IF YOU'RE IN A HARD PLACE

Exodus 6:8-9 Therefore, say to the people of Israel: 'I am the Lord, I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you.....So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.

We've probably all experienced times of oppression and seemingly overwhelming discouragement and we find it hard to read our bibles, hard to pray, hard to listen to what God is saying to us through His word or through others.  The Israelites were at that place, beaten down by circumstances, overloaded at work, unkindly treated by others, everything was getting worse and they just became too discouraged.

The wonderful thing about this story though, is the fact that all of that didn't stop God from helping them. He didn't say'Well I'm not bothering with you anymore because you're not listening to Me. You're not believing anything I say anyway. You can get on with it yourselves.'

NO! Absolutely not!  God continued with the plan He had in the first place and despite their unbelief and complaining He went ahead and over a period of time delivered them from all their troubles. That is the mercy and grace of God and He's just the same with us too. He knows we get discouraged and fearful even when He tells us not to, but even when we are like that He is still there for us, still delivering us because of Jesus.

So if you're in a hard place right now, don't give up, but take heart, because God is still with you, still for you, still working things out for you. He hasn't given up on you, rejected you or forgotten you. He loves you with an everlasting love and He has promised to deliver you and bring you out the other side and He will.