Today we’ll continue with some of your favorites (or the passages you have questions about). Email (andy@stm-umc.org) or message me with any passages you’d like added or that you have a question about!

Today we are looking at 1 Thessalonians 5: 11-15: 

11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.  12 But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; 13 esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. 15 See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.

We all know about peer pressure.  We are all familiar with it, we worry about it with our kids, and sometimes, if we are honest, we struggle with it as adults. 

What will the neighbors think?  We need to keep up with the Jones. We need to keep up appearances.  We have to do these things, right?  

You know what that is, don’t you?  It’s the same thing our kids deal with, peer pressure.  We are not doing it because we want to; we are doing it because of what others will think.  We feel that pressure.  That is normally what it is. Today, though, we see peer pressure but through a different light. 

Today we see Paul tell us to encourage one another. Build each other up.  Do good for one another.  Motivate each other.  But not for destructive or troublesome things; motivate each other for good.  We need that kind of peer pressure. We need that kind of motivation and support. 

We need people in our lives who will spur us on to being faithful, who will spur us on to doing things right things. We need to surround ourselves with folks who will make us better. 

Today, who are the people in your lvies?  Do they encourage you to be faithful?  To do the right thing?  To show grace?  Or do they encourage you in a negative way?  

And what kind of peer pressure are you?  Are you encouraging others to be faithful?  To show grace?  To be salt and light?  

Let’s seek out good peer pressure in our lives. And let’s be good peer pressure in our lives.  When we seek to live and surround ourselves with such people, good things will happen in our lives and in the lives of other people.  Let’s be good peer pressure today.  

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