February 24 I Friday

Numbers 7-8

Mark 4:21-41

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”    —Matthew 28:20

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?” David asks rhetorically. “If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there…If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You” (Psalm 139:7, 11-12). David’s words reveal to us that there is nowhere we can hide from God because God is everywhere—even in the depths as well as in the heights.

       The omnipresence of God means that God is always present and there is no limit to His presence. However, this does not mean that He is in everything, which is a pantheist belief. Pantheism holds to the idea that god and the universe are identical and that god is in everything he has created in nature. Yet, from a biblical understanding of God, it is not that God is identified with everything and in everything, but simply put, the presence of God is everywhere.

       The message of God’s omnipresence is that there is never a place where God is not present. Nonetheless, we may draw experientially from His presence. That is, we may live as though we are independent and detached from God. For example, in Exodus 33:3, God’s words to the Israelites when they were going through the wilderness and were stubbornly resisting Him were, “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” This verse is not God talking about His omnipresence; rather, God is speaking to His activity amongst and with them. Because later, God says to Moses in the same chapter, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). This is a promise that we can count on—when we are in God’s agenda, we can be confident that His active presence is with us.

       With an understanding that God is with us, we cannot pray and ask, “Lord, please be with us,” or “Please be with me as I do this.” Rather, we have the assurance that He will be with us and our prayer only needs to be, “Thank You, if I am in Your agenda, there is no issue about this: You are with me and You are active.” God’s presence should give us the strength to walk boldly and courageously in this world, remembering that He is always with us.

Prayer: Dear God, I am grateful for Your active presence in my life. Help me to walk daily according to Your ways. Thank You, Lord.