April 9 I Tuesday

1 Samuel 13-14

Luke 10:1-24

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

In Psalm 139:7-12, David rhetorically asks God, “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 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.” There is nowhere we can hide
from God because God is everywhere—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. This does not mean He is in everything, which is a pantheistic belief. Pantheism holds that God and the universe are identical and that God is in everything He has created. Yet, from a biblical understanding, it is not that God is identified with everything and in everything, but simply that God is everywhere.

Though there is never a place where God is not present, we are able to withdraw experientially from His presence. That is, we may live as though we are independent and detached from God. For example, when the Israelites were wandering through the wilderness and were stubbornly refusing Him, God said to them, “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” (Exodus 33:3). This verse is not about God’s omnipresence but His activity among them and with them. When Moses interceded for Israel, God assured him, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). Though we may resist His leading, God will never leave us. That is a promise we can count on: that when, as Christians,
we are in His agenda, we have His active presence not only with us but in us.

God’s omnipresence gives us the strength to walk boldly and courageously in this world, but He is experientially present when we are workers together with Him in His agenda. Knowing that God is with us, we need not pray, “Lord, please be with us,” or “Please be with me as I do this.” God is omnipresent, so we already have the assurance that He will be with us. Our prayer only needs to be, “Thank You that if I am in Your agenda, there is no issue about this. You are with me and You are active.”

Prayer: Sovereign Lord, You are the omnipresent God. Thank You for being present in my life, and help me to experience Your presence to the full.