We all have friends and family who are unchurched and apart from God, and we all want them to know Christ.
Before you can take major steps to their hearing the Gospel, you often have to take baby steps or first steps.
What are the first steps we can take to help our friends know Christ?
First, begin praying regularly for your friends by name. Ask the Holy Spirit to convict them and open doors for major steps about knowing Christ.
Can you imagine people who have no one praying for them? Can you imagine people when trouble comes that no one prays for them and no one shares with them about the God who loves and cares for them deeply? This is the situation in the lives of many people we know.
The first step is to pray and ask God to convict your friends and to open doors for you.
Second, determine to take every opportunity “to give a reason for the hope you have in Christ” (1 Peter 3:15). The more you look for opportunities to share what Christ means for you and what He means to you right now the more you will be aware when those opportunities come.
Third, seek to establish strong friendships and relationships with those you want to reach. Make them your friends for life. You and I are much more open to people who truly care for us and have our best interest at heart. Those are the people we want to be around.
Fourth, help your unchurched friends get in a circle of credible believers who seek to live out their faith in Christ. We tend to become like the people we hang out with. The more we can help our friends see other credible – – meaning authentic and faithful – – Christians, the more they will be open to that in their own lives.
Finally, seek integrity, purity, and righteousness in your life. Let Christ live within you and bring about change within. Your closeness to Christ will be an amazing help in bringing others to Christ.
Would you take these first steps to take your friends to heaven with you?
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