Pressure All Around

   Imagine you are going throughout your day. Suddenly you see a man. He looks a little shady and you are not sure you should trust him. The man walks up to you and says, "hey, you wanna try this? I'll give you a free sample now." You look down and see a pill in the man's hand. You know taking drugs is wrong so you quickly say "no" and walk away. 
   As you walk away in you mind you suddenly see yourself in battle armor. You are holding a shield and the man hurls a spear at you. Since you are ready for it, you easily block the spear with your shield. 
    You shake your head and the vision disappears. You continue walking down the street and you see a woman. She looks like a business type woman. But, in her eyes you think you see a glint of trickery there. She walks up to you, shows you a magazine, and says, "would you like to buy a magazine? You can take a look to decide which one you like." Just looking at the front page and the title of the magazine you can tell that this is not a Godly magazine. You look at the woman, say "no thank you," and walk away quickly.
   Once again you have a vision. It is relatively the same. You have battle armor on and a shield, the woman throws a spear at you, and you block it. 
   You walk down the street and reach your designated meeting point. Your friend shows up and says, "rather than going for coffee do you want to try out this new place? I hear the food is good, the entertainment is great, and the drinks are to die for." Your friend winks. Since your friend suggested it, you decide that it cannot be that bad of a place. Therefore, you agree.
   This time as you are walking down the street your vision changes. You still have battle armor on and you are still holding a shield. However, this time your shield is down. Your friend has a spear and throws it at you. This time, since your shield is down, you are hit.
   Every day we have choices. We can choose to sin or we can choose to obey God. What we cannot see when we make those choices are the consequences, both physical and spiritual. There are battles going on all around us. 
   We have pressure every day to be like everyone else, choose to do the right thing, excel at our jobs. There is so much pressure. But, even when we have that pressure, we need to stay strong. We need to keep our shield up when we are tempted. Even our friends can tempt us to do the wrong thing and that's when we need to decide that no matter what we are going to obey God. 
   So, have you been tempted at all lately? What did you decide to do? Will you choose to do the right thing even when it's hard and your friends may not be making good choices?  
   Luke 10:27, John 14:15, 2 Corinthians 5:9-10
   This blog is based off of a sermon by my Uncle. Thanks for giving me this idea Uncle R.