Jesus promises in the Gospel of John that He will not leave us comfortless, but that he will come to us.

He promises in Matthew that he will give us rest when we are weary and heavy laden.

We have to seek that comfort.

The comfort doesn't come at the first instance of pain, whether it's physical, mental, spiritual, or emotional.

God asks us to find answers, to knock, to work, and watch, and fight,

and pray with all of our might and zeal. Now, how do we do that? Especially when we're in pain,

when we need help. How can we think about being comforted by the divine while also knowing that

divine lessons often come in the pursuit of finding that comfort? We'll discuss that and much more

on today's

episode of Abide, a Maxwell Institute podcast. My name is Joseph Stewart. I'm the public

communication specialist of the Neely Maxwell Institute for religious scholarship at Brighamian

University. Christian Hill is a research fellow at the Institute, and each week we discuss the week's

block of reading from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-Compulme curriculum.

We aren't here to present a lesson, but rather to hit on a few key themes from the

scripture block so as to help fulfill the Maxwell Institute's mission, to inspire and

fortify Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and

engage the world of religious ideas. Today we are once again joined by Truman

Callens, one of our research assistants and an ancient Near Eastern Studies major here at

BYU from Seattle, Washington. After he graduates, he plans to go to grad school to study theology

and sacred texts. Truman, welcome back to the podcast. It's good to be here. Thank you.

As always, it is our pleasure.

Now, Christian, we're looking at Isaiah 40 through 49 today. What were you thinking about as you

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