Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: November 7

“Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me” ~ Isaiah 47:8

This “many-colored stone” has a sharp edge that pierces my [Eugenia Price, the author’s] own heart. I lived that way.

Given to pleasures, dwelling carelessly and saying in effect in my heart and aloud, if I could get anyone to listen “I am, and [there is] none else beside me.” I not only said this in my heart and aloud, I lived it. And every day since the moment I first looked at Christ hanging on the Cross for me and believed, I have had to guard against the return of such an attitude!

Could we as Christians who have been washed in the blood of God Himself, poured out for our sake, really defy God as this verse claims? Could Christians be “given to pleasures” above the One who gave Himself for us? Could Christians dwell carelessly, caring only for themselves and their families? Could we as Christians who know in our hearts that it is only by the grace and mercy of God that we are not lost, defy the God who saved us? Could we who have been cleansed and given eternal life by the heart of God broken on the Cross shake our fists at the sky and declare “I am, and none else beside?”

That list of questions needs no answering. We know the answers. And God knows them also. The antithesis of this attitude is the attitude of the Cross.

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”