Thursday, February 3rd – PRESSURED By The Majority

Politicians sometimes decide issues on the basis of majority pressure rather than on the principle of right and wrong. Some time ago a state governor in the United States of America declared that he personally believes abortion is wrong. But he said that as a public official he would support the will of the majority.

Friend, what is your own position when you are asked to stand for a decision between what is right and what is wrong? Do you follow the majority because you do not want to be called ‘names’? Are you looking for popularity and acceptance of the world? Do you want to please men while displeasing yourself and invariably God?

Pilate acted in much the same way regarding Jesus. Although he knew there was no truth to the charges leveled against Christ, he caved in to the pressure of the crowd. Consequently his name is recorded in infamy.

Few of us are in the position of appointed and elected officials who must please the majority to keep their jobs. Yet we are subject to the same kind of pressure. I read about a Christian college student who one day was driving three companions home after a football game. They wanted to stop at a bar known for indecent activities, but he didn’t want to. The three students came from good homes and were popular at college. He wanted to please them, and he felt tremendous pressure to go against his conscience. For a moment he hesitated, but with the Lord’s help he resisted the temptation and drove instead to a family restaurant.

We should pray at all time that the Lord will help us to resist majority pressure when it would lead us down the path of sin.

“If we would do what’s good and right, we must be true within; if we give in to what is wrong we dull our sense of sin.” —DJD. Unless we rely on God’s power within us, we will yield to the pressures around us.