How Does a Person Come to God?

Second Edition: I have started editing posts from several years ago and reposting them. I am doing this for two reasons: (1) to make them more easily available and (2) to “spruce” them up a little. Enjoy!

From time to time, I see news articles of someone relating their experience of coming to God. Sometimes it is expressed as coming to faith or how their faith has been so beneficial. Other times, the experience is expressed as finding God. I sometimes smile and wonder did they think God was lost or hiding. I know that is not what they meant. Finding God is equivalent to coming to God. I like these stories, and whatever is happening, I am pleased to hear the person is headed in the right direction.

As we pursue an answer to the question in our title, we will begin by looking at the word, come. The word come indicates movement. When we come, we move from one location to a new location. Illustrations will be helpful.

When my children were small and starting to crawl or walk, I would often ask them to come to me. I would say, “Come to Daddy.” With a great celebration, the child would move from where they were located to where I was located. I had a lot of children in my household, and the request for them to come happened frequently. “Come to dinner.” “Come to bed.” Come and get in the car.” The response would always involve movement as each child would move from where they were located to the table, to their bed, or to the car.

Another illustration. Twice in my teaching career, I taught elementary students. In elementary school, we had recess. I am sure you remember that recesses were timed. When recess time was over, I would take out my whistle and blow some loud blasts, and the students would move toward me. They came from where they had been playing, from the basketball court, from the tetherball court, from the baseball game or football game, or a huddle of girls just talking. The point is, they moved from wherever they were located to a new location by me.

Coming involves moving from point A to point B. Conclusion: If a person is to come to God, they will need to move from where they are presently located to where God is. We will explore this further.

In both of my illustrations, the response to move and come to me started with a call, either my voice or my whistle. This brings up a new question: When a person makes a move to come to God, are they responding to a call from God? Next question: Does God call people?

When we look at the story of Jesus, we see the event of His birth, Christmas, and a little later, the family went to Egypt to escape Herod. The next account in the story finds Jesus in the Temple as a boy of twelve, amazing priests with His knowledge. Many years pass, and when Jesus begins His ministry, we see Him calling disciples. We will look at some of those verses.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” (John 1:43 NLT).

Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” (Mark 1:17 NLT).

He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men (Mark 1:20 NLT).

Are there other examples in Scripture of God’s calling persons?

We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:12 NLT).

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3 NLT).

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9 KJV).

We see the pattern. People who came to God were called.

What we have learned so far. Coming means movement from one place to another. Coming can be in response to a call. My children and my students moved from where they were to me. The disciples moved from where they were to Jesus. In the verse we just looked at, the people that God called moved from where they were to share in his Kingdom and glory, coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence, called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

It is timely to reflect on these verses as evidence of God’s calling and people responding by coming to God. These verses do not address the “how to” of our title. These verses were a record of people having been called. This is past tense. These people had already come to God. Their coming to God was a done deal!

Now we come to this question. Is the calling an invitation or a command? In the examples of my children and my students, I might use an inviting tone but my expectation is obedience. In that sense, it is a command. I am coming from a position of authority. Failure to obey will result in consequences

However, when Jesus made His call to the disciples it was an invitation. Ironically, Jesus who has all power and authority did not command.

Jesus made this statement before He ascended into heaven after the resurrection when He was pronouncing the Great Commission to His disciples.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Matthew 28:18).

Curiously, Jesus does not use His authority when He calls people. He invites. God wants people to come to Him willingly.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me (Mark 8:34).

The decision to follow Jesus in response to His invitation is to be made by “Whoever wants to.”

This is an important discovery because we see that those who come to God must want to and they are not being made to come to God.

A closer look at coming in response to the calling. Why might my children or my students not come when called?

It is possible that they might not come out of defiance. They simply chose to disobey the call. Perhaps they did not want to stop what they were doing in the location where they were. They chose to not come.

It is possible they did not hear my call or my whistle. There may have been competing sounds that overwhelmed the sound of my voice or the sound of my whistle. They may have been listening to music. Maybe they were wearing headphones. They may have been playing with other children with a lot of shouting and yelling. Whatever the reason, they apparently did not hear.

They may not have been listening. I can remember giving exhortations. “Listen for my voice.” “Listen for the whistle.”

Is it possible that some people fail to come to God because they are not listening for the call?

To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them (Mark 4:25 NLT).

You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? (Mark 8:18 NLT).

As a child, I can remember being scolded for not listening. I can remember scolding my children and students for not listening. I can remember being asked to repeat back to my parents the instructions to check to see if I had been listening. I also remember doing the same thing with my children and students.

Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this (Mark 17:4).

Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand (Mark 4:9 NLT).

She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said (Luke 10:39).

These are only a few examples from Scripture of the importance of listening to God. Listening requires attention. A good listener is attentive and focused.

We conclude that moving to God includes listening for His call. It is time to look into Scripture to discover specifics of the “how to” of coming to God. We will start in Hebrews and see the essentialness of faith.

The Scriptures help us with that. However, before we look at the Scriptural definition of faith, we will look at the importance of faith.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Faith is essential because it is the only way to please God. The very logical starting point is to believe in His existence. Then we see a promise for those who earnestly seek Him. They will receive a reward. What is that reward? Whenever a person is seeking something, they are rewarded by finding what they were seeking. What the earnest seekers will find is God and specifically Jesus.

Anything that is done earnestly is done with intensity and resolve. We will now define faith.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1).

“Things not seen” is speaking of something invisible but still real and something that really is there. God is invisible. God can only be seen with the eyes of faith.

Notice that faith is confidence and assurance that what we hoped for even though it cannot be seen is true and real. There is no maybe, perhaps, or probably.

Now, where does this essential faith that is necessary to please God come from?

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17).

The faith in seeking God will be found in the Word of God, the Bible. The Bible reader must “hear” what the Bible says and believe it. We are seeing the value of listening and having hearing ears.

The “how to” come to God is found in believing what the Word of God has revealed about God and it starts with acknowledging God’s existence and moving on to seeking to know Him. As mentioned, this search will include realizing that God is the creator of everything and that the visible creation came from the invisible. This is foundational because it explains a person’s very origin and existence.

The seeking will reveal the entrance of sin into the world and that everyone is a sinner and they need a Savior. The seeker will find that God has provided a Savior with the gift of His only begotten son, Jesus. The seeker will discover the good news, what we call the Gospel, the seeker can come to God through their belief in Jesus and His saving work through His substitutional sacrificial death on the cross.

The way to come to God is found in coming to God in the way He has provided. The coming is rewarding because perishing is avoided and eternal life is the reward. The benefits of eternal life are beyond human imagination in this life and the life to come.

I will close with a few Scriptures that really make sense in the context of what we have learned about coming to God. Enjoy!

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 NLT).

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:20).

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think (Ephesians 3:20 NLT).

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT).

It is wise to come to God. God is calling. God has prepared a way to come to Him through Jesus. God is waiting to receive those who will come. Each person gets to ask themselves, “Do I want to come to God?” If you do, now you know the way.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™