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Topic: Peer Pressure (07/05/04)
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TITLE: Paralysis By Ray Hoover 07/08/04 |
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As a young teenage boy in high school, I remember riding in a car with my high school friends. They had some cigarettes and were smoking. They asked me to smoke with them. I politely turned them down but they kept insisting that I try it just once. I gave in because I didn’t want to feel like an outcast. The peer pressure I experienced had paralyzed me to standing for what I believed.
This attitude of being a people pleaser had carried over into my adult life. As a Christian in my thirties and forties I still did not want to feel like an outcast from other Christians my own age or other Christians I socialized with. If I liked a certain minister and his teaching from the Word of God and my peers did not completely agree with his ministry then I would distance myself from his ministry. I did not want feel like a fool because I chose to believe something that was considered controversial. Again peer pressure had paralyzed me. I ended up only serving God half-heartedly. This attitude kept me from maturing as a Christian.
In chapter 2 of the book of Galatians Peter had given into peer pressure also. He was eating with the gentiles until the Jewish people had come. Then he left the company of the gentiles. Peer pressure had caused him to turn his back on the gentiles because he didn’t want to feel like an outcast among the Jewish community. Perhaps he had seen how they had treated Jesus when Jesus reached out to the people whom the Jews considered unlovely or unworthy. Paul rebuked Peter for withdrawing from the gentiles.
Allowing the negative influence of peer pressure in your life to continue will paralyze you. You will lose your boldness for God and compromise your convictions. This is a problem that needs to be cast out of our life.
On the other hand, peer pressure can have a positive influence. When a Christian is bold in serving God that means he will not compromise his convictions. He will be serving God with his whole heart. When these actions are being seen in Christians then they are letting their lights shine before men. This can be very encouraging for others.
There have been many times I have heard people say, “I want what he or she’s got”. This statement is made in reference to the fact of a bold, wholehearted Christian being observed by someone that might not be at the same spiritual level. We are to provoke one another to love and good works.
The book of Philippians talks about people boldly preaching God’s Word because of Paul’s chains. Paul was in prison when he wrote this book. Other Christians had observed how that Paul did not let the prison get in him. This caused them to become more courageous and fearless in preaching God’s Word.
So now the challenge is put before you. How will you let peer pressure influence your life? Remember that people are watching your life. So choose wisely.