The Bank of Heaven

Lately, I haven’t been able to shake a certain image from my mind. It’s of a heavenly bank, where God’s people come to do business. This bank is always open so that we can make deposits, passing to the teller all our sins, anxieties, worries, and cares. Of course, the vault where those deposits are taken is the throne room of God’s grace.

We can also make withdrawals from this heavenly bank. At the teller window sits the Holy Spirit, ready to dispense every resource of heaven. When we step up to that window, we have the ability to withdraw endless reserves of God’s grace, power, faith, and hope.

As I envision this bank, I realize many of us in the church make a lot of deposits, but we don’t make nearly as many withdrawals. Instead, when we step up to the window, we ask for a pittance. “Lord, I don’t want to bother you,” we stammer; “but I need a little extra grace to get me through this present problem. If you can just get me going, I can handle the rest.”

I’ve got news for you. God doesn’t want us to handle the rest. He wants us to deposit everything with him: all our anxieties, struggles, sins, and heartaches. Next, he wants us to draw on his infinite resources, which are stored up for us in his vaults. He wants us to say, “Lord, I’m through asking for ten dollars worth of faith to get me through a problem. I need your grace in denominations of thousands. I want it not only to solve my problem but also to see your glory established in the earth. From now on, every time I come to this window, I’ll ask for a greater outpouring of your Spirit. I need more of your life, your breath, your movement within me!”

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16, ESV).