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God is present in all places all the time. Not only that, but everywhere he is present he is fully present. He is not engaged in some cosmic game of Twister, trying to stretch himself between an infinite number of locations. Rather than a small part of him occupying each place he inhabits, all of God is present everywhere, all the time.
But it gets crazier: All of God is fully present in all places past, present, and future. Theologians call this his immanence. Put simply, there is no place—or time—where God is not.
Though God is everywhere fully present, we are not always aware that he is. At times, he unmistakably declares his presence to us. At other times, he does not. Whether we sense his presence or not, “he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27, NIV). Though he is fully present, we may perceive only a certain aspect of his nature in a given moment. In a worship service, we may sense overwhelmingly the presence of his love. In a time of meditating on his law, we may perceive overwhelmingly the presence of his holiness. Even in hell, God is fully present, though its inhabitants perceive only his wrath. For the believer, eternity will be a place where we experience the presence of God to the fullest of our capability. There, we will experience him as Immanuel, God with us as we have only experienced him to be in a limited way during this life.
Jen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, teacher of women’s Bible studies, and book author, including None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That’s a Good Thing). Content taken from None Like Him by Jen Wilkin, ©2016. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org. Scripture quotations within the text of each devotion marked “ESV” come from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
