often doesn't feel that way at the moment). Seeing and knowing this enables us to receive suffering with thanks.

In short, the reason we are to be thankful for our struggles (vs complaining about them) is they ²can be a primary means of strengthening our understanding and relationship with God who is the source of life, love, and all things i.e. pain ²can be a very unpleasant means to the greatest and most desirable end - our increased union with God and the joy and happiness we find in Him. 

Thankfulness is the best indicator of humility. Humility is the key to seeing and knowing God in all His infinite love and glory.

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Footnotes:

¹drugs, alcohol, and sex are some of the more obvious and most common diversions. But diversions can also be more socially acceptable pursuits such as recreation, career, entertainment, material possessions, food, power, control, fame, or anything else pleasant that will help distract us or relieve us from pain. Bordem is also a form of low grade pain. 

This is not because pleasure in itself is bad. God created us for pleasure but in, by, and through Him. When comfort or pleasure in itself (the opposite of pain) becomes a higher pursuit than God, it is contrary to our design of finding our greatest happiness in God and what He provides. 

²Actually pain and struggle is a primary means to our increasing maturity and greater union with God when received with thanksgiving. I say "can" because it depends on us trusting God is using our pain for our ultimate good (even the pain caused by the failures and offenses of others). Otherwise suffering will only make us angry and imbitter us. 

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;" - Heb 12:15 

It is worth noting that the author of Hebrews was writing to people going through intense persecution and suffering at the hands of others.

Hebrews 12:6-8 ESV

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons... 

Hebrews 12:11 ESV

¹¹For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

Other passages that directly or indirectly address this vital truth... 

James 1:2-4 ESV

²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

Ephesians 5:20

"...giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"  

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 

Colossians 3:17

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." 

Philippians 4:6

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

This passage is particularly interesting because often we go to God in prayer for relief from difficulties, yet God says we should give thanks in those very kind of prayers i.e. don't just seek God for relief, seek God himself and be grateful for everything that aids you in knowing Him better, especially difficulties. 

Romans 8:28-29 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

The good that God is achieving in all things (vs 28) hard or comforting is making is more like His Son (vs 29). 

Trust or isolation?

When we speak of trusting others we are also talking about ⁴faith. We may understand the importance of trust but this also indicates that ¹no one operates without ⁴faith as well. The two are tied together. 

For society to function well, there must be faith (trust). It is essential for people to work well together. Without it we isolate and things come unglued, fragment, and fall apart. 

Relationships of every kind require faith (trust) on many levels. Trust in someone else's knowledge, wisdom, ability, intentions, character, integrity etc., and confidence (trust) by others in us as well. Trust must go both ways in a healthy relationship. It is constantly either being reinforced or eroded by one's actions. 

Ultimately, at the bottom of it all, there needs to be trust in God. This is the most vital of all. On this, everything else rests and depends.

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Footnotes:

¹Some think faith is ⁴unnecessary. They don't need to count on - trust in - others. They can simply count on themselves. 

However, this is also based on faith. Faith that we have or can obtain everything necessary ²to function at the highest level on our own. Others are not necessary.

But we are limited. We don't know everything and don't have unlimited resources or the ability to obtain all that is necessary to reach our maximum potential, no matter how talented we may be or how hard we try. 

By ourselves, we aren't even sure what our highest good is. Is it having unlimited wealth, power, knowledge, influence, popularity, praise, recognition? 

What exactly is our highest good and purpose that will give us the greatest sense of purpose, meaning, and happiness in life? 

Only someone with perfect and infinite knowledge would know and that is not us. 

Who would know and have this understanding better than our Designer who happens to also be the Creator of all things; the One who created everything for a specific reason and with a specific purpose in mind? 

If this all-wise and powerful being exists, it would be wise to find out why He made us and everything else, would it not? 

²It may be ³safer to function on our own but do we want to be safe or do we want to flourish and reach our greatest potential? 

God also created us as relational beings. First to have a relationship with Him but also relationships with others. If so, reaching our highest good without relationships is not possible. 

It is for good reason the Bible says the greatest commandment is to love God with all you have and are AND your neighbors as ourselves. Both are about relationships.

It simply is not possible to operate well completely on our own. If you haven't watched the movie "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks, it illustrates this well. 

³In order for betrayal to occur, trust must be violated. If there is no trust, there can be no violation. This is why some refuse to trust anymore. They seek to avoid betrayal. They are acting out of fear instead of faith (trust) in God. 

But this requires isolation which has its own set of issues. If we are designed for relationship we can never be complete on our own.

In the long run, isolation prevents us from experiencing life to the fullest extent we are designed to. Those who isolate have decided a safe life is better than the fullest and best possible life. The life God created us to have. To live a safe life is to also miss out on the greatest riches God offers.

⁴I think there is a slight distinction between trust and faith. We usually consider trust to be something we give someone after they have proven themselves trustworthy through our personal experience with them. Whereas faith may be regarded as more of something "blind" i.e. we trust someone without first-hand experience of their trustworthiness but more from something we heard someone did in the past for someone else. For example, we are told Christ died for us, yet this was thousands of years ago. We did not witness this event firsthand. But we may be compelled to believe it is trustworthy for various reasons such as the loving behavior of someone who trusts the claims and actions of Christ or the confirmation of Christ's claims via the archeological or historical evidence that Christ was and did what we told his did and said.

Faith is disregarded and considered so taboo by some that they avoid using the word altogether (a carryover from "the age of reason" and our postmodern view of the world and a disregard for all things spiritual i.e. that which is beyond the material world we can see and touch). So they replace it with words like trust and confidence. But when we peel back the layers at the bottom of it all is faith in some form. 

While faith might have more to do with belief in something (usually God) and trust with dependence upon something or someone (not necessarily God) they are essentially the same thing i.e. only the object of our faith or trust is different, not necessarily the nature of dependence (trust) itself.