Daily Devotionals

Do not follow the crowd when it does what is wrong (Exodus 23:2).

Being the runt of my neighborhood, I quickly had to learn how to survive and resist peer pressure. One day, the older kids concocted a test of courage for us younger boys. They challenged us to jump from the window of an old abandoned British military barrack in Camp Allenby. We all jumped successfully from the first floor onto a bed of sand. No one was hurt. When it came to jumping from the second floor, however, we became reluctant. The older kids started to tease us, "You're afraid to jump! You're chicken!" To prove that I was not a chicken, I jumped ...and broke my leg.

All my "friends" later denied that they had told me to jump. Fear of reprisal overtook them. The biggest bullies were the first to shift the blame, "I didn't tell Joe to jump! You told him to jump! It's your fault!" Each of my so-called friends who had wanted to test my courage and had urged me to jump were now afraid to take responsibility for their actions.

I learned from this experience that strong people are not afraid to swim against the stream. This attitude, in fact, is what gave me the strength to follow Yeshua, even at the cost of being cast out of my home at the age of sixteen. Today, it is clear to me that I should owe no man anything other than the love of God. This is the only way I can be free from the pressures that come, even from "friends."

...not follow the crowd but obey the Lord my God.

JS