God is in the business of creating. He is always renewing His creation, bringing more life even when things look hopeless.
Think of the cycle of seasons. After lush summer and abundant harvest, winter comes. Leaves fall, grass turns brown, trees have bare branches silhouetted starkly against gray skies. But then comes spring, with new green life peeking out and then sprouting up at an amazing pace.
Or watch the butterfly: From egg to caterpillar to chrysalis, it emerges as something completely unexpected, and unexpectedly beautiful.
God does this for people, also. From self-centered, rebellious, sinful creatures, He produces beings who are deemed suitable to live with Him eternally. But, those beings are not born again immediately at their full potential. Just as people grow physically from babies to adults, Christians grow spiritually throughout their lifetime.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
How does God accomplish these changes, while still respecting the free will that He chose to give when creating us in His own image? One way of looking at it is a three-step process: He gets our attention; He shows us who He is; then He presents us with a choice.
He Gets Attention
For anyone to turn toward God, or to move closer to Him, they need to first be aware of Him. That awareness can come in many ways, some quiet and simple while others are quite dramatic.
God often uses seemingly-simple, everyday things to get our attention. It may be a song on the radio. It may be a Bible verse on a bumper sticker or a T-shirt. It may be an invitation to visit a church, whether a worship service or a picnic cookout. Something pricks at us, and says “Look here.”
He’s used dreams and visions, such as Isaiah’s vision in the temple (Isaiah 6:1-8) and Joseph’s dreams at Jesus’ birth (Matthew 1:20-24, Matthew 2:13-15, Matthew 2:19-21). He uses those even still today. Some reports find that as many as 25% of Muslim converts to Christianity describe a dream of Jesus as part of their journey 1. Hindus and Buddhists report similar experiences.
He used a bright light and a booming voice from Heaven on the Damascus road to get Saul’s attention, and transform him into the Apostle Paul. See Acts 9:1-22 for the story, and read Paul’s description in his own words in Acts 26:1-23. For Moses, the attention-getter was a burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6).
Hard times get our attention, as well. We can tune God out more easily when life is chugging along well. That is harder to do when circumstances cause more and more pressure on our complacency. As C.S. Lewis said in his book “The Problem of Pain“:
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
It took years of insanity to get through to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4). But even he finally came to say “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Daniel 4:37)
He Shows His Truth
Once we’re looking, God shows us Who He Is. Isaiah saw His glory filling the temple. Saul/Paul met “Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:3-5). Moses encountered “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob“, the great “I AM” (Exodus 3:6-14).
In the same way, a modern non-believer may get a glimpse of God’s majesty, and of his own sinfulness. An addict — whether to drugs or alcohol, sex or pleasure, money or power — may see how he is trapped by the addiction, not as in control of his life as he thought. The hopeless and helpless may realize that there is hope and help available.
A Christian, one who has already accepted the salvation that Jesus offers, also sees more of God each time He tugs on their attention. They become aware of an area where they need to grow, a persistent sin they need to address, a pain they’re holding onto and need to release. They recognize a need that they can meet in their community. They notice a hurting person that they can help, seeing them with the same compassion that God does.
Whether it’s the first time or the 10,000th time, when we pay attention to God, we see more of Him and His truth.
He Presents a Choice
Once we’ve paid attention and seen God, we always have a choice. What will we do with this new input?
If we choose to move toward Him, that’s when the good stuff happens. Change and growth take place. God’s power is infused into us, making us able to do more than we could have imagined. The right words come at the right time, and what we say blesses someone else. We give our resources, and amazing things are accomplished. Or, we simply survive when we would otherwise have been crushed by tragedy, and can look back later to see how it strengthened us.
Best of all: A sinner is transformed into a saint, redeemed and set apart as one of His people!
If we choose to reject what He shows us, not-so-good stuff happens. We stay where we are, mired in sin or depression or addiction or helplessness. We miss a chance to participate in God’s work; later, we have to look at others’ rejoicing without being able to share it. The hard things of life beat us down, and we have to deal with them alone, without the comfort that God wants to give.
Sadly, some people are so stubborn that the only way God could save them would be to force them, something He won’t do. A forced choice is no choice at all. So some persist until their “final answer” is destruction.
Even plagues didn’t change Pharaoh for any length of time (Exodus 7 -11). They won’t change some of the people who experience them during the Tribulation at the end of time, either:
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.
Revelation 9:20-21, 16:9, 11
…
Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.
…
…they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.
How sad, and how unnecessary! 😢
He Keeps Repeating the Process
God keeps repeating this cycle — get attention, show truth, give choice — for our entire lifetime. Even if the last attention-getter is the realization that we are dying and our life has not prepared us, He shows the truth one last time and stands by eagerly for us to make one last correct choice. The thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43) teaches us that it is never too late to choose Christ and receive His gift.
We know that God wants to save everyone, so much that Jesus came, died, and rose again to make that possible. But we also know that God won’t force Himself on anybody. What’s more, He knows in advance who will eventually accept Him once they really face the truth, and who won’t give in, no matter what.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 KJV
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
Revelation 3:20
Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’
Ezekiel 33:11
So, when we pray for the salvation of someone we love, what do we expect? Do we think God will wave His magic wand and “poof”, they are now Christian, whether they like it or not? No, we know better.
We don’t know which of the two categories above describes our loved ones. But we pray anyway. We pray that God will not give up on them, that He will keep working to get their attention, and that He will show Himself so powerfully that they make the life-giving choice 2. We will keep praying until the last minute and beyond, realizing that their relationship with God is their own and is something we may not fully know in this lifetime.
In every believer, God is continually changing us to be more and more like Jesus. Hopefully, we get better at paying attention, quicker to see the truth He’s showing us, and more likely to make the best choice of what to do about it. But it’s a process that won’t end until we get to Heaven. We will mess it up plenty of times along the way.
We need to trust God’s timing. The salvation we pray for may not happen as quickly as we want (which would be “right now!”) Our own attempts to follow may not work out as we expected. The circumstances a person goes through on their way to meeting God have lasting effects. God allows hard times — before as well as after salvation — in order to prepare us for future challenges.
What About Now?
God is a Master at creation, and at re-creation. Nothing is too much, too big, or taking too long.
If you are praying for someone else, keep praying. We are not inside the relationship with them. We don’t know how God is working, or how they are responding. Even if it takes years, God isn’t giving up; neither should we.
For you — and for me — right now…
…Is God trying to get your attention?
……What is He showing you?
………What are you going to do about it?
…………How will He change you?
Other articles that may be of interest include “Will of God“, “Show Me My Sin“, and “Predestined, Elect, Chosen, or Hardened?“.
Footnotes and Scripture References
- https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/muslims-dream-jesus/
- God can be quite relentless in His pursuit of relationship. This is discussed in the article “God Alone“.