I have come to believe many years ago that we are guided through life by the Hand of God as He puts us into our experiences which He uses to shape us into what He would have us to be, some unto honor other for destruction, He is the Potter, we are the clay as Paul said. It matters not if you believe or not, God's will will be done. He may lead some of us deep down on the path to perdition before we accept the path that we are on only leads to destruction.
Our free will did not put us on that path, for many of us are born on it to parents who have sunken so far into depravity their children see no other path. The fact id, accept it or not, we are all born into that sin, even the children of the most righteous of parents for as Isaiah said, "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."
Indeed, the gospel is good news because we are saved not by what we have done, but by what Christ has done. We are accepted by God not because of our works, but in spite of them.
