40 Days of Prayer – Day 30

SCS StudentDevotional Blog

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

It’s not uncommon for us to think that we can stand up to peer pressure without any issues.  But when the rubber meets the road, the influence others have on us can cause us to collapse under the pressure and follow the crowd.  It’s easier to swim downstream than upstream.  God calls us to be in the world but not of the world so the question is how do we do that?  One way is to be aware of our actions.  Even though some things may seem fun in the beginning, they can easily become traps of sin.  For example, lots of high school students go to parties and experiment with drugs and alcohol because of peer pressure.  All the cool people go to the parties, and the drugs and alcohol make you feel good and help you fit in – everyone is doing it.  But eventually, if we continue down that road, we could face an addiction that could impact our lives for years.  These pleasures of the world lead to separation from God and we begin to walk farther and farther away from him.  

God has called us to a higher standard of living.  If we want to have God guiding our path we need to break down the walls of sin.  We need to recognize our need for Christ’s help in order to be free.  No matter how tough our path has been, with the help of Christ we can always be transformed from sinners into believers.  We should be different from the rest of today’s world even though this may be extremely difficult.  Whether we are standing up for someone, asking for forgiveness, choosing a different path than everyone else, or even just doing something nice for someone, these are all ways we can separate ourselves from the rest of society any of these things can be hard but if we have allowed god to renew our mind he will implore us to be in this world but not of it. Have courage and do not let peer pressure convince you to do the easy thing.    

Sophomore Carter VanHelden

Prayer Focus:

  • SCS Alumni
  • Praise the Rock – the one whose works are perfect and whose ways are just (Deut. 32:4)
  • Joshua 1:7-8:  Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good successwherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.