The nations will hear and tremble;
anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people of Canaan will melt away;
terror and dread will fall on them.

- from Exodus 15:14-16

Past grace fuels us for future provision.

In the celebration song of Exodus 15, the people turn from celebrating God's faithfulness to them in their exodus from Egypt and face the task ahead of them: entering the Promised Land, a land that's already occupied by the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites and Canaanites.

The Israelites sing this song to each other, simultaneously reminding themselves of God's faithfulness and giving themselves courage to take the next step God has for them.

This is harder to do than it looks at first blush. In our anxiety to comfort those we love, we can put promises in God's mouth that he never makes.

Take, for example, the comfort we want to give to someone who has just lost their job. "You'll get more work. Better work. I know God will do it!" we can be tempted to say. How near we come to vainly taking the Lord's name and slapping it onto our own hopes and wishes!

In our desire to comfort and encourage, let's be careful to point our friends to our true source of comfort and courage - the Lord - and not just to our own kind hopes and wishes.

When encouraging people about God's future provision, stick with God's character. Who is the Lord?  Help your friends see what God's past grace reveals about his eternal character: we know we can trust him.

Focusing on God's character gives God plenty of latitude for how he'll provide. When we give him room to be creative, he really shows off!

How has God's past grace given you hope for his future provision?