In his commentary on Mishleh (25,15) the Gaon of Vilna says there are two approaches when a person asks for something from Hashem. One is that he's asking because of Hashem’s mercy and kindness, for example, in Nishmat , we describe all the kindness that Hashem done until now, and based on that, we ask to continue to get more kindness from Him. We see many examples of this within the Torah, as it says וְהֶאֱמִ֖ן בַּֽה׳ וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ לּ֖וֹ צְדָקָֽה Avraham Avinu believed in Hashem- Why? Because he looked at everything that God had given him as Sedaka . This is one way of reading this pasuk- that Abraham considered what he had gotten from God until then as charity, and if God gave him charity until now, He'd continue giving him charity. Another example of this concept is in Yeshaya, where it says, הנה אל ישועתי El, which is God's kindness, is my salvation, אבטח ולא אפחד I can rely and I'm not afraid. Simply this means that I'm not afraid of the enemy . But another explanation is that I'm not afraid that my sins will cause me not to deserve what I'm relying on Hashem for. We can see another approach from Yaakov Avinu- In the Torah it says that even though Hashem promised Yaakov Avinu that everything would be good, he was afraid of Esav, because he was afraid that maybe a sin would cause it not to happen. Why was he afraid of sin? Because Yaakov Avinu’s approach was not asking for Hessed. Yaakov Avinu wanted to make it based on his merits alone. And if you want to make it on your merits alone, then you have to worry about diminished merits. We're not on that level (or we shouldn’t be), where we go to God thinking in our heads that it’s because we deserve. We don't deserve anything. One of the fundamentals of our Bitachon is that we're not relying on Hashem because we deserve . If that was the case, then, yes -when you do something wrong or get up late one day, you say, “ Hey, how can I rely on Hashem? I messed up.” But that’s assuming you're going with your merits, and you deserve it. But once you're on the charity program, then you don't have to worry about that. And Rav Bloch says that really, part of our difficulty in having reliance on Hashem is we don't want to be charity cases. We like to think, “ I'm a good guy. I don't need charity. I'm doing okay.” He gives a beautiful mashal to illustrate: There was a wealthy man who was traveling on the road when he saw what looked like a pile of rags. Curious, he went over to see what it was. He discovered that it was actually a person who was sick and weak, with all kinds of lice and vermin on him. So the wealthy man had mercy on him, picked him up and put him in his chariot. He immediately took him to the nearest hospital and paid for his healing. And after a lot of work and therapy, the poor man finally is rehabilitated. The wealthy man gets him new clothing, puts him in his business, and works him up into the heights of his business. He then marries him off and gets him a place to live. And at the end of the sheva berachot he asks this fellow, “ Would you like a cup of tea?And the Hatan says, “ No thank you.” The wealthy man says, “I know you for years. You always have a cup of tea at the end of the meal.” And the young man replies, “ I don't want to feel obligated to you.” The wealthy man is astounded. “ You don't want to be obligated to me?! If you lived thousands of years, you couldn't possibly pay me back for all I've done to you. And now for this one cup of tea, you don't want to be obligated to me?!! That must mean that you look back at everything until now and think it’s all nothing!” That's the mashal . The nimshal is that the amount of goodness that Hashem has done, from the beginning of time until now (as the Hovot Halevavot describes), with the humanity at large, and with the Jewish people, being taken out of Egypt, splitting the sea, the clouds of glory, Har Sinai, the Torah… It's unbelievable, what we have received from Hashem. That is an important lesson. Nishmat , when we list all the kindnesses that Hashem did for us, is there to let us know that we are here on charity, and therefore we shouldn’t feel like we don't want to ask, that we don't want to owe, or that we’re uncomfortable asking Hashem for more. We are totally indebted to God. And therefore, that attitude of I don't deserve it is really misplaced humility. Have a wonderful day.