Acts 17:1-15 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. (v.5a)

Have you ever sat in the midst of a group of angry people? Voices raised, shoulders rigid, eyes shooting daggers, and sharp words flying like arrows at their target. Their anger wraps its cloak around your shoulders and seeps into your bones. You begin to absorb the anger and it becomes your anger. You feed on the emotional fuel of the room.

For teenagers that sensation might be called “peer pressure.” They absorb the emotional, physical, and mental environment surrounding them. “Come on, everybody else is doing it…” Those words led me down the road of addictions. I got caught up in the mob mentality of the people I was hanging around and it caused a riot in my life.

It wasn’t until I chose to abide in Jesus and He became my environment that I was able to escape the riot of addictions in my life. When I feel like a cloak of temptation is settling on me I remember to “clothe myself with Christ” (Romans 13:14).

What environment are you absorbing?

2 Samuel 5:1-12; Psalm 69; Mark 7:24-37