Emphasis Preaching Journal

An individual may not be advancing in his job or he may be bypassed for a promotion, and he asks, "What's wrong with me, anyway?" A young girl's steady boyfriend breaks up with her, and she wonders about her attractiveness and femininity. A ministerial student is carrying the dual load of classes and a congregation which causes him to believe that he is failing at both. A housewife feels that her life is meaningless which results in a sense of inferiority. An older woman, no longer able to live by herself, feels like an intruder in her daughter's home. A young man has started out with the desire to live as a Christian should, but at the week's end he is discouraged with his own frailty, sin and guilt.

Discouragement is sometimes difficult to understand even when we know its source. Moses must have felt that leading the Israelites out of Egypt was an impossible task, and was discouraged from the beginning. The confrontations with the Pharaoh were enough to cause anyone to give up. Things grew even more dismal as the fleeing Israelites were stopped by the Red Sea.

It is difficult in the midst of discouragement to see any way out. Oftentimes sheer steadfastness causes us to look back and see God's helpfulness in the midst of difficulties. Moses and the Israelites, stopping on the other side of the sea, were able to sing of that help.
- Kirby