Deuteronomy 8 - God Demands Humility and Gratitude
God's ability to humble people in their pride and self-absorption displayed here is amazing. This is of the most clear passages that speaks to the heart that God is looking for in a humble servant of His. So much so that Jesus even quotes from it when being tempted by Satan as a direct rebuke against pride and materialism. When Israel was not trusting in God, God allowed their rejection of Him to lead to their suffering and trials. This was to put their hearts to the test, not because God didn't know what their hearts looked like, but so Israel would recognize what their hearts looked like. This methodology employed by God is merciful and kind in that it allows us to recognize where our hearts should be and choose to love God when we are falling short rather than God forcing it upon us.
God blesses those who follow Him and belong to Him. This passage also warns against the extremely common tendency we have to attribute our blessings to our own hard work, labor, or intellect. God is the one who provides, not us. The absurdly stern warning in the second half of the chapter speaks to this endless cycle humans seem to have with doing things right, being blessed, then instead of being thankful to God, rejecting Him and acting like we no longer need Him after we made all these blessings and prosperity ourselves.
"Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God."
The passage likens doing this to worshiping idols and warns of death and destruction being the only result of not obeying God and remembering Him being the source of all wealth, knowledge, and blessings.
Something in my own life that I have always had to work on and had struggled with for years is attributing my programming career to my own hard work or dedication. It was not those things at all, it was God who gifted me the ability in the first place and it's a perfect testimony point to bring glory to Him. To not attribute these things to God is to remove the glory from Him and to put it on me which is the complete inverse of why God even blesses me to begin with.