Have you ever been out in the middle of nowhere? Like true wilderness? Some place where you can’t hear the hum from the highway and you’re just enveloped in such a complete silence that the silence itself is almost deafening? Sometimes those moments, for a city girl like me, make me feel totally alone. But then God, in His goodness, reminds me that He is always with me.
What is Omnipresence?
Our limitless, Creator God is different from us as finite, created beings. One of these differences is in his presence, or rather His Omnipresence which is the characteristic we’ll look at in this article. You can probably figure out this fancy word just by looking at it. “Omni-” means “all” and “-presence” means a state of existence. All together it means an all or limitless state of being. Our God is everywhere all the time.
We see this characteristic of God being exclaimed all throughout the bible. Like right at the start in Genesis 1:1, which says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. Our God was around before the beginning; He always just… was! We also see this in one of my favorite Psalms.
“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.
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
The omnipresence of God means that God is in all places fully and yet is still distinct from those places. This is so different from our human presence! We are limited by physical space. We can only be in one place at one time, doing one thing at one time. And yes, we can try to multitask but we aren’t fully in any of the tasks! You could compare this to air. It is all around us and fills the vessels which contain it completely. And still that isn’t a perfect comparison. There is nothing like our great God. He is everywhere and yet he is not everything.
Omnipresence also means God can maintain relationships with all people at all times. I don’t know about you, but I’m a people person and still I have to prioritize my important relationships. I can’t be super close friends with all the people I like, let alone all the people I meet. I am a limited creation. I have limited energy, limited time, and limited capacity. But our God has no limitations and that applies to His omnipresence too. He can fully know and be known, be right by the side of every person in the world at the same time. In our busy lives and in our quiet moments, God is with you and wants a relationship with you.
So not only can he maintain perfect relationships with all peoples, but He is fully present in all places: past, present, and future. This means He’s outside of time too. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. God is fully present all the way into the vastness of space. And all the way into our very biology, the cells of our being. He is in, around, and sustaining all things (Colossians 1:15-23). Every breath that we take is from Him. There isn’t anything else like this attribute in the whole universe!
How does God’s omnipresence impact me?
This has many implications for us as believers. I won’t touch everything but here are three things that stick out to me.
Worship
This quality of God being ever-present should affect how we worship. This quality should bring us to awe and remind us of God’s beautiful otherness. When we lose sight of God’s godliness, his awesomeness, we are so quick to turn to worship other things. There’s a whole slew of things that fight for that place of worship in our lives. It could be the fear of man, which Proverb 29 says “is a snare” or “the beginning of folly, but trusting in God will keep you safe.”. Well if fearing man is folly, what is wisdom? Proverbs answers that for us too. Proverbs 9 says “the worshipful reverence and awe of the Lord” or “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”. When we look outside ourselves, when we worship outside of ourselves and to God that is what brings safety and wisdom. When these incommunicable attributes, like omnipresence, are in full view it becomes harder to worship other things because it’s clear God is better.
Another thing we could be turning to instead of God is ourselves. Relying on our own strength, our own pride, our own image. But if we strive for any of these traits that are God’s alone, these incommunicable attributes, we set ourselves up to be God’s rival. I personally experienced this sinful reliance on self over God. In 2020-2021, I was finishing up my last year of interning with the Leadership Development Institute and I was also acting as a caregiver for my mom who was in and out of the hospital with a snowball of health problems. And I, a limited human being, had the deep desire to be omnipresent. To be at work, to be there for my mom, to be a good youth leader, to be the best cook, to be the best maid, to be there for my friends, to do homework well, and at the same time avoid covid. I thought all these things depended on me and I tried to do all of them, be every place, all in my own strength. If i’m really honest, I was also scared of what those people thought if I couldn’t be there for them. Thinking that meant I wasn’t a good enough daughter, friend, or bible study leader. I lost sight of God’s otherness and his desire to be there for us. I was not meant to be omnipresent or to do all things perfectly. That’s God’s role. I can rest and marvel in His goodness, content that He is worthy, He is with me, and He is enough!
When we put things in God’s spot of worship and attempt to run after these attributes that we were never meant to have, we believe the serpents lie: “you shall be like God.” The lie the serpent told Eve in the garden of Eden that helped influence her to eat the fruit against God’s explicit instructions. This was the fall, the moment sin and death entered the world. So what stops us from falling into that age old trap of wanting to be like God? The answer is awe and reverence for God and His wild, beautiful, God-alone attributes. Studying God’s omnipresence should lead us to worship which leads us to wisdom which leads us to walking rightly with the Lord which leads us to serving others. But it starts with knowing God and worshiping Him.
Trust and comfort
The omnipresence of God should also lead us to trust and be comforted by God. Knowing that God sees everything. He is with you when life takes a turn unexpectedly, when your car spins out in the middle of nowhere, or anxiety spikes to the point of incapacitating you. He’s there in the unexpected good times, when you get a sweet note from a friend, when you do something in service to another without anyone around to see. When “walking through the valley of the Shadow of Death, He is with us” as it says in Psalms 23. But God’s “with us” doesn’t depend on our worthiness. On how well we follow the rules or how well we love. It depends on God’s will. And over and over in the bible God tells us that He is with us wherever we go.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
— Isaiah 41:10
Even his name, Immanuel, means “God with us”. So trust that He’s there no matter what your feelings tell you, no matter if you remember in that moment or not, trust Him to be ever-present to comfort you and celebrate with you.
Return
The last thing I want to mention on how this impacts our daily lives is this: the omnipresence of God should cause us to return so quickly to our God. This attribute also means God sees all our sin. OOF! He is with us in all our hidden pains, and all our unexpected joys but yes, all our wrongs and happiness that we get from sin is laid bare before him. God is so near to us and His spirit is in those who believe. For us in the grace of Jesus, His wrath has turned away from us. When He sees those hidden sins He’s not waiting to punish us, eager to make us pay for the sins we make. That proverbial angry parent waiting up for you to get home two hours past curfew. No, He is patiently waiting for us to repent, to turn back and see that His arms are open wide.
The omnipresent God took on human limitations. This fully God and fully man, omnipresence in human form, JESUS came for us. Out of love He lived on this planet, out of love He willingly died for us taking all sin that He sees past, present and future on Himself so that His relationships with all people could look different. Out of love He paid our price. Out of love He welcomes us into His family. Out of love He is waiting for us with open arms. This Omnipresence isn’t a guilt tactic meant for intimidation. It is a reminder of His love. He isn’t present with His wrath, but with His grace and He is eager for you to turn to Him and not sin. Worship Him not comfort, not time, not ourselves. Get your comfort from Him.
I don’t know about you but this changed the way I repent. I used to copy Adam and Eve. I’d hide from God. or rather “hide”. Like that two year old playing hide and seek literally standing against the wall with their hands over their face saying “if I can’t see you, you cant see me”. Who knew I would be that 2 year old as a 27 year old woman? I would punish myself by hiding and living in the shame of sin over turning to God, saying no more to sin, and accepting his loving grace. But when our view of God shifts so do our hearts and our actions.
So my advice to you is don’t wait. Don’t punish yourself, don’t fear God’s wrath that has already been paid. Be ready to turn quickly back to the Father knowing the things waiting for you there are far beyond what we deserve. Forgiveness, love, grace, mercy, adoption, inheritance. In this world, sin still has its grubby little paws in our life, sin still calls our name. But be quick to squash them; be quick to return to our loving, ever-present father.
