Our Bible verse for today: “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me.” Psalm 139:7-10 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “God is omnipresent”
God is everywhere all the time. This is what we call the omnipresence of God. There is no place that God is not. That’s what the Psalmist was saying in Psalm 139:7-10.
The prophet Jeremiah recorded a similar observation in Jeremiah 23:24 when he wrote about God, “Can a person hide in secret places where I cannot see him? – the Lord’s declaration – Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?”
As we have learned in previous devotional messages, all of creation is contained within the person of God. That’s what God meant when he said in Jeremiah 23:24 “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” And it is why in 1 Kings 8:27 Solomon posed the question, “But will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.”
The thought of the omnipresence of God spooks some people, and perhaps rightly so. There is no thought you will ever think, no word you will ever speak, and no action you will ever take that God will not be aware of. He knows it all, hears it all, and sees it all.
Proverbs 15:3 reminds us “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, observing the wicked and the good.”
But the omnipresence of the Lord is also a great comfort. In Isaiah 43:2 we read, “I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overcome you … For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior.” In Hebrews 13:5 Jesus promised, “I will never leave you or abandon you.”
One of the greatest and most helpful Christian books written in the last 400 years is a little volume written in 1693 by a monk called Brother Lawrence. The title is “Practicing the Presence of God”. When we speak of “practicing” the presence of God it simply means to think deeply about the omnipresence of God, the truth that since He is everywhere all the time, you are never out of His presence.
I encourage you to spend some extra time this morning practicing the presence of God. Prayerfully meditate on the reality that God is with you now and always.
Oak Hill Baptist Church