Who's in YOUR Inner Circle? Are the ones you call friends really your friends? Do they lift you up in prayer? Are they honest? Do their lives show God's fruit?
Mark Beeson gives us Ten Deliberations to think about, let me know what you think:
Consider how these TEN DELIBERATIONS sync with your current criteria.
1. Do they know you and like you?
Why confide in someone who doesn't even like you? If they don't care to know you, will they care about you?
2. Are they honest?
Would you trust someone who is deceitful with your personal matters?
3. Are they headed where you're headed?
Amos 3:3 says, "How can two talk together unless they are in agreement?"
Which way are they going: spiritually, vocationally, financially or physically? How do you plan to share a journey going different directions?
4. Have they got clarity, vision and purpose in their lives?
If they don't know what they're doing - or why - will you trust them to stay the course?
5. How long have you known them?
Doesn't it take some time to build a trusting relationship? If you go too deep too fast aren't you likely to disappoint each other? Intimacy without trust usually raises hopes and expectations...but those expectations are more often wishful thinking than real possibilities.
6. Do they have any other trusting and honest friendships?
If they have no long-term, trusting and authentic friendships, shouldn't you ask yourself, "Why?"
7. Since an object in motion tends to stay in motion, can you extrapolate from their past the trajectory of their future?
Can you see the direction they're headed? Can you see how difficult it will be for them to change their tendencies? Do you like where they're headed and how they're going there? Shouldn't their momentum, speed and direction matter to you?
8. What do others say about them?
When you talk to people bobbing in their wake, what do you hear? When you talk to their old business partners, teammates and friends...what do they say about them?
9. If your relationship is mentor/apprentice, teacher/student, or parent/child, how do you expect that inequity to effect the relationship?
Do you think a parent can share their deepest issues with a child? Do you think a teacher should treat their student as a peer?
10. What do they believe about God? Are they Christ's followers?
If you build your lives on differing foundations, what happens? Will they carry you to Christ and encourage you to follow Christ? If you live with total devotion to God, will they be happy - or not?
As it involves your inner circle and the people closest to you, these notions deserve some thought. Give them some consideration.
Proverbs 13:20 - Wise friends make you wise, but you hurt yourself by going around with fools.
