You ask God to remove this woman from your sleeping spot instantly, because you are weary. But tell me, what sort of rest is this that you so urgently demand? A rest for the body, purchased at another’s inconvenience? The true rest, the rest that remains for the people of God, is not gained by such prayers. If we are to enter that rest, we must labor, not sleep. By sleeping, not even from fathers do children receive honor, much less from God. The soul that is idle and demands immediate comfort proves itself no different than those who hardened their hearts in the wilderness and fell short of the promise.
Consider how small this trial is. If you cannot endure a cramped spot for a single night without calling for divine intervention, how will you endure the afflictions that test faith? We must be afflicted for a little while here, or else affliction waits for us there. This momentary inconvenience is your training ground. Receive it with patience, and you will find it lighter than you think. Do not harden your heart with irritation; do not let even a thought of insult or reproach stain your soul. For “He hath purged our sins,” and we must keep our garment without spot or wrinkle. Even such a small thing as harshness toward a fellow creature is a wrinkle.
You cry out as if God were a servant to grant every whim while you sleep. But remember the apostles on the sea: they woke the Lord in fear, saying, “Save us, we perish.” They had faith that He could command the winds while awake, but little faith that He could do so even while sleeping. And you, too, imagine that God must act at once according to your drowsy will, as though His care depended on your waking. Learn rather to pray with vigilance, asking not for the removal of every discomfort but for strength to bear it with a generous heart. The soul that endures a little now, for love of God, is nourished more richly than the body feasting on soft cushions.
Do not let this woman’s presence rob you of inward peace. If she remains, is that a calamity? You will sleep, perhaps later, and wake untouched. But if you allow bitterness to fester, you lose far more than a night’s ease. Labor, then, to enter into that rest where no one jostles for a place, where the couch is the bosom of Abraham and the covering is the light of Christ. For that rest we must run, stretch forward, be conformed to His death as Paul was. It is not by drowsy commands that we obtain it, but by earnest striving. Let this small occasion teach you to hunger for the heavenly rest, and you will find even your sleep sweeter for the victory over your own soul.