God is Everywhere!
David asks: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I
flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I
make my bed in sheol, behold, 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 fall on me,’ Even the night shall
be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are
both alike to You (Psalm 139:7-12).
God is everywhere. We cannot hide from God.
Atheism, for example, is an attempt to flee from God. Several
people I know, decided to be atheists when they started being
immoral. Without God, it is easier to do things that are wrong.
But God is always there, whether you believe it or not. You
cannot escape from light by fleeing into darkness because one
beam of light penetrates the greatest darkness.
When my father was a young man, he was a guide in Marvel
Cave in Branson, Missouri. No darkness is more complete than the
darkness in the depths of a cave. After warning the people on the
tour, Dad would turn off all the lights, so they could experience the
oppressiveness of complete darkness. You may think that it’s dark
at night. But there’s always some light. But in a cave, there is
absolutely no light.
Then he would light a candle and place it on a rock at the top
of a huge chamber. That is an extremely large cave. After they
went much lower in the cave, he would turn the lights off again. But
this time they could see the candle way above on the rock.
There is no place on earth so dark that you cannot see the
light of God if you look up at the Rock.
Even an atheist mentions God every time he identifies himself!
Theos is the Greek word for God. The a at the front of the word
means without. Thus, atheist means someone without God. So
even when an atheist is saying, I don’t believe in God, when he’s
saying, I’m an atheist, he’s saying, I am without God. And he
can claim there is no God, but that doesn’t affect God one bit.
But what about us who believe in God? Are we conscious of
God’s presence?
There are different levels of consciousness of God’s presence.
God is everywhere, whether we believe it or not. Yet, even many
people who believe in God, think of Him as being very far away,
and God has no place in their daily lives. God is there, but they
ignore Him.
Azariah told Judah: The LORD is with you while you are with
Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake
Him, He will forsake you (2 Chronicles 15:2).
James writes: Draw near to God and He will draw near to
you (James 4:8). Thus, God moves closer to people who want to
be close to Him.
Certain men in the Bible walked with God. Enoch walked
with God; and he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24). Noah
was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God
(Genesis 6:9). These men chose to walk with God. They lived their
lives, continually conscious of God’s presence, and striving to do His
will.
Are we walking with God?
God is everywhere, which means that He is always where we
are. Our lives are influenced for good when we are conscious of His
presence. We do not want to disappoint or anger Him, and we
strive to do what is right, knowing that He is always there to help
us.
The heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our
Savior. Jesus promised: Where two or three are gathered together
in My name, I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 20:18).
God is always everywhere. Yet when two or three followers of Christ
assemble in His name, as we have done today, Jesus is present in a
special way.
He promised to be with us always: Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19, 20).
He also says: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If
anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
and dine with him, and he with Me (Revelation 3:20). Notice that
He does not force His way into our lives. We must hear His voice
and open the door.
Let us make this concrete. Let us make this very specific.
What if Jesus came to your house tomorrow and rang the bell. How
would you feel when you saw Him standing outside the door? How
would you feel if He said, I have come to live with you 24/7? Would
you watch the same TV programs if Jesus were sitting beside you
on the couch? Would you speak the same words to one another?
Would you think the same thoughts because He knows what we’re
thinking? Would you go to the same places? Are you doing things
now when you are alone that you would not do if Jesus were with
you? Are you neglecting to do good things, that you would do if
Jesus were with you?
You might be thinking: That’s a good idea. I’ll pretend that
Jesus is with me all the time. No, it’s not a matter of pretending! If
you are a Christian, Jesus really IS with you all the time. He IS
present and knows everything you think and do! It is whether we
realize it or not, whether we are conscious of it or not, whether we
live our lives in the presence of God.
I have travelled around the sun more than 80 times, and have
been a Christian for 70 years, yet it is only recently that I have
come to understand this much better than I did before. Being ever
aware of living in the presence of Jesus Christ, of living in the
presence of God, helps me avoid sin and do what is right.
Jesus really is with us 24/7. God is everywhere. Let us live in
His presence. Let us walk with God! Amen.
Roy Davison
The Scripture quotations in this article are from The New King James Version. ©1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers.
Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)