How to Deal with Pain

Nothing affects our peace and joy as much as suffering some type of pain: mental, emotional, physical. The story of Job and his faithfulness is the classic example. Job passed the test. But we are not told how long his affliction lasted. Was it just for a few weeks or months? Or was it years and years of acute pain with no relief?

I know several people who have lived with severe pain most of their lives. Good people who did nothing to deserve such a sentence. Yet these people continue to love God and trust him throughout each pain-wracked day. They understand the meaning of suffering. They humble me when I complain about my sciatica. They continue to praise God even while gritting their teeth as muscles or joints or cancer treatments cause more throbbing agony. Even as the medical bills pile up, adding to the stress.

Scholars have long debated the problem of pain. Books and articles have been written about the role of pain in our faith walk. The growth of endurance and the strengthening of patience. The problem of Job and his overbearing friends.

Yet for those who suffer, there comes a time to cry out, “Just make it go away! Be done with the deep philosophical arguments.”

Instead of quoting research on the subject of pain or listing a tribe of experts, I polled my friends and family members who suffer daily. “Why do you think this pain has been allowed into your life? Has it increased your faith? How do you deal with this everyday struggle?”

Their answers came back surprisingly quickly. None of them with complaints in their emails or texts. But also none of them failing to admit that the pain is often difficult to endure. Knowing that every day as they wake up, another day of suffering will greet them. But their answers carry a common theme:

• “I do not believe God causes my pain. It comes because we are human and pain is part of living.”
• “The pain may be a response to the healing process. I think about a future day when there is no pain.”
• “I repeat Romans 8:18, ‘…Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.'”
• “The pain forces me to depend on God every day. I cannot fix this problem. Only God can give me the courage to endure it.”
• “The pain teaches me what is really important in life. Everything trivial sort of falls away.”

When my sciatica flares, I try not to complain. Sometimes I fail. But I have begun to experience a new purpose in my pain, echoed by the Apostle Paul from the perspective of life in a dungeon. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death.” (Philippians 3:10 NIV).

Except during Good Friday, we may not often consider the intensity of Christ’s suffering. In spite of movies or books that describe the physical effects, we cannot truly understand the cruelty of crucifixion. Jesus was a young man, probably in good shape as a manual laborer who walked miles across the Judean landscape. The brutality of flogging often killed its victims, but Jesus survived it to face execution. Spikes hammered into wrists and feet. Thorns pressed into his skull. Six torturous hours trying to breathe as he labored up that splintery, filthy wooden cross, then fell down again. Not to mention the emotional and spiritual pain of his broken heart.

I can only imagine a bit of his suffering and fall to my knees with gratitude that he was wounded for my transgressions. (Isaiah 53).

Scripture also reminds us that our suffering forges compassion in us for others who suffer. We are then able to comfort them authentically, because we know how it feels to live with pain. “God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the same comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (Second Corinthians 1:4 NIV).

Hopefully, our pain changes us into softer, more empathetic humans. We become better instead of bitter. We learn to be more honest about our needs and the needs of others. As Richard Rohr writes in The Divine Dance, “Pain brings its gift of vulnerability. Let some of it change you.”

Pain invites us to focus on that future date when the trumpet sounds. When we raise our hands in praise and this mortal body rises to a pain-free eternity.

Pain underscores our need for the sustaining grace of a Savior who understands the limitations of the human body. And the same Savior promises forever relief. We will indeed some day run around heaven in our glorified bodies, free of any stress, any pain, and any suffering. That hope is something we can focus on and praise God for in advance.

©2026 RJ Thesman – All Rights Reserved

Image Attribution: Mohamed-hassan / Pixabay

Read the entire chapter about pain in Sustain Us, Oh Lord: Finding Strength When Life is Hard.