Heavenly Storehouses

I woke up this morning to a lot of snow.  At 8:00 a.m. I had 8 inches at my house and now it's up to about a foot of snow and it's still falling.  The snow seemed to come out of nowhere even though it was forecasted.  We had walked around our neighborhood without coats just a couple of days ago and now we have a Winter wonderland.

As I look out the window at the mounting snow and see the huge evergreen's branches bending under the heavy, wet snow and I see my patio table buried in snow a line from the book of Job comes to mind.

"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail?" Job 38:22

The poetry of Job chapters 38-41 contains some of my favorite lines of poetry in all of Scripture.  Chris Tomlin taps into this poetry in his song "Indescribable": "Who has told every lightening bolt where it should go?  Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow?"

Well, the heavenly storehouses were emptied a bit on us on this fine "Spring" day.

I love the image of heavenly storehouses.  But I'll be honest, snow was not what I was looking for today.  I need grace.

Pastor John Piper has written about and talked about Future Grace.  Future grace is the idea that in order for God to keep all of His promises to us we need Him to have grace available for us to live day-by-day and moment-by-moment.

Imagine, if you will, the poetic picture of a storehouse in Heaven full of the grace you need.  Ignore the fact that grace isn't tangible and that this isn't how it really works and just imagine with me.  Imagine shelves marked with the grace you need to endure every trial in your life and to do every good work from now until you die.  Do you see the big box marked "Patience with Co-Workers"?  Did you find the chest marked "Enduring and Thriving in the First Year of Teaching"?  Have you gotten to the bin labeled "Unforeseen Expenses"?  Did you smile when you knew there was a box with "Raising Foster Children" scribbled on the side?  Continue to peruse the rows and rows of shelves and you'll see containers of grace for everything your future will hold.

God will get us through whatever He calls us to.

"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen." Hebrews 12:20-21

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.  Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." 2 Peter 1:3-4

Getting through what we're called to is not a promise of ease.  No, life will be hard.  Following Jesus leads many through the valley of the shadow of death.  Many of the great Christians of history were martyred.  But that does not negate God's many great promises.

This idea of a storehouse filled with all the grace we will ever need in the future should make us bold.  We will never have to do anything for the Lord with our own power.  God provides ALL the grace we need and He does it by giving it to us when we need it.  Many of us have watched another Christian graciously get through a tough situation and thought "I could never do that."  Well, you could.  The reason we think we couldn't do it is because we haven't been supplied with the grace necessary to do it yet because our Heavenly Father hasn't yet handed us that grace, but He will.  He has storehouses of grace ready for whatever our future holds.

Thank God for His grace.  Know that God will get you through whatever He calls you to.  And let the knowledge of God's infinite grace that is ready to be given to you, His child, make you a bold Christian today.