Standing on Principle

“David slaughtered them from the twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives. But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back. So David had captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of the other livestock, and they said, ‘This is David’s spoil.’ 

When David came to the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow David, who had also been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, then David approached the people and greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless men among those who went with David said, ‘Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.’ Then David said, ‘You must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, who has kept us and delivered into our hand the band that came against us.’”  1 Samuel 30:17-23

How often we hear it said that one of the most difficult forces for young people to resist is peer pressure. “Everybody else is doing it.” How often has that statement preceded a plea from child to parent? But all the peer pressure does not subside once we leave the hallways and classrooms of high school and college. Peer pressure exerts itself in the shop, the factory, the high tech facility, and offices in every conceivable fashion.
               
God’s people need to learn to deal with peer pressure. Unfortunately, many fall prey to its pressure for the simplest reason: they think the way everybody else thinks. Maybe that’s what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...” (Romans 12:2).

It may be that you need to take a stand against a popular way of thinking in your home, school, or place of business. There are those who are looking for an alternative - just like you. Be bold and, like David, give a godly option.

“The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them.” Proverbs 11:3