God is Present Everywhere

God created space. God created time. He is Lord over both. It doesn’t contain him, he contains it.  God is a being who exists without size or dimensions in space. Moses wrote, “Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God” (Duet 10:14). Wherever you go, God is there.

This theological concept is known as God’s omnipresence (the Latin prefix omni- means “all”). The ESV Study Bible defines it this way: “God does not have spatial dimensions and is present everywhere with his whole being, though he acts differently in different situations”

Listen to what God says of himself, “Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the Lord. “No, I am far away at the same time. Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord” (Jer 23:23-24). God is rebuking the prophets who think their words or thoughts are hidden from God in this passage. God reminds them and us that nothing is hidden from him. This is why we can forgive others because we know God will judge and administer justice as it is needed. We can trust him.

David wrote, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me” (Psalm 139:7-10).  David is not talking about trying to run away from God because of a guilty conscience. He is taking comfort in knowing that there is no place where we can go that is beyond God’s care. There is no place we can go where we can’t access God through prayer. This should be comforting for us who follow Christ.

But it isn’t comforting for all. It has sometimes troubled people who wonder how God can be present, for example, in hell. Isn’t hell the opposite of God’s presence, or the absence of God? No. God’s omnipresence never changes. God’s presence is in hell but not to bless but to punish. In hell, God is present in all the ways people do not want him to be present and none of the ways that believers enjoy his presence.

All this reminds us that God is present in different ways in different places and that God acts differently in different places in his creation. Sometimes God is present to punish. Sometimes to sustain. Other times to bless. Which reminds us that God’s is present in heaven in a special way to bless. God also manifests his presence more fully in heaven than anywhere else.

For believers, we are comforted to know that God can be sought anywhere regardless of place. Ultimately we know that one day we will experience the fullness of God’s presence to bless in heaven. In the meantime, believers should never feel lonely, and the wicked should never feel safe.