We hope you enjoy this re-post from December 14, 2014. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. – Psalm 78:41, King James Version (KJV)

If you are like me, there have been times in your life when you planned to do something nice for someone else, but you didn’t. The reason you held back had nothing to do with you. The reason you held back had everything to do with the would-be recipient(s) of your grace.

For example, there have been times when I have desired to give my children unexpected gifts to express my love. But, just before I delivered the gifts, they did something really annoying – disobeyed, whined, or showed ingratitude – that caused me to hold back on those gifts. Sometimes they’ve known about my holding back. Other times they haven’t. In all cases, though, I didn’t fail to be nice. They failed to display behavior that was deserving of reward.

Likewise, God never fails to be nice to us. But, we often fail to display behavior deserving of reward. When we fail to display such behavior, we limit God’s power in our lives because we’ve made God so mad at us He holds back His blessings. This is exactly what Psalm 78:41 teaches us. The KJV rendering of the verse shows us that turning our back on God limits His power in our lives. The Amplified Bible rendering, which reads, “And time and again they turned back and tempted God, provoking and incensing the Holy One of Israel,” teaches us that God limits His power because of the anger our rebelliousness creates in His heart.

In Matthew 9:27-29, we learn that God will reward us according to our faith. Likewise, He will refuse to reward us in proportion to our lack of faith. If we desire to see the power of God in our lives, we must display faithful behavior deserving of reward. If we choose to groan, whine, and complain instead, then we can expect God’s power in our lives to be very, very limited indeed.