It’s a daily battle to remain confident when discouragement is always lurking. Loss of a job, bills to pay, economic distress, breakdowns in relationships with family and friends; all of these things can cause a person to lose hope. When life deals a constant flow of unfortunate circumstances it is difficult for a person to choose to move forward with enthusiastic hope.
The book of Exodus begins with the story of the people of Israel under the rule of a new king of Egypt who was unfamiliar with the promises that had been made to Joseph. The new king developed a plan and made the people of Israel slaves in an attempt to contain them and keep them under control. The people of Israel once strong and confident eventually landed in a perpetual state of despair after years of hard labor under the rule of the king. They were severely discouraged.
Discouragement happens when we lose hope in an area that is important to us. Areas like family, finances, careers, our futures. The loss of hope becomes despair and we unwillingly become settled that our current state is the way that life is supposed to be. Eventually just like the people of Israel we lose the fire that fuels our inner expectation that life can and will get better.
As the story continues, the king of Egypt dies, the children of Israel cry out to God hoping that He will rescue them from years of hard labor. Exodus 2:25 reads “God saw what was going on with Israel and He understood.” So God’s plan is initiated to use Moses to deliver the people of Israel. When Moses tells the children of Israel that the time has come, God has heard their cries and a plan is in place to deliver them from Egypt. The Bible records that When Moses brought the good news to the children of Israel because they were so beaten and discouraged by their circumstances they could not hear. (Exodus 6:9) The people were defeated and discouraged so much so that when the good news of a new future came from God by way of Moses, they were not able to hear it. The people of Israel had lost the hope and confidence that God has the power to bring them out, rescue them, redeem them and intervene on their behalf. God needs no explanation for why He does what He does, its simply because He is God.
Have months or years of hard times closed your heart and ears from hearing the voice of God giving you confirmation of His promise to bring you out from underneath desperate times? Don’t get so bogged down by life that your ears become closed to the voice of God bringing your deliverance. If you cannot hear His voice telling you that your time has come, that His plan is in the works to rescue you; then you won’t be able to recognize when He opens the doors of opportunity for you to walk through.
You have do your part, never allow yourself to become so discouraged that you are convinced that God has turned His back on you. When life seems to defeat you and you feel as if you have been hit with the final knockout punch the key is to remain hopeful that God has not taken His eye off of you. Exodus 3:7-8 says that, “God came down to help the people of Israel, to pry them loose from the grip of Egypt and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces.” Trust that He will do the same for you, His plan is already in the works to bring you to your own place of change. A new opportunity for you is on the horizon, you just need to have an ear to hear.
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