The responsibility is on us to seek God

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

The biblical data:

We should seek him:

(Heb 11:6 NIV) 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.

(Acts 17:26-31 NIV) From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. {27} God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. {28} 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' {29} "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. {30} In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. {31} For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

(Acts 15:16-18 NIV) "'After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, {17} that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things' {18} that have been known for ages.

(Psa 14:2 NIV) The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

Seeking God involves seeking glory, honor and immortality:

(Rom 2:4-11 NIV) Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? {5} But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. {6} God "will give to each person according to what he has done." {7} To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. {8} But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. {9} There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; {10} but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. {11} For God does not show favoritism.

Prov 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

(Isa 55:6-9 NIV) Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. {7} Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. {8} "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. {9} "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Psa 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek out your decrees.

The general call to the Gentiles

(Rom 10:20 NIV) And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."

(Rom 9:25-26 NIV) As he says in Hosea: "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," {26} and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

We should note that this call refers to the Gentiles in general and not to individuals. Although we should not restrict the sovereignty of God, he can reveal himself to someone not initially attracted to the idea of God.

God's general method in winning people is through preaching the gospel.

(Rom 10:12-15 NIV) For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, {13} for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." {14} How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? {15} And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

(Mark 16:15-16 NIV) He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. {16} Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

(Luke 24:46-48 NIV) He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, {47} and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. {48} You are witnesses of these things.

(Acts 10:42 NIV) He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.

Humility is required:

(2 Sam 22:26-28 NIV) "To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, {27} to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. {28} You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.

(Psa 25:8-9 NIV) Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. {9} He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

(Prov 3:34 NIV) He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.

(Isa 66:2 NIV) Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

(Zep 2:3 NIV) Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger.

(James 4:6-10 NIV) But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." {7} Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. {8} Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. {9} Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. {10} Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Note the principle in verse 8 "Come near to God and he will come near to you"

(Isa 45:15 NIV) Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel.

Jesus manifests God to us

(John 20:29-31 NIV) Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." {30} Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. {31} But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

(John 14:6-11 NIV) Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. {7} If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." {8} Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." {9} Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? {10} Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. {11} Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

(John 8:42 NIV) Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.

(John 10:30 NIV) I and the Father are one."

(Mat 10:40 NIV) "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.

(Col 1:15 NIV) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

(2 Cor 4:4 NIV) The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The truth about God is obvious from what has been made - but we suppress the truth

(Rom 1:18-32 NIV) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, {19} since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. {20} For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. {21} For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. {22} Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools {23} and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. {24} Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. {25} They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. {26} Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. {27} In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. {28} Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. {29} They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, {30} slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; {31} they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. {32} Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.