Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: January 10

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created him; male and female created he them" ~ Genesis 1:26, 27

There is no such thing as a dark corner where anyone can be completely alone. For many years, before I became a Christian, I sought an impossible state described by Lord Byron as "a life withing itself that breathes without mankind." Any human being seeking a life completely shut off from mankind is simply illustrating the disposition of sin. Any human being who lives as though it's no one's business but his own, is not only trying the impossible, but is stamping his foot and shaking his fist in God's face as he shouts his right to live his own life! There is no such thing as a cozy corner where you and I can go to think our own thoughts as we want to think them so that no one will know. We are what we think. If we think ourselves to be humble, gifted, charming people, we will go right out of our "cozy corner" and act haughty and cold. If we think critical thoughts of someone while we are in our "corner", we will leave our corner to find our would-be polite phrases dripping acid. Whether we like it or not we live in a world populated by other people who see us as we are. So does God. But we can thank this Creator God that He also sees us as we can be when our thoughts are taken captive by the One who died to redeem our minds as well as our souls.

"... Be renewed in the spirit of your mind... casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."