Rule number one of salvation: we blew it already. He gave us one rule, and we broke the paradise we were given. As Christians, we know every single time that we pray, we are asking for answers that are not owed to us. I’ve spent hours of my life praying, because I wanted to show Him my sincerity and my faith, to fill the uncomfortable silence, to earn His answer. Yet many times, we have to face the fact that we either don’t get an answer or one we didn’t like. Major events like job changes, moving, and so many others are submitted to prayer request boards and receive promises of “I’ll pray for you” in the Christian community, yet in planning my words here, lessons, or answering your questions, I have to go back to reread the words He already gave us. Knowing the stories, the ins and outs of the Bible, as fully as I did in my path from the Message to here, having doctrines and verses memorized and reading His Word cover to cover dozens of times, I forget how much He has already taught us. We become so stuck on this idea of needing something new and fresh for every single issue we face that we forget the Words that have remained powerful throughout the millennia. I forget the comfort of learning God’s word because it is translated and transcribed by men, missing that He has to have intended the wording to adjust over and over to fit our needs, to reach all of us as our languages changed, similar to the names of Jehovah or the Trinity used to explain the many titles for God.  Often, in the Bible, God’s men only had to pray to get answers in real time, but it didn’t always work out so simply for them.  Mary and Martha didn’t get the answer to their prayers until they had already buried their brother. How many times do we give up after an hour of no change in our situation? I know I do.

As out of place as it sounds, one of the verses that gives me the most comfort, that tells me to handle the now, is found at the end. While the Bible is full of the open-to-close examples of God working in lives,sometimes I want to know that He’s still beside me, despite the absence of a dew covered fleece or a burning bush., I just need to know there’s something after, a reason to keep going, that he takes care of all things, in the end. Revelations 21:4