Peer Pressure

I am under so much pressure to “Fit in.” How can I possibly be accepted without disobeying God?

When you are young the pressure to be accepted is so high. You want to be popular and be with the cool or happening crowd and you just want to be accepted. Most people change who they are, sin against God and do things just to fit in and by the end of the day when they look in the mirror they don’t know who they are anymore.
As a Christian you are supposed to set your affection on the things above and not the things on earth that have no eternal value. (Col.3:2). When you were still an unbeliever, you lived like everybody else and it was easy for you to fit in. But now that you are a believer, you can no longer fit in, there has to be a difference between you and the world: your values have changed. For example, the world believes in revenge, “an eye for an eye.” But Jesus says no to revenge and instead says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
The Bible tells us in Romans12:2 (ERV) “Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God has for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to Him and what is perfect.” The Kings James version of this verse uses the word “do not conform”
Instead of trying to “fit in” keep your focus on living a life that is pleasing to God while you are still young make that decision. Ecclesiastes12:1 says “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth…”
2Timothy2:22 says “Flee youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Youthful lust includes love of money, covetousness, drugs, wild parties, fornication, revelling, riotous living, etc. Lust for pleasure can choke God’s Word out of your life and make you unfruitful. (Luke8:14). One of the signs of the endtimes is that people will be lovers of pleasure more than they are lovers of God. (2Tim.3:4) To “flee” means to avoid it at all costs. Apostle Paul tells you instead to follow (pursue) “follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Choose companions that are also pursuing after these Christian virtues. Apostle Paul calls them “them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Your values as a youth changes as you mature in Christ, you realise that those “youthful lust” are temporal. Virtue, love, integrity, honour etc. are more valuable. Colossians 3:2 admonishes us to set our affection on things above not things on the earth.
Do you know that a lot of people started drinking, are addicted to cigarettes and drugs just because they wanted to “fit in” and they didn’t want to be left out? Some are in prison because they wanted to drive the latest cars and got involved in fraud (419). Teenage Pregnancy has made some youths “drop outs.”
It is better to please God rather than your friends, God will always be there for you. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. You may not fit in because when you try to please your friends, you may be asked to do things that are contrary to God’s Word and in trying to please them, you displease God. Don’t get discouraged if you cannot fit in because the Bible calls you “peculiar” which means special, unique in your manner of life and belongs to God. James knew this, and he said in James4: 4 (ERV) “You people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving what the world has is the same as hating God. So anyone who wants to be friends with this evil world becomes God’s enemy.”
Only Christ can give you the strength you need to put your foot down when temptation stares you in the face, only Jesus can help you say ‘No’. Temptation might look like fun, after all if it was not tempting would you want to do it? The bible confirms it in Heb.11:25 there is pleasure in sin. As you look at the people who look like they are having “fun” just remember that Psalm73 warns us not to envy the wicked, their path leads to destruction.
Proverbs16:25 says “ There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Yes there is pleasure in sin, but only for a season. Then when it is over, you are left with the consequences.