Don't Get Used to the Blessing

There are things in your life today that you once prayed for.

Read that again.

The routine you're tired of may contain an opportunity you once asked God to provide.

The home you're constantly trying to improve may be the place you once prayed to have.

The responsibilities that sometimes overwhelm you may exist because God trusted you with something you once begged Him to place in your hands.

Even the peace you've grown accustomed to may have been born from a season when peace was all you could pray for.

Be careful not to become so familiar with the blessing that you forget it is a blessing.

Familiarity has a way of making miracles look ordinary.

When Israel wandered through the wilderness, God provided manna from heaven. Every morning, provision was waiting for them.

Imagine that.

Food appearing where food should not exist.

At first, that had to feel miraculous.

But eventually, even manna became familiar.

Numbers 11 shows us that the people began complaining about the very provision God was using to sustain them.

The miracle hadn't changed.

Their perspective had.

And we can do the same thing.

God answers the prayer.

We celebrate.

We testify.

We thank Him.

Then life continues.

Eventually, yesterday's breakthrough becomes today's routine.

The new job becomes the job you complain about.

The business becomes stressful.

The relationship requires work.

The opportunity brings responsibility.

The answered prayer comes with maintenance.

And suddenly, we're asking God for the next thing without properly stewarding the thing He already did.

This doesn't mean you should never desire growth.

It doesn't mean you cannot want better.

It means gratitude should travel with ambition.

You can appreciate where God has brought you while still believing there is more ahead.

You can pursue greater while honoring what is already in your hands.

You can pray for the next door without disrespecting the room you're currently standing in.

Philippians 4:11–12 gives us an important lesson through Paul. He explains that he had learned to be content regardless of his circumstances.

Contentment had to be learned.

That's important.

Because contentment isn't pretending everything is perfect.

It is recognizing that God's goodness isn't determined by whether you currently have everything you want.

Sometimes maturity sounds like:

"Lord, I still have prayers before You, but thank You for the ones You've already answered."

Look around your life.

Not through the lens of what is missing.

Look again through the lens of what God has already done.

You survived something.

You learned something.

You gained something.

You were protected from something.

You were redirected from something.

You grew through something.

There are prayers God answered exactly how you asked.

And there are prayers He answered by refusing to give you what you thought you needed.

Both require gratitude.

Don't allow your next desire to erase the memory of your last deliverance.

There is power in remembering.

Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly called His people to remember what He had done. Remembering kept His faithfulness in front of them when their present circumstances tried to make them doubt.

Sometimes you don't need new evidence that God is faithful.

You need to remember the evidence you already have.

So before you ask for more today, take inventory.

Not just of your possessions.

Take inventory of your peace.

Your wisdom.

Your growth.

Your relationships.

Your opportunities.

Your protection.

Your second chances.

Your ability to wake up and try again.

Somewhere in your current life is evidence of an old prayer.

Don't get so used to the blessing that you stop recognizing the hand that provided it.

Keep growing.

Keep building.

Keep believing for greater.

But every once in a while, stop and look around.

You may discover that you're standing in the middle of something you once asked God to do.

Don't let familiarity make you forget His faithfulness.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."
— Psalm 107:1

Stay blessed, and as always, proceed in faith and keep moving forward.

— Rj
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