Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: April 13

"Return to sobermindedness as you should, and quit sinning. For I say to your shame, some have no sense of divine Presence" ~ 1 Corinthians 15:34

This may seem a strange "red stone," but don't pass it by because Paul sounds cross. I [Eugenia Price, the author] have found that much of what I used to pass by quickly because I thought Paul was being irritable, was actually because I was irritable.

Now I see that Paul was simply completely sure of what he wrote. "Return to sobermindedness as you should, and quit sinning" sounds as though he were whipping us up to a burst of self-effort.  He wasn't. Read the remainder of this "red stone" verse and remember that our "red stones" tell also of the power of the indwelling presence of God to enable us to withstand temptation. Paul, of all people, knew that when he was weak, then he was strong. He would never have recommended self-effort in order to stop sinning. In this verse, he simply reminds the wayward Corinthians (and us too) that as long as anyone has a sense of the divine Presence, the power of sin is broken! We must cultivate the sense of the constant, minute by minute presence of God with us and within us. This is a habit we can consciously form. He is always there. Our part is to remember it. And when we do, we find the only power by which we can "quit sinning." When we are born of God, some of God's own life is put within us. This is the only safeguard. Consciously in His presence, we can't keep on sinning.

"... having been born of God, we cannot practice sinning."