Sin and Temptation: Week 5, Day 3

Day 3: Back Off!

Since you are a follower of Christ, you want to be pure in your dating relationships. You want to honor God with your body. This is very difficult to do when the hormones are raging and you feel such strong emotions. It is easy to compromise your values and integrity if you have not stated what is important to you in advance. That’s why it is key that you let the person you are dating know right up front what your standards are.

I remember when I was in college I asked this girl to go out on a date. She said yes, and I picked her up. We got in the car, and she immediately looked over at me and said, “I want you to know that I am a Christian, and I want you to know that I have committed to being pure till the day I get married.” I remember thinking to myself; this will be the most boring date I have ever been on. I’m just kidding. I appreciated what she had to say. She wasn’t judgmental or arrogant. She just let me know who she was and what she was trying to be. Because I knew where she stood, the pressure was off, and I respected her for what she stood for.

If you share with your date what your standards are upfront and they dump you, at least you know all they wanted from you was the physical stuff. They wanted to use you. Don’t let anyone ever pressure you to do anything that you don’t want to do.

When I was in High School, there was a girl who was pressuring another girl over her virginity. She couldn’t believe this girl was still a virgin. I will never forget what that girl said to her. She looked at her and said, “I can be like you anytime I want, but you can never be like me again.”

Why do we compromise? It is because we care so much about what everyone else thinks of us and so little about what God wants for us. Here is a little test that might help you out with this. I call it the…

Will I care or remember ten years after I have left school about:

The guy or girl who was better dressed than me?
The number one athlete in school?
The person with the most expensive car?
The names of 5 people who wouldn’t accept me into their group?
Who was or who wasn’t at the parties?

A lot of the stuff we live our lives for doesn’t matter in the long run.

Psalm 119:37 says, “Turn my eyes away from worthless things.”

What he is saying here is that your life is too important to waste. Don’t waste your life watching inferior TV shows; don’t waste your life looking at inferior magazines. Don’t waste your life dating inferior boys or girls; don’t waste your life watching inferior movies. Do you get the idea? Go after God’s best.

You don’t have to be like everyone else. You can live your life for God. You can stand against the tide. You can be a difference-maker.

Time Out:

The people we admire in the Bible are those who stood for what was right no matter how much pressure was placed on them. I want you to read Daniel Chapter 3. It’s a long chapter, but as you read it, please think about the courage those three men had.

Look at Daniel 3:17-18. It is one of the greatest statements of faith in the entire Bible. What was their one goal in life?

Is that your goal as well?