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If you have a few moments, do a mental exercise with me – in your mind, paint a picture that exemplifies how you feel about or view your relationship to God. What is the first image that comes to your mind? I do this occasionally as part of self-examination (2 Corinthians 13:5), and it is often really revealing to me.

Today, I’d like to connect few strings from recent posts: The Friends We Need and The Great Enemy of Rest. In the latter, we looked at Hebrews 3-4 and saw that unbelief (or a lack of dependent faith) is the great enemy of our spiritual rest. One other thing I wanted to separately draw out from that passage is the importance of our friends in helping us fight unbelief and maintain our rest in God. In the middle of the warning against unbelief, the author of Hebrews exclaims, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today!” Hebrews 3:12-13.

Several of us Gracers recently finished up a Tuesday evening Bible study on Suffering and Comfort. One week out, and I miss the fellowship of that group of brothers and sisters, my friends. It is such a blessing to enjoy a group of fellow believers that prays together, listens, receives comfort from and comforts each other as we all spend time in the furnace of various afflictions as God molds us into the glorious image of His Son and draws us near in His comfort. None of that time in the furnace is meaningless.

Find this song, listen, relax. You are seen, known, and loved by the Father! His children are at rest. True rest. How rare, how beautiful. Our good for His glory. Are you resting today? Let me give you a definition before you answer. I’m not talking about whether you are tired. We all get tired every day. That’s just a biological fact. We start the day with a certain amount of energy, we burn that energy in our efforts throughout the day, we’re tired at the end, and we go to sleep to recharge our energy level for the next day.

No, I’m not quoting Tom Petty, although his song is now stuck in my head. Rather, I’m thinking about King Solomon, who acknowledged that “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” (Proverbs 13:12). Thank you Solomon for saying what we all feel from time to time. It’s just a fact. Waiting is hard. Sometimes sickening. Particularly when you’ve reached the point of losing hope that whatever you’re waiting for will occur. When the job you wanted doesn’t materialize, when the spouse you’ve dreamed of isn’t found, when the relationship isn’t restored, when the healing doesn’t happen, when the loved one doesn’t come to faith. When the time is up and the thing for which you were waiting did not going to occur.