Don’t Let This Steal Your Greatest Blessings

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

What did you ever receive or have, that when it was brand new and in your hands for the first time, you smiled—maybe glowed, and treated it as valuable and precious? Was it your spouse on the first day of your honeymoon? Was it a ring? A diploma? A new car? A new Bible? Or best yet, your newborn son or daughter?

Throughout life we experience new and fresh and exciting things that fill us with appreciation. But, as time passes, the newness begins to fade, the excitement dwindles and the experience becomes routine. Over time, new things become not-so-new. They become familiar. This happens with things, and happens with relationships.

Familiarity has the potential to strip away appreciation and undermine a blessing or a relationship that at one time, brought great excitement and joy to your life and that you considered precious! Familiarity is what happens when what was once new, exciting, and a blessing, becomes taken for granted and under-appreciated. If that happens in our relationship with God, we better quickly cry for help.

When you can still sit down and think about the value of things that are precious to you—things you know you should feel appreciation and thank God for, then you’re in the place where you’ll can still recover them before you lose them completely! There are some things in life that we simply must not let familiarity touch, and that is most important and true in protecting relationships.

Speaking from a man’s perspective concerning his wife, it would be easy for me to take my wife Renee for granted. She’s incredibly sweet and kind to me. I remember years ago, maybe 15 years into our marriage, she complained that I was treating her more like a roommate than my wife. That’s all she said but it was enough! It bothered me. At that point in my maturity, I still probably felt a little defensive. My plate was full with work, marriage, kids, things needed to get done, and life events. It seemed like I had so many things I was trying to succeed at. So her comment really bothered me. But I prayed and asked the Lord about it. The Lord showed me that I was treating her with familiarity more than cherishing her and treating her as the jewel she is to me.

I began to reflect on how much I love her and what a blessing she is. Doing so stirred feelings within me that resulted in showing her a heightened tenderness and love, and thanks to God for this precious women in my life. In a very short time I could see how it was affecting her. She was instinctively responding back with even a greater tenderness and love. No words had been spoken about this. It was just heart and action.

Proverbs instructs a married man to be “captivated by her love.”

Proverbs 5:18-19 NLT says, “Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. “She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always so that you will always be captivated by her love.”

We can become familiar with any blessing that we should be appreciative and thankful to God for. Pausing each day to appreciate people and things God has blessed our life with will break the curse of familiarity that would otherwise eventually rob us of the blessing they are, and the joy they bring. It is especially the act of appreciating and thanking God for our blessings that will heighten our love for Him and all the good He brings to our life—beginning with Jesus! Pause, think, and thank Him and others today! Do this and you and they will be refreshed!

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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