Future Grace (Guest Post)

(A few weeks ago Brooke asked Pat if she would fill in for me when I was preoccupied with many things. Here is her post. Thank you Pat!)

This past week our ladies' Bible study at Colette's finished for the summer months. We have completed the book of Acts. As I was preparing the final lesson having looked back at the obvious providential hand of God, I was reminded that none of the Apostles or Paul and his companions knew what the next 30 years would be like. We have the benefit of seeing the whole story but they didn't. We also live in a story that is part of a bigger story and we don't know what the next chapter will be.

As I prepared my study I became aware of a sense of being "downcast" in my soul. What was it that was tugging at me? I realized that I had over the last several days been allowing some anxieties to roll around in my head. Not over anything I was dealing with today but some things I might deal with... perhaps in the next 30 years. Am I confident in God's sovereignty? Absolutely! So what was happening?

The Spirit directed me to an essay by John Piper about future grace. That was where I was getting tripped up. Like the Israelites in the account of the Exodus, I was trying to gather tomorrow's manna today and it was becoming maggot infested. The lesson I still needed to be reminded of through the narrative of Acts is that living by faith means I believe the grace I need for tomorrow will be there. That is the hope that will sustain me all the remaining days of my life. When Paul was at some of his lowest times grace showed up in an angel or the Lord himself. The grace I need tomorrow may not come in such dramatic forms but it will come nonetheless.

"Why so downcast, O my soul? Put your trust in the Lord" (and in future grace).


by Pat Bowditch