I'm sure it has to be frustrating for a God who loves to give and in so doing, His people forget that the gift came from Him. Somehow if left to our selfish devices, we will inevitably end up believing it was our own doing. How can we break this cycle and live in a state of humility and gratitude?  How can we keep our ego's in check when they are so prone to swell?  One obvious solution to this is to push away any blessing or comfort that God might extend to us. I tend not to like this solution because it would break my heart as Noah's father if my son constantly rejected any good thing I wanted to give to him. If God constantly takes us from nothing, and brings us into a "land flowing with milk and honey," He has to believe that we at least possess the capability to accept blessing without letting it corrupt us. I believe that a constant pursuit of knowing God is what is required. When I become self absorbed and focused on myself, that is when I begin to lose focus of where my provision comes from.  When I take God out of the equation that is my life, I begin forgetting how truly blessed I actually am... I find that I revert to feeling entitled to more and I become disillusioned with my sense of lack. It's ironic that sometimes the most loving thing that God does is take our sense of comfort away. What is used as a crutch is knocked out from underneath us and we fall back to the floor and in the process we regain our equilibrium and begin the process of trying to stand again. It's almost as if we are a people that are all using crutches when we are healthy enough to walk on our own two feet. Maybe God is in the business of taking away the comfortable lazy ride of the wheel chair and replacing it with the tough journey of regaining feeling back in our malnourished and rarely used limbs. May we be reminded today that God gives us the power to receive wealth. May we remind ourselves often lest we forget this important truth. May we stand securely in the fact that we serve a God who enjoys blessing His children in very deliberate ways and only calls us not to forget Him in the process.