Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. - Isaiah 40:1-11
If God puts us into "hard service", it is with the intention of bringing us out from the other side once we have learned what we needed to learn. Learning is not done by the nodding of your head, but by the repeated labor of hands and feet working out obedience over time. If the lesson and timing are critical, then God must use the means that will get us there before we are totally onboard.
There are two paths, I think: the path of "hard service" where God brings us to a place where we long for his goodness because of the discrepancy between our longing and our reality and the path of "gentle leading" where God holds us close to his heart so we can feel his heartbeat. At some point, I prayed for the latter because I was sure I couldn't handle the former. Maybe I could have had the more radical transformation, but I might well have died in the metamorphosis.
God doesn't. We falter. God doesn't. His plan is to get us to the other side, where God wins and he brings us to his "reward" and "recompense".
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