God is omnipresent. Omnipresent describes something "existing or being everywhere at the same time, constantly encountered, widespread, common." Literally, God's omnipresence means that God is present everywhere.
Have you ever played the game of Hide-and-Seek? Hide-and-seek is a children's game in which one player closes his or her eyes for a brief period, counting to a certain number (usually to 100), while the other players hide. The "seeker" opens his or her eyes and tries to find the other players, called the "hiders." The first one found is the next "seeker" and the last one found is the winner of that round.
Do you think that some people try to play Hide-and-Seek with God? There were a few people in the Bible who thought they could play Hide-and-Seek with God:
Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. They were forbidden to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, but they were disobedient and ate from it anyway. As the results of their disobedience, from eating from the tree, their eyes were opened: "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:8).
Jonah tired to hide from God. God called him to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, "Go to the great city of Nineveh and give them this announcement from the Lord: 'I am going to destroy you, for your wickedness rises before me; it smells to highest heaven'" (Jonah 1:2). Jonah tried to hide from the Lord. He headed for Tarshish, went down to Joppa, and boarded a ship. The Lord caused a great wind in the sea, Jonah was thrown overboard, and a great fish swallowed him. He was inside the fish for three days and three nights before the fish vomited him up.
Now since our God is everywhere present, how can anybody try to think that they can hide from His presence? David provides us with one of the greatest statements ever about God being omnipresent. Listen to what he wrote:
"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 by 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. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,' even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you" (Psalm 139:7-12).
David knew that God knew him inside and out, and he pondered where in the world could he hide from the Lord, even if he ascended to heaven, descended to hell, if he went east, west, north or south, to the farthest part of the seas, even to hell itself -- it would not matter, because the Lord is everywhere.
No matter where we go, no matter where we are, God is always present with us. Even if we can't sense His presence, He is always with us. He is always present wherever we go and wherever we are, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We never have to make an appointment with Him. We never need to be placed on His calendar. He is never too busy to hear us when we pray. He is never preoccupied with other people's problems that He can't attend to our problems. You will never receive a message from an angel of God, delivering a message that God is too busy handling someone's else crisis and not be able to handle yours.
God's presence is like the air that we breathe. Air is invisible. Air is tasteless. Air is odorless. Although we can't see it, taste it, nor smell it, it exist, because we can't live without it. We depend on air for our very existence. In the same way, we can't see God, and we often don't realize that He is present with us, yet He is always there, everyday, no matter what, just like the air that we breathe.
God is ever present in our best times and our worst times. He is with us in the midst of our suffering, sickness, pain, grief, divorce, betrayal, cancer, accidents, death, abuse, war, and even in our moment of death. He is there in our celebrations, healing, marriage, victories, in new relationships, old relationships, all relationships, new homes, new jobs, new births. God is always present in our lives. He is completely available to us no matter where we are, no matter what time of day, God sees us and hears us. No matter what!
"He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done" (Hebrews 4:13).
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