Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (Ps 139: 7-10)
“Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord. (Jer 23:24)
…though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:27-8)
God is here, God is there
God is always everywhere.
You cannot run
You cannot hide
He will never leave Your side.
Blessed God who is where I am, comfort me with Your presence, challenge me with Your presence, uplift my soul with the reminder that You are always with me and are always right here for me to adore and enjoy.
There is no place you could go where God is not. Because He is infinite, He must be everywhere and in all things. He is on a busy Manhattan sidewalk and a lonely Himalayan peak. He is at the bottom of the ocean and on the craters of the moon. If we could travel to the farthest star in the farthest galaxy, we would find Him neither closer nor further from us than He is right now. Because He is infinite, He cannot be confined to a particular place and is, thus, never closer to one place than another. He encompasses all places equally, and He is accessible in all places equally.
Wherever you are God is. You cannot flee; you cannot hide. He sees what you do because He is present wherever you do it. He knows your thoughts and motives because He is present inside where those thoughts and motives are formed. In Him we have our being. When we live life, we can frequently forget that God is right with us. We may stretch the truth in talking to a customer because it never dawns on us that God is present hearing every word we say. He is the unseen party at every conversation. When man and woman meet privately, their meeting is not so private as they think. I wonder how many “secret” affairs would occur if the parties involved realized that their actions were not so secret. Make no mistakes about it: God sees everything. We might refrain from sin more often if we simply realized that fact. How we view God affects how we live life.
But God’s omnipresence has another glorious benefit. God is with us! He is Emmanuel! We can talk to Him and communicate our most intimate thoughts and feelings to Him because He is where we are. We can enjoy Him and have continual communion with Him because He is with us. We do not need to go to a special city or building or nook to enjoy God. He is with us in the office, in the kitchen, in traffic, at the lake, at a conference or a concert or a war. His presence is in the darkest prison and at the most jubilant wedding celebration. We can enjoy Him now. Wherever we are. This fact gives us instant access to the Creator of the Universe at any time. You need not wait for next Sunday church to worship God and be with Him. Of course, if where we are is in the midst of sin, or if our heart is not in the proper frequency, we may find access more difficult. But He is accessible to the heart that is ready.
Our need for God is constant. Our felt need for God waxes and wanes. There are times in life when we feel our need more acutely, when it seems as if the waters are flowing over our head. There are times in life when we need someone, when we weep and grieve, when we are angry and frustrated, when we are despondent and helpless. God is there during those times. It is for those times that we find Jesus’ reminder most comforting: “I am with you always even to the end of the age.” During those times we can derive great comfort from the fact that God is with us.
Other times, however, it feels as if He is gone. You pray but hear nothing, read Scripture but feel nothing. God seems silent, far off. Job had this experience, as did some of the psalmists. I do not wish to speak for God and say why He seems so far away. But I do wish to say that even in those times, by faith, we can remember that, despite what we feel, God has not abandoned us. He is with us even when it does not feel so. Our feelings do not change reality. You cannot escape God, even if you would like to. You are always in His presence.
