Monday, May 11, 2026 | Not So Ordinary, Week 2

Devotional Thought

He is not far from any one of us.
Acts 17:27, NLT

Paul is standing in Athens, surrounded by altars. The Athenians had gods for everything — and then, just in case they’d missed the real one, one more: To an Unknown God. A hedge.

It’s a surprisingly honest thing to build. They knew they were guessing.

Paul doesn’t mock them for it. He doesn’t come in as someone who has all the answers talking down to people who have none. He looks at the altar and says: I know who that is. Let me tell you.

The God who made the world doesn’t live in gold shrines. He doesn’t need anything from human hands. And he isn’t hiding. Paul says he set the whole created order up so people would reach for him and find him. The reaching was always part of the plan. The searching isn’t evidence that God is far. It might be evidence you’re getting closer.

Then this: He is not far from any one of us. Paul is standing in front of a crowd that treats God as an open question. He says he’s standing right next to you.

I think about people in this town who have a quiet sense that something real is out there — not a formal faith, just a sense — but they haven’t been able to name it. They’re not far from God. He arranged the world so they’d find him. The God Paul describes is not passive. He’s close to the people still building altars to unknowns.

That’s you in a hard week. That’s you with questions you can’t answer. He is not far.

Going Deeper

Scripture Reading

Acts 17:22-31, NLT

Historical Context

Paul is in Athens alone, waiting for Silas and Timothy, and gets stirred up by what he sees. Athens in the first century was the intellectual capital of the Mediterranean world. The Areopagus (Mars Hill) was where Athenian thinkers debated new ideas. When Paul is brought there, it’s an invitation to make his case to the city’s intellectual class. His audience included Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who would have been skeptical of bodily resurrection from the start.

Literary Context

This is one of the only recorded sermons Paul gives to a completely non-Jewish audience. He doesn’t quote the Old Testament once — he quotes their own poets. That’s deliberate. He starts where they are, finds what’s true in their own tradition, and builds toward Christ. The sermon ends when he mentions resurrection — some mock him, a few believe. Luke records it as a partial success, not a failure.

Theological Context

This passage is central to the theology of general revelation — the idea that God has made himself knowable through creation and conscience, not only through Scripture. Paul affirms that God is not silent outside the church. He’s been present and near to all people in all times. This doesn’t make all religions equally true, but it does mean people searching for God aren’t starting from zero. The resurrection in v.31 is Paul’s hinge: the unknown God has now made himself fully known.

Key Insights

1. God isn’t hidden. He arranged creation so people would reach for him. The searching isn’t a failure — it’s a design feature.
2. Paul finds what’s true in Athenian religion before he corrects what’s wrong. Apologetics that start with contempt for the audience usually fail.
3. Not far from any one of us — any one. No exceptions.
4. Paul adjusts his method, his vocabulary, his opening. He doesn’t adjust the resurrection. That’s the fixed point.

Looking in the Mirror

1. Where have you been building hedges — covering your bases without fully committing? What does that altar look like right now?
2. When you think about the people closest to you who are still searching — do you see them as far from God, or close?
3. The Athenians had the right instinct but the wrong object. Where do you have the right instinct but haven’t yet named what you’re actually reaching toward?

Guided Prayer

Father, the Athenians built an altar to you before they knew your name. I’m not so different. Half my prayers are to a God I’m still working out. Thank you that you’re not far. Thank you that you arranged the world so I could find you — that the reaching was always part of the plan. Where I’ve been hedging, bring clarity. Where I’ve been close without knowing it, help me know it. Let me be the kind of person that people searching for an unknown God recognize as someone who’s actually found him. Amen.