God has set us free from the bondage of fear and insecurity, but many of us still live bound in these things because we haven’t renewed our minds to what the Bible says. Many of our difficulties in these areas stem from our concern of what other people may think about us. Peer pressure can affect all of us to varying degrees. God makes it clear He doesn’t want this pressure being a part of your life.

Philippians 2:3-4 in the New Living Translation says: “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” When we’re swayed by the opinions of others, we’re really thinking about ourselves. If we’ll simply get our minds off of ourselves and onto how we can help other people, a natural by-product will be a lessening of fear in our lives. Fear focuses on itself. When we focus on others, fear diminishes.

The Bible tells us we can get to a place of having no fear (see Psalm 34:4). A huge step in getting there is making the choice to try to help people rather than try to impress people. This is a choice we need to remind ourselves to make throughout each day. The more we choose to help others, the more we’ll walk in the freedom God has made available to us!