weekday Devotional: September 10

“Everybody” Isn’t Always Everybody

⁶ Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. ⁷ The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

⁸ But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. ⁹ Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, ¹⁰ but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your^[a] food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”

¹¹ Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ¹² “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” ¹⁴ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

¹⁵ At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

 

 

 Daniel 1:6-15

“COME ON, Mom, be reasonable,” pleaded Kirsten. “There aren’t going to be drugs or anything. It’s just a party.”
“You’re not going to a party at Brad’s house-or anywhere else,” her mom ar­gued, “unless there are some adults around to chaperone.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” Kirsten whined. “Everybody else is go­ing to be there. I’ll be the only one whose mother won’t let her go.”
Kirsten didn’t speak to her mother for the rest of the weekend. Everybody goes to those kinds of parties these days, she reasoned.

     Kirsten got a surprise when she found out on Monday that Julia and Christopher hadn’t gone to Brad’s party either. Kirsten had bought the common belief that “ev­erybody’s doing it.” What a lie! Everybody is not doing it, whatever it is. Sometimes it seems that way, but an aware teen will eventually spot a lot fewer people “doing it” than the crowd would have him or her believe.
      Everybody is not having premarital sex. Recent research indicates that more than 50 percent of Christian kids are not doing it. That’s a significant number.
      Everybody is not using tobacco. Some surveys indicate that as many as 80 per­cent of today’s youth don’t smoke.
     Everybody is not using alcohol. Surveys reveal that around 30 percent of high school students do not use alcohol and nearly 10 percent have never tried it.
     Everybody is not doing drugs. The Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan reported a sharp drop in the use of cocaine and other drugs by teenag­ers. Over 40 percent of all American young people have refused illicit drugs all the way through to high school graduation.
     Everybody is not losing or outgrowing their faith in God. A survey oftwo thou­sand youth shows that 61 percent regard religion as the most important part of their lives.
     Students often use the lie that everybody’s doing it to manipulate their friends, parents, and peers into conforming to the crowd. Don’t believe the myth. Everybody is not doing it. And even if everybody is doing it, you don’t have to. Daniel and his three friends didn’t yield to the pressure to conform, and God blessed them as a re­sult. A hefty percentage of youth today know how to say no. And more and more, that’s just what they’re doing.

 

REFLECT: How strong is your resolve against this subtle pressure to conform?

 

PRAY: Ask God to build your courage to resist the line, “Everyone’s doing it.”

 

Josh Mcdowell