The Pastor Who Had Been Praying for Years

When William Wilberforce was a young member of Parliament in 1785, he found himself in spiritual crisis. Ambitious but restless, he secretly began reading the New Testament during long coach rides between London and his constituency in Yorkshire. He told no one. He wrestled alone, unsure whether faith would cost him his political career.

Finally, he sought out John Newton — the former slave trader turned pastor who had written "Amazing Grace." Wilberforce expected to introduce himself and explain his quiet spiritual struggle. Instead, Newton smiled as though greeting an old friend. He had been praying for Wilberforce by name for years, watching from a distance as the young politician grew in influence, asking the Almighty to draw him close. Newton had already seen what Wilberforce could not yet see in himself — a man destined to spend his life dismantling the slave trade, fueled not by ambition but by a faith he had not yet fully embraced.

Wilberforce left that meeting shaken, much like Nathanael standing before Jesus. "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree," Jesus told Nathanael — before Philip ever called him, before he ever approached, before he believed. The Most High had already been watching.

Some of us think we are searching for God in secret. We read alone, we pray tentatively, we wonder if anyone notices. But the God of scripture is never the one being found. He is always the One who saw us first.