Yeah, mm hmm. Hello and welcome. This is pastor lucy Penta with your daily insights. We said at the beginning of this year that this is the ear of launching into the deep you now reaching deep into the word of God. Deep into the spirit, deep into ourselves going that extra mile because we have the backing of the promises of God. But even with that in mind some just we can't help looking at life through the lenses of deprivation. You know we might even get the blessing in abundance like we are believing for this year and still focus on what's missing. God might fulfill our wildest dreams and we still might fault the sin eve fell for because as lucius as Eden was she, I just couldn't take her focus away from the one ft that she couldn't have.

Everything she could have needed was right there. But she took it for granted because she looked at it through the lenses of deprivation, not gratitude. And this is what I want us to talk about today as we continue on the talk about the tests of abundance. Because it doesn't matter how many of our prayers are answered, it will never be enough. It will never mean anything to earth. As long as there is no gratitude in our hearts, we will always focus on what is missing. And this is why the metronome E eight verse 10 tells us that we shall not take for granted. Even the fact that we have eaten and are full. We shall bless the Lord for the good of the land. We shall be grateful. We shall solemnly praise him for his providence.

It is the debt of gratitude. It is the debt of justice. This is a general rule for the test of abundance and something we should always be conscious of. It is the duty of an abandoned condition to acknowledge the goodness of the Lord and to rent and to remember that the Lord is our benefactor. You know, we want so much and there's nothing wrong with that because abundance is a testimony of God's providence and there's plenty in his kingdom. One of the songs that I have found myself singing this year is that I will never settle for less. I know there's more that's found in him. Yeah, but we need to slow down the peace of our lives to notice and acknowledge what God is doing for us. Let not a moment of blessing pass us by without us pausing to say, thank you, Let our hearts not be lifted up in Pride and oblivion Nous that we forget the preservation and guidance of the Lord.

In our times of luck, you know, this reminds me of a season we had it rough as kids. I remember I was in uh I was almost past my teenage years and without diving into the details. This one christmas, the signs of us having a decent meal. We're not promising, but that christmas afternoon a good samaritan bought us some groceries and my sister and I made a feast and as we sat on the table with my siblings to say Grace and thank God for the abundance of food we had on the table. My sister led the prayer and it went like this. Thank you Lord for giving us food for today, and give us also for tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day, and she could not bring herself to stop saying the next day.

We cried that day and laughed as we ate, for we understood why she could not stop herself from saying the next day. She, she thought that if she stopped the next day, that is where the floor of God's provision would stop, and then we would go hungry and let us not be fooled by prosperity into ascribing the bountiful season to our strength and the locks of our hands, for to do so is to despise God in them. And I pray that when we taste of the sweetness of what God is about to do for us, we shall not forget his dealings with us before. This is the secret of divine providence, providence, gratitude May the security and prosperity of the new Year, not blindness to the goodness of the Lord.

May, it not make us forget how honestly we have prayed for abundance. May we not forget to show gratitude to the Lord for his grace. It is indeed a great temptation and spiritual delusion to think that we are responsible for the prosperity and abundance in our lives. And there is but one probably lactic or prevention to this, and that is to always remember that it is he the Lord, our God that has blessed us. Always remember the source of your resources shalom. This is Pastor lucy painter with your daily insights, and this is test of abundance. Day five.