GOD REACHES OUT TO YOU

WHY SOME HAVE DOUBTS:  Many who believe in God feel distant from him.  "I just viewed him as the God who created everything," admits Christina, a woman from Ireland who attended church every week.  "But I didn't know him.  Not once did I feel close to him."

WHAT GOD'S WORD TEACHES: When we feel lost, Jehovah does not give up on us. Jesus illustrated God's care for us this way:  "If a man has 100 sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the 99 on the  mountains and set out on a search for the one that is straying?"  The lesson?  "Likewise, it is not a desirable thing to my Father who is in heaven for even one of these little ones to perish." Matthew  18:12-14.

Every "one of these little ones" is precious to God.  How does God "search for the one that is straying?  According to  the scripture quoted at the outset, Jehovah draws people to him. 

Consider how God took the initiative to draw sincere individuals. In the first century  C.E., God send the Christian disciple Philip to intercept an Ethiopian official's  chariot and discuss the meaning of a Bible prophecy that the official was reading.  (Acts 8:26-39) Later, God directed  the apostle Peter to visit the home of a Roman officer named Cornelius, who had been praying  and striving to worship God.  (Acts 10:1-48)  God also guided the apostle Paul and his companions to a river outside the city of Philippi.  There, they met "a worshiper of God" named Lydia, and "Jehovah opened her heart wide to pay attention." -Acts 16:9-15.  

In each case, Jehovah made sure that those who were seeking him had an opportunity  to know him.  Who today call on people in their homes  and in public areas to share the Bible's  message about God?  Many would answer, "Jehovah's Witnesses." Ask yourself, "Could it be that God is using them to reach out to me?  We urge you to pray to God to help you respond to his efforts to draw you to him.

Next time: I was fighting my own war against injustice and violence

From the Watchtower magazine, 2014