As you keep getting together with a personal friend, or sincere friend, continue to share little bits of your story with them and see if the successes of your story help them feel comfortable with you telling them more. You will be telling it to your personal friend to see if they have come to the place where they want to be helped. You are telling it to your sincere friend to see if they are willing to allow that help to come through Jesus. These short versions of your story should include similar problems like the ones they are going through.

The purpose of your story is:

• To let your friends know you have GONE through similar things like they are GOING through.


• To let them know you have found the answers to being helped and delivered from such problems.


• To let them know that Jesus was the One Who has blessed, worked miracles, and healed the things in your life.


• To find out whether or not they are interested in moving to the next level of friendship.

After you have shared a portion of your story with a person that you have a personal friendship or sincere friendship with, you will relax and allow them to respond to that story in any way they wish. You are still just trying to see how far Jesus has taken them and what you should do next. If they don’t understand the points of your story, don’t show any real interest in it, or don’t appear to want the same kind of help, then they need to stay in or go back to the personal friendship level.

If a person appears to only want to stay in the personal friendship level, it is at this point you and Jesus need to decide whether you should continue seeing them, reduce the time you spend with them, or go back to asking more questions.

Your time is limited; there are people all around you who will respond to you and the things Jesus has done for you. It is important that you not take time away from them and give it to someone who won’t move forward. Jesus will show you whether or not they will ever go on from there. If He shows you that they just need a little more encouragement, then He will give you more things to share so they can move into or continue in a sincere friendship.

We can try to pick who we think would make great Christians. Only Jesus knows who will move forward and who won’t. It is vital that you relax, give up your own personal opinions, and really listen to what Jesus has to say about each person you encounter. You will get hurt, disappointed, waste time, and cheat other people out of getting their chance to move into Jesus’ things, if you don’t follow His leadership.

If the people you are working with are willing to let you help them with the KIND of help that helped you, then they are ready to become one of your sincere friends. If they aren’t willing to discuss solutions, or, if they are willing to discuss solutions but they aren’t willing to discuss solutions that involve Jesus being the answer, then they aren’t ready to move to the sincere friendship level yet; and, that was ALL you were trying to find out by telling your story.

If Jesus wants you to let the relationship stay on the personal friendship level, He may have you visit them from time to time, give them more parts of your story, and remind them that Jesus was the One Who helped you. If Jesus tells you they just need time, your friendship will, from that time on, be one where you keep sharing miracles that He has worked in your life. This is so they can keep seeing how great and wonderful He is. It won’t be one where you keep allowing them to pour more and more of their problems and issues on you. They MUST become willing to allow Jesus to help them and change them.

Don’t allow personal friends and sincere friends pull your own personal advice out of you. Keep telling them what the Biblical principles say, while letting them know that your personal experiences are coming directly from the Bible and Jesus. Personal friends and sincere friends must not insist on staying where they are and you keep seeing them. They may be fun to talk to; you may want to just make them social friends without any spiritual purpose. But, it is important that you keep in mind that there are people all around you that desperately need your help.

A sincere friendship is a personal friendship that has moved into a deeper relationship BECAUSE the person has a desire NOT ONLY to share their problems, they are ready to grow and get help. You aren’t trying to CREATE such a desire in them; you are just trying to FIND OUT whether or not that desire is ALREADY in them from Jesus. If Jesus hasn’t ALREADY been working with them and created a desire for change, growth, and a relationship with Him, then they aren’t ready for a sincere friendship.

A sincere friend is a person who responds with sincere answers to your non-threatening, personal questions and parts of your story. You might ask them why they think a certain problem has gotten so bad? You might ask whether or not they are willing to join you in doing some things that would help them? You might ask if there is anything they would like you to pray for them about? Or, you might ask them any other personal question that gives them an OPPORTUNITY to open up and start receiving spiritual help from you and Jesus.