Kindness in Suffering: 12 Ways God Shows His Goodness Through Trials and AfflictionsНамуна

Suffering Humbles Us

While the Lord is opposed to all sins, Scripture seems to elevate the sin of pride above all the rest (Prov. 6:17). A person guilty of pride seeks to exalt themselves while at the same time diminishing others. Yet the epitome of pride is when a fallen, sinful person dares to think that they belong in God’s place of honor, or even higher. In the face of such a detestable sin, the Bible teaches that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; cf. 1 Peter 5:5). The Lord hates pride and has promised to destroy the haughty (Prov. 16:5). But for those who have been humbled, He is gracious and kind.

But how, then, is a proud person to be made humble? Perhaps the most effective way of humbling a person is through trials. The apostle Paul testified that, despite the privileges he experienced in beholding heavenly revelations, the Lord afflicted him with “a thorn in the flesh” to keep him from exalting himself (2 Cor. 12:7). While we do not know what this thorn was—he refers to it as “a messenger of Satan”—the affliction served its purpose of weakening Paul to the point of relying on God alone (v. 9–10). The result of Paul’s suffering was contentment with God’s sovereign purposes.

This is what suffering does; it humbles us under the mighty hand of God. After all, it’s hard to be puffed up while laid up in a hospital bed or standing in line at the food bank.

However, Proverbs 16:19 instructs us that “it is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.” And if God opposes the proud, then the kindest thing He could do for us is to humble us by any means necessary so that we might become recipients of His grace.