Protect Your Heart From Discouragement

“Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord !’” (Exodus 6:6-8 NLT)

So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said... (Exodus 6:9 NLT)

And we would expect that the Israelites will be overjoyed and excited with what God will do.

But as the verse continued it says: 

"but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery." In the message version it said "... they didn’t even hear him—they were that beaten down in spirit."

Discouragement can:

-prevent us from hearing God's promises to us 

- make us hear God's promises but we won't listen attentively, we won't be able to pay attention

- make us hear but we won't believe.

So as Aaron & Moses performed the miracles, they were not to convince the pharaoh only.  They had to convince the Israelites also that God will indeed do what He promised and will deliver them from Egypt.

We need to protect our hearts from discouragement by always keeping a positive outlook even when things are not happening as we want them to. We need to always look at God's miracles in our lives and in the lives of the other people around me so that I will be convinced that God will really keep His promises to me.