To lie ahead is to be waiting in the future. Not here yet, and coming.
It is nearly always used about difficulty, so saying that hard work lies ahead is a warning rather than a promise, and the phrase belongs to speeches and reports. The subject is the thing coming rather than the person facing it. There is a plain physical sense too, since a road can lie ahead. Lie in store does much the same job with a slightly more ominous flavour.
1phraselie aheadTo be waiting in the future.
“Nobody knew what would lie ahead that winter.”
Practised in Phrasal Verbs, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 39 of A Man Called Ove.
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