There is a process that is going on in everyone's life by which God draws them to Him through His Son. He does this in many different ways in people's lives, but we can be sure that He is doing it everyone's life (1Ti.2:4;2Pe.3:9). Sometimes He does this through His word that is shared in multiple ways. Sometimes it is through calamities that force people to think about life and death. Sometimes God shows His work through miraculous healing or snatching from the jaws of death. Some people respond to Him by seeking Him, turning away from sin, etc., which is what He wants. But the sad fact is that the majority of people ignore God or explain Him away with natural reasoning. Many actually get upset with God instead of recognising how He is reaching out to them.
What about us who have come to Him through faith and know Him personally as our Father? How do we respond to the different things – good and bad – that come across our path? If we believe that God is in full control and He will only allow good things to happen to us, we will be in shock and may even be tempted to turn against Him. But the fact is that He has never promised that to us. He is not in "full control" of things because He has handed over a lot of that control to us! That is how He has created us and that is why He holds us responsible for what we do (Ro.14:12). He has also told us that we will go through much trouble while we are here (Jn.16:33) but that He will cause even trouble to work something good for us – if we love Him and want to become like Him (Ro.8:28,29). He can manage to make us more like Jesus only if we seek to respond like Jesus in the different situations of life (Ro.8:13).
So, in all the situations of life we can find God drawing us to Him. He wants to teach us something new, correct us where we have been going wrong, train us in the way we ought to go, etc. But are we looking at Him or at people who give us trouble and thinking only about getting out of our predicament?
We may have heard how trouble can make us better people or bitter. It depends on which direction we are looking. We look at the trouble and then we can only become more bitter because all trouble is troublesome for us. But if we realise that God is trying to draw us closer to Him we can have an entirely different view of the situation.
Trouble is real to us, and we cannot wish it away or ignore it. We are forced to deal with it everyday, and some days are harder than others. But what can make the difference to us is the way we look at it. If we can see right there that God is drawing us, it certainly gives us strength to face it in the right way and to come out of it as a better person.
God doesn't draw us only to the initial experience of knowing Jesus as our Saviour. That may be behind us now, but now we have the chance to recognise His drawing by which He is trying to give us more of His salvation in practical life. Let us respond (Php.2:12,13).