Peer Pressure

Situations:
Your friends ask you out for mamak / movie / window-shopping while you are not prepared for the major exam tomorrow.

Your friends have the latest gadgets in town and you don’t.

Your classmates were all attending prom night and yanking about it but only you have not registered for it.

The list can go on & on…

Sounds familiar?

If you have faced or facing such situation(s), how have you responded?
Will you give in to the temptation or say “no” as it does not please the Lord? The Bible says:

For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. (Galatians 1: 10, New King James Version)

Without exception, I too experience many peer pressures but by the Grace of
God, I managed to overcome most of them. However, as now I am at a low point of my
spiritual life, I found that I am trapped by one of the incident which previously, does not affect me.

In a recent gathering at my best friend’s daughter birthday party, I was being asked to share a gift for my best friend while I have already prepared some gifts for her baby girl. Seeing everyone was chipping in, my heart was also puzzled whether or not to share with them. Under pressure, I agreed to pay and it is really the most expensive present I have ever bought/share. Seriously, this has caught me off guard as I did not consider that they are all well-to-do and from professional bodies while I was tied down with many responsibilities with a fixed income. In a way, I also conformed to the standards and protocols set by men and did not heed God’s advice in Romans 12:1-2, New King James Version

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

After the event, I regretted as I personally struggle with the financial state that I am now in and found that God wanting to teach me a lesson. It is my hope that in your own circumstances like this, you would also ponder and allow God to speak to you, no matter how urgent the circumstances may be and do not repeat the same mistake I did.

On another note, also be alert that if your so-called “friends” directly or indirectly caused you to play truant, cheat at exams, vandalize, smoke etc.


In Him,
Yit Mun, a.k.a. IP Man :D

Images taken from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/mar/26/catchofthedayhellisother
http://pastorrobbadger.com/category/life-lessons/