We can never take God by surprise. We can never anticipate him. He always makes the first move. - John Stott

We can never take God by surprise. We can never anticipate him. He always makes the first move. He is always there ‘in the beginning’.Before we existed, God took action. Before we decided to look for God, God had already been looking for us. The Bible isn’t about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us.

Many people imagine God sitting comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, a God who doesn’t really care for our needs and has to be badgered into taking action on our behalf. Such a view is completely wrong. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to men and women to turn to him, while they are still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds them.

— John Stott

Basic Christianity

(Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1958)