Day 1:You can Beat Peer Pressure if You...Learn to Identify Negative Pressures (and Learn to Resist Them)

Do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No, God is the One I am trying to please. Am I trying to please people? If I still wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10 NCV.

   Ourworld is filled with pressures: some good, some bad. The pressures that we fell to follow God's will and to behave responsibly are positive pressures. God places them on our hearts, and He intends that we act accordingly. But we also face different pressures, ones that are definitely not from God. When we feel pressured to do things-or even to think thoughts-that lead us away from God, we must beware.
    Society seeks to mold us into the cookie-cutter images that are the product of the modern media. God seeks to mold us into new beings, new creations through Christ, beings that are most certainly not conformed to this world. If we are to please God, we must resist the pressures that society seeks to impose upon us, and we must conform ourselves, instead, to His will, to His path, and to His Son.

  GREAT THOUGHTS... People who constantly, and fervently, seek the approval of others live with an identity crisis.  They don't know who they are, and they are defined by what others think of them. -Charles Stanley

   Peer Pressure 101: Here's what you need to know about peer pressure:

        1. Peer pressure exists, and youw ill experience it.
        2. If your peers encourage you to behave yourself, to honor God, and to become a better person, peer pressure can actually be a good thing...up to a point.
        3. If your friends are encouraging you to misbehave or underachieve, find new friends. Today. End of lecture.

     THE BIBLE SAYS: My dear friends, don't let public opinion influlence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. James 2:1 MSG
   
                      He said to them, "You make yourselves look good in front of people, but God knows what is really in your hearts. What is important to people is hateful in God's sight. Luke 16:15 NCV


                                Dear Lord,
 Other people may want me to misbehave, but You want me to behave myself. And that's what I want, too-I want to do what's right. So help me do the right thing, Lord, even when it's hard. Amen.

                                        (From Teens Peer Pressure 30 Ways to Fight it.)