I Have Alot of Peer Pressure

Anonymous said...
Hi, what do I do when I feel like I have alot of peer pressure?????

Trophy of Grace said...

I would say the first thing you may need to do is step back and reconsider who you’re hanging out with. Obviously those closest to you are trying to get you to do wrong or to participate in things that you do not feel comfortable with. Try talking with them and telling them that you feel pressured and uncomfortable with their influence regarding whatever the situation is. If the peer pressure continues then you may need to get away from whoever is causing the peer pressure.

King Solomon told his son, “My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them!” (Proverbs 1:10) He tells his son not to go along with all the bad things that these so called ‘friends’ wanted to do. He advised him to stay far away from their paths. (Proverbs 1:15, 4:14) Therefore I too must advise the same. Stay far away from anything or anyone that will cause you to sin. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. (2 Timothy 2:22, 1 Timothy 6:11)

You have to choose your friends wisely. Do not be deceived evil company corrupts good habits. (1 Corinthians 16:33) Our circle of friends can influence us. You want to have wise friends who love and long to please the Lord. If your friends are wise men then you too will be wise. But if your companions are fools who do not fear the Lord you may be destroyed. (Proverbs 13:20) You could get into trouble just for hanging out with them, being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Be sure that your closest friends are those who will be an encouragement to you. They will be there to lift you up not to tear you down. (Ecclesiastes 4:10)

I was reading an article from Brio Magazine online about picking friends. I like what it had to say about what to look for. Here’s a clip from the article:

From the article 'Call Me!' By Mark Matlock

What To Look For

To see if someone has the qualities of a true friend, look for words, actions, reaction and direction. These are often the more obvious clues to uncovering the more subtle qualities of loyalty, honesty, forgiveness and realism.

Words. Listen to what people talk about. Do they talk at all about seeking God and His kingdom, or are they obsessed with pleasure, approval, power, status and things? Does their humor destroy or build up people? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught myself repeating a phrase or joke I heard from another friend. Do you want to be heard talking like those you hang around with.

Actions. Some people say the right things but don’t back up their words through their actions. This can be especially true at Christian universities. A person’s behavior tells more about his values and convictions than his words do, so take notice of what people do, where they go and how they handle responsibilities.

Reactions. Watch for people’s reactions to success and failure, to joys and disappointments. If a person quickly gets angry at small problems, steer clear. On the other hand, you’ll see wisdom in those who pray for needs, care about others’ hurts, listen well and stand strong on their convictions.

Please pray and consider the influence that your friends are having on you. It may be time to sever these relationships and ask the Lord to bring you godly friendships, ones that will glorify Him and encourage as well as edify you. I will be praying for you too.

A Prayer For A Friend

MySpace Friend's Comment on 7th Grade Boy Problems & Pregnant at 12:

Yes her parents did allow this because of the fact that her parents got married when they were young!

Most of the guys and girls at my school are exposed to a lot of drug uses @ there own house.

Well this is the last week of school until winter break and we haven't been to school AT all this week but we went a half a day on Monday and haven't been since and doubt if we will have school this week at all but to get to the point these guys across from my lunch table but we have booths they had brought marker(s) to lunch and were getting high off this. It was kind of depressing because some of the guys are my friends and it was sad.

I actually used to like one of these guys but I don't want a boyfriend that isn't a Christian and does drugs it's just to much for the average teen-age girl to handle except the fact that I'm not average I'm not normal I'm peculiar I'm a Christian and I can't do some of the things that most teenagers can.

The only dances I'll be able to go to are Prom either my Junior and senior *if someone asks me that is* but as women in Christ help me pray for the schools systems of the United States. ~Thank you

Trophy of Grace’s prayer for our friend:

Dear Heavenly Father,

I come before you in Jesus' name. You see my young sister's heart here. I ask that you give her strength and courage to be a light in the darkness. You have allowed her to go to the school that she is attending right now for such as time as this. I know you want to use her right where she is at to encourage other children and to be an example to others. She is different than the other children. She is not only your creation but she is your child. Help Lord... Comfort her with your Word. Give her a desire to draw closer to you and to read your Word daily. We know that your Word will be a light to her feet. Give her the Words to speak to her friends and associates. Let it be Words of Love and inspiration. I know that you have a mighty plan for her life..give her a vision and dream that she can hold on to. Remind her always that you are with her every day no matter what happens. Increase her faith and confidence in You.

In Jesus' name... Amen



PS - The women of WeUsed2bu love and care about your eternal soul. Therefore, we must tell you that there will be a day when each of us will have to stand before God and be judged for all we have done on this Earth. To find out how you can have right standing with God CLICK HERE


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I Want Her To Be Saved & Not Left Behind

Jesus Girl says... Hey girls! How are u? Anyway I have to ask u something. I have this friend, she is not a Christian and she drinks and smokes and I have been trying to invite her to church and activites from my youth group but everytime I ask her she never wants to come. She always hangs out with her other friends but not me. I am praying for her and her salvation and I know I can't change people only Jesus can but I do want her to know Jesus Christ. Anyways what do I do to show her who Jesus Christ is because I want to bring her to Christ and I want her to be saved and not left behind when Jesus comes back. Please tell me what to do. Thanks girls..GOD BLESS U!

Response... You are definitely doing the right thing. Don’t give up on her.

Galatians 6:9 “ So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Continue to love on her and let her know that you are there for her. Be patient and loving. You may have to give her space and let God draw her to you, if that be His will. Never stop praying and intercede for her.

“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” James 5:16

Don’t worry about her not listening to you or not wanting to hang with you. If she refuses to listen when you talk to her about the Lord, she will be won by your respectful, pure behavior. Your godly life will speak to her better than any words. (1 Peter 3:1)

Keep up the good work and be encouraged your friend will be saved. I believe it! I will come into agreement with you now.

Heavenly Father,

We come before you in Jesus name. You see my sister’s heart for this young friend of hers. She desires to see her saved before the rapture of the church. Your Word says that you give us the desires of heart and it also says that it is not your will that any should perish. We do not want this young girl to perish in her sin and disobedience. Please draw her close to you. Lead her to the cross and to your Son Jesus Christ. We believe that what ask you will give us because we asked in your Son’s name and because you love this girl just like you love us. We look forward to the day when we hear that she has surrendered her life to you. We thank you in advance and give you all the glory.

In Jesus name we pray,

Amen.

Trophy of Grace

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Garbage In Garbage Out

Written by: Conduit of Truth

Do Not Destroy Your Heart With Your Own Eyes

Be careful of what you intake through the eyes; such as looking at immoral magazines, indecent pictures, bad ideas and immoral movies and stories. There are some magazines, books, and movies that will instill doubt about your beliefs. There are some that will create images that can lead one astray. When faced with such reading material and movies ask yourself, “Will the information in this book/movie/magazine help me to be a better person? Will it help me to reach my goals? Will it draw me closer to Jesus?” If your answer is no, then why waste your time?

Use your time to read positive stimulating books. Read your bible often. It has an example of every life experience that you hope to go through and more.

Do Not Destroy Your Heart With Your Own Mind

One tends to become what you feed your mind. If you eat junk food all the time your body will soon show it. The mind works the same way. If you feed your mind with thoughts of evil, then it will produce evil actions. Immoral stories or movies will lead to immoral actions. This is a situation of garbage in and garbage out. In the bible in the book of Philippians it speaks of how your mind set should be. It says finally brethren what so ever things are true, what so ever things are honest, what so ever things are just, what so ever things are pure, what so ever things are lovely, what so ever things of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise think on these things. (Philippians 4:4-8)

Do Not Destroy Your Life With Friends That Will Pull You Down

It is said that birds of a feather flock together. Be careful of those you call friends. Do not hang around with ones that display bad attitudes, gives wrong advice, speaks against authority, and those with thoughts of evil and not of good. If you run with losers then you will become a loser on the run.

On the other hand associate yourself with the doers, achievers, and the positive life wires and you will stay motivated with love and peace of mind to do good for yourself and for others around you.

Words

Whatever your mouth says the most,
Whatever your eyes see the most,
Whatever your ear hears the most,
Will be what you heart stores the most.

The words stored in your heart will be your life.
Your life is in your heart.
So be careful about what goes in your ear,
Or, what comes out of your mouth.

What you hear
What you see
What you say
Is that what you are right now?
Are you really who you are?

By: PJ Schloss

What’s Love Got To Do With It – Part 2

Written by: Blessed and Highly Favored

You see it all over: Girls with girls; guys with guys; threesomes, foursomes, grouping, hooking up, booty calls. Experimenting with your sexuality trying to cover all the bases before you decide what could possibly make you happy. And this old excuse, “It’s like trying on shoes before you buy them. You never know what style you’ll like.” Uh yeah, like I’m a shoe. I don’t think so.

First, God’s perspective about homosexuality…uh, an abomination (repugnant, disgraceful, atrocious, wickedness) Leviticus 18:22. Not only is it a sin against the will of God, it is a sin against your own body.

“Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.” ( 1 Corinthians 6:13-20 )

Now typically, men and women have different perspectives about sex, both straight and homosexual.



Women who dabble into homosexual relationships, seek emotional intimacy first, that gives way to physical, sexual intimacy. A female partner doesn’t mind talking about every little thing, how they feel, their dreams, insecurities, etc. A homosexual man is quick to accept physical, sexual intimacy as a means to replace/separate emotional intimacy. Multiple partners is way of life and extremely dangerous, not only unhealthy (don’t even get me started about condom use as safe), but essentially begins to desensitize the individual.

Try this exercise. Take a piece of tape, and start placing it on and off your body about 20 times. After you do that, does the tape stick to anything anymore? No. When we have multiple sex partners, the tape is like our hearts. We can’t connect emotionally with anybody anymore and we can’t understand why we act the way we act. Our hearts become full of scar tissue. Like a thick fortress, our hearts are full of love but it cannot get out and the love from another cannot get in.

When we choose to listen to Satan, and chase after his perversion, it is very difficult to seek after God. However, because Jesus died for ALL our sins, we become new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15). Once we have this new life, we don’t have to act the way we used to act, talk like we used to talk, think the way we used to think. And though Satan would like to bring up our past to torture us, we have a Savior, in Jesus who ransomed us and paid the penalty for our sin in full.

We can choose to be free, and not a slave to our past.

*** Continued from What's Love Got To Do With It ***

What's Love Got To Do With It?

Written by: Blessed and Highly Favored

I got issues; issues about girls giving up their treasure in exchange for the illusion of intimacy. The line is long a and filled with girls and women who have shattered hopes, unrealistic expectations, a lifetime of STD’s, twisted sexual desires and mental anguish about their actions. What am I talking about? Is this another chat about sex, yes; but let’s look at the spiritual aspect of God’s gift to us.

It’s inevitable; someday, someone who you are not married to will utter the tired, worn line, “If you love me, then show me how much you love me.”

See the trap? Have you placed yourself in a situation that the “temptation” to give yourself over into sexual sin too great? But he loves me and I so want him to make me “feel like a woman!” Isn’t that a “natural response” to someone who you have a special, strong connection with? Whether you’re 12 or 62, it’s that same battle. And don’t for a second believe that the teen, or 20, or 30 or 40 or 50 something female has a clue about their sexuality, especially if they do not have a strong commitment to Jesus Christ. Satan wants to rob you of God’s precious gift and pervert your perception of sex. Hold up; stand back. Let’s look at the situation in its’ real context.

Sex is a wonderfully exciting fulfilling act. God made our bodies to react to certain stimuli in a specific manner for a specific reason. Our bodies were fantastically made by God to experience these feelings and responses layered in complex emotions. God even sanctifies (to make holy or sacred; to be free from sin, purified) sex by telling His creation, Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). But all of this is meant only in the context of marriage, NOT JUST A RELATIONSHIP (48 months or 48 minutes)! And certainly not someone who has to talk you into surrendering your gift, just to prove something. And another thing, oral sex is sex. Simply because there’s no penetration with a penis, an orgasm is an orgasm if someone brings you to climax.



God gave us this physical experience which is first spiritual, then physical. Let’s define some terms. Sex is seeking gratification to satisfy a biological drive. And if you believe we come from apes or some primordial slime, it’s just a skip and a jump to justify satisfying an animalistic urge. Making love , on the other hand, is the meaningful, fulfilling, spiritual expression of the consummation of a marriage. A husband submits to his wife, as a wife submits to her husband to bring one another to a level of exciting intimacy the God intended for us as a gift. In Hebrews 13:4, the Bible says, “Marriage is honorable ( admirable, moral, respectable, good) among all, and the bed undefiled (unsoiled, precious, free from deformity, debased, or impaired): but fornicators (sex before marriage) and adulterers (sex outside of marriage) God WILL judge.”

So, that’s God perspective of His gift to us. We need to see ourselves from His vantage point, not as animals just having sex because it’s “natural.” The big lie of Satan is that “everybody is doing it,” “it’ll make me a man,” “it’ll make me a woman,” “but we love each other” etc. We are not animals who cannot reason, or think of consequences, or just live in the moment. We are divinely created by a loving God, who wants us to be Holy, full of purpose and direction. He wants us to be all we can be, all He created us to be.

Don't Be Afraid To Be Different

Q: "I’m a Christian girl and everyone picks on me at school because I won't go to the parties and hang out and drink with them. They are always picking on me. I am getting so tired of being so different. Sometimes I just want to give up."

A: You are different! You are a child of God! That sets you apart from the rest of the world. As Christians we are not part of this world and that is why the world hates us and makes fun of us. (John 15:19)Do not be ashamed that you are different. Even as an adult, I too am ridiculed for being different. I do not go to the party or hang out with the friends that will jeopardize my faith anymore. I’ve learned to care more what God thinks about me than what other people think. I refuse to jeopardize my faith to "fit in". (Galatians 2:20) We are called to walk a lifestyle that is different from what the world knows. We must never be ashamed to be different because we belong to Jesus. If we are ashamed of him he will be ashamed of us before our Father. (Luke 9:26) Don’t get tired of doing the right thing. After a while you’re going too blessed, if you don’t get discouraged and give up. Remember that God has a plan for your life. (Galatians 6:9)

Look at the apostle Paul. Paul was also "picked" on for his faith and for his walk with the Lord. He was thrown in prison, stoned, and ridiculed publicly for being a Christian. Can you imagine what he went through? He accepted that he was different and he then embraced it. He focused on what God wanted him to do and he ended up writing a good portion of the New Testament. (1 Peter 4:16)Stay focused and don’t give up. The power that is in you is more powerful than this world. God has a plan for you. Trust his divine design. You are not alone. I will be praying for you.


Read: John 7:7 , John 17:15-16, John 17:9, Mark 8:38

Daughter of Destiny

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Persecution/Peer Pressure

John 15:19
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.


Luke 9:26
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

John 17:15-16
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

John 17:9
pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

Jeremiah 20:11
But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble;
they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.

Matthew 5:10-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

John 15:18-20
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Acts 14:21-22
When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

2 Corinthians 12:10
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Timothy 3:12
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

1 Peter 4:12-14
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

1 Peter 4:16
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.