People who are searching must realize 3 things:
1. They fall short of God's standard of perfection.
"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23
2. They face God's penalty of eternal separation.
"For the wages of sin is death (eternal separation), but the free gift of God is eternal life in Chirst Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
3. They fail to enjoy God's love.
"But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, so that He does not hear."Isaiah 59:2
Picture yourself with all of humanity lined up at the rim of a canyon. The only way to get across the one-mile chasm is to jump. The distance you can jump is directly proportional to how many good deeds you have performed.
A mass murderer jumps only one foot and plummets downward. If you are an exceptionally good person, you may be able to jump 25 feet. But this is still far short of the goal.
One by one they try, but fall short of the other side. In the same way, even though some people perform more good deeds than others, all of us fall short of perfection.