God Is Fully Everywhere

Essential to our humanity is our limitation—our finitude— when it comes to space. This, however, is not so with God. In fact, the reverse is true. Essential to His divinity is His ability to be in all places at once; to be fully present everywhere there is to be. And essential to our trust in Him is the confidence that He is always with us. Without that belief, our confidence will waver and fear will soon take hold. In times of lostness, loneliness, abandonment, and anxiety, sometimes the simple and great truth we need to remember is that God really is with us, really is at hand. The confidence of God’s omnipresence is the foundation of the believer’s comfort in both life and death. David articulated this so beautifully in the memorable words of Psalm 139:7–10:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

God is fully present everywhere. When Paul was in Athens he saw idol worship taking place and he used the opportunity to begin a conversation on the nature of the true and living God. Addressing the crowd around him, he said:

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’” (Acts 17:22–28)

The true and living God, who has no limits to His being, who is infinite and great, who is the Creator and sustainer of all things, cannot be contained by little temples like the idols of the world can. No, He is truly present in all parts of His creation.

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” asked David in Psalm 139. There is nowhere in all creation where we can flee the Lord’s own presence. He is present, quite literally, everywhere. “Am I [only] a God at hand . . . and not a God far away?” the Lord asked in Jeremiah. “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? . . . Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jer. 23:23–24).