Heart

 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
Exodus 7:3 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/exo.7.3.ESV

Signs and wonders aren't a sure fire way of getting people to believe in the Lord. Pharoah is proof of that. It took ten sights and wonders for him to agree to let the Hebrews leave Egypt, and even then he changed his mind.

Pharoah hardened his own heart, we're told elsewhere in Exodus. Yet it is also true that God hardened his heart too. God hardens those whom He will, and softens those whom He will.

To be honest, even the word of the Lord is not enough to get people to believe in God. As Abraham told the rich man in hell, his brothers wouldn't believe in God even if someone came back from the dead, even the Scriptures were not enough for them.

As Jesus said to the religious Pharisees, 'you search the Scriptures because you think you have life in them, but it's in me that you have life, and you refuse to come to me'. God can and does use His word and Spirit to make people alive in Him. Yet very often He allows them to become hardened to the good news of His word.

'O Lord our God, please help us to respond positively to Your word, by the power of Your Spirit. May we learn from Pharoah's bad example to cry out to You to soften our hearts, in Christ's name, amen'

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