“Our souls are not designed for despair.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus, (2006-11-14) from his book, Soul Cravings: An Exploration of the Human Spirit (p. 99). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Have you read the story in the gospels about where Jesus came to the grave of His friend Lazarus and saw the grieving of the people there and of how Jesus wept? We think it is because of His friend’s death but He a few moments later raised Lazarus from the grave. No that wasn’t it.

What it seems to be is that Jesus was feeling His love for these people and He saw their pain, their grief and that this wasn’t His plan. Death wasn’t His plan. He had a better plan but our representatives back there in the Garden muffed it up by disobedience and going against His plan for their own plan and death then came into existence. They were driven out of the Garden and could no longer eat from the Tree of Life. He had a better plan than this.

We were not designed for death. We were not designed for despair. He had a better plan but we chose to not live it. His plan was not for all of this evil in the world. His love had a better plan.

Now we do have the privilege to accept and live out His plan today. It says in John 3:16 that God so loved us that He gave His only Son, Jesus to die for us to pay for the way we muffed His plan up and that if we believe in Him, live for Him, accept Him then we will have everlasting life. That was His initial plan for us. We will die physically but we can live spiritually forever and we can live in fellowship with Him here. Even though we blew it we still can avail ourselves of His initial plan. We just need to believe in Him and follow Him and love Him.

In the Lord’s Prayer He says for us to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." His will is not perfect here but it is there. But if we accept Him and believe in Him we can live out His plan for us here and then live forever there.

We were built for more than we have. Our souls were not designed for despair, we were built for hope. Let Him rekindle that hope within you and to live as you were created to live.

Are you open to that?

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