“And he [ God ] is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

Perhaps the most important truth that Scripture reveals about God and His pursuit of the lost is that He is using all things to draw men and women to Himself. Paul, when speaking to a group of Athenian philosophers, makes this clear in the verses above. The God of the Bible is both INFINITE and PERSONAL. He is both everywhere and in touch with every person. He has been working behind the scenes of history, moving an infinite number of details into place all for one reason – to create a scenario that some “would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” God is, as it were, the Master Chess Player, moving the pieces on the board, pushing each man to deal with himself, his darkness, his conscience, his moral compass, his inconsistencies and his lack of relational perfection. Paul does a thorough job of describing man’s struggle with this in the first three chapters of Romans. God is at work behind the scenes. 

Couple that thought with the fact that “God is love” (1 John 4:16). No wonder Jesus describes the Father in such passionate terms in parables such as the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). The Prodigal Son parable truly glorifies the Father – the father RUNS to his returning son. Christ, doing the work of the Father, made it clear that He came to seek and to save the lost. God doesn’t need anything from humanity, yet He pursues us like “the hound of Heaven” (C.S. Lewis). 

When we see someone outside of Christ perhaps reveling in their sin but certainly avoiding Him, if we find the door open to share the truth of the gospel with them, will this be the first time God has “nudged” them? Certainly not! We are, as my good friend Kelly Talamo described, “bait” in God’s ambush. God uses our lives, our testimonies, and our words – to arrange a personal encounter with the lost who “bump” into us and spring His trap. We don’t ambush people with the gospel – he puts our lives on the trap of life and waits for lost people to be drawn to Him. 

This should change how we pray for those, who are without Christ, around us. Pen a prayer for someone lost who is close to you right now. Pray specifically about their situations, circumstances, geography, social group, etc., and release the kingdom of God on their situation. Ask God to miraculously and sovereignly draw them to Himself. Pray for insight as to how to be used in that process.