The Ever-Present God

The fact that God is everywhere present means that His power, His knowledge and His presence are also fully in all parts of His creation. The totality of who He is, is right here and He himself is present everywhere.

A W Tozer explains that the fact that God is everywhere present means that He is everywhere here, close to everything, next to everyone...His being knows no limits.
Therefore there can be no limit to His presence.

Today we are going to talk about:

1. The Ever-Present God

2. Our Struggle

3. God’s Promises

 Ever-Present God

God is everywhere present every second of the day. He is never absent. He personally sees everything in real-time and nothing is done without Him being right here (Jer 23:23-24; Proverbs 15:3; 5:21).

God is aware of everyone’s motives and actions; nothing is hidden from Him. For those who walk with God, this can be a great blessing because God sees all that we do that is motivated by His grace and love and He will reward us for it.

He knows perfectly what is going on everywhere at the same time and can powerfully act at that moment.

And so God is right here, and we can call out to Him at any moment for help. But there are times when we feel like God is far away, when we aren’t experiencing His presence or comfort.

 Our Struggle

If God is right here and He is with us at all times why is it that we sometimes feel isolated and alone and why is the world full of lonely people? 

Because no man is an island. It means that no one is self-sufficient. We require help from others because, unlike God, we all have limitations.

And this is how God designed us - to be in relationship with Himself as an ever-present God and Friend and to be in community with others.

Ephesians 4 tells us that God makes the whole body fit together perfectly and He has designed it so that we all help each other mature so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love (Eph 4:16). 

Hebrews 10:25 tells us not give up meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as some people do, but to encourage each other all the more as we see the day of Christ’s return approaching.

A deeper struggle arises when God seems distant, when He is silent, and it doesn’t seem like He is answering our prayers. The thing is, even though God is continuously present there are times, for reasons known only to God, that He chooses to reveal Himself for a specific time or purpose.

How many have wondered, “if an all-powerful God is here with me right now, then why isn’t He helping me with my difficulties? Where is He when tragedy strikes?”

Because we don’t know all things, there doesn’t seem to be any satisfactory answer to these questions. Our own understanding of an all-powerful, good God leads us to believe He’s not only able to deliver his creatures from evil and suffering but that He will eliminate evil altogether. 

Yet we know that evil exists, and we know that for some reason, God allows it to exist. But we also know that a good God is still present in this evil world and is near to us when we call out to Him.

We are all subject to evil in this lifetime, but in light of eternity, it is only for a season. The greatest good which transcends all other goods is to have eternal life and know we will spend eternity with the Lord.

When we personally experience suffering in our own lives we can easily forget that God is in us, with us, and for us (Rom 8:18, 23-24).
But His Word tells us differently, which brings us to our last point.

God’s Promises

God tells us that He hasn’t nor ever will even abandon us - even when we have no evidence of His presence (Heb 13:5).

God is not only present with us but also in us through the Holy Spirit. God never promised us that we would not suffer. He never promised that I would understand why certain things would happen or go a certain way. But He did promise that when we walk through difficulties and sorrows, He will be with us and we never have to face life alone (Psalm 23:4; Isa 43:2).

It is clear that we will go through these things, but it is also clear that we will not have to face these things alone. It is because of Christ’s payment for your sins, that God removed the barrier that came between you and Him.
Now that you have placed your trust in Him you can have a relationship with this all-powerful, everywhere present, gracious Savior through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

The writers of the Old and New Testament understood that those who don’t know God will never have His peace, never find rest, or comfort (Isa 57:20-21). Ans one day everyone will stand before Him.
In fact, the greatest evil is to suffer the loss of one's soul forever, to be separated from God in hell (Psalm 73:28).

God promises that if you come close to Him, He will come close to you (James 4:8).

David saw his problems from an eternal perspective, from the big picture perspective. God became big and evil people and the world’s problems became small. This is why it is so important to remember that God is with you.

It is so important to speak to him when life is overwhelming. Even when it feels like God is far away, when you feel you can’t go on because the pain is too great, when you want to give up because the way is too difficult, pour out your complaints to God. He is right here. He is listening.

God removed the barriers through Christ and does not want any distance between us and Him. He loves us with an everlasting love and with lovingkindness He draws us close to Him.

One day there will be no barriers between us and the Lord, nothing will be in the way of us seeing God. Nothing to keep us from coming near and experiencing the ever-present God forever and ever, amen.