The Immanence of God

"Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill the heaven and earth? saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:24)

God is immanent, which means you don't have to go distances to find God. He is in everything. He is right here.

God is above all things, beneath all things, outside of all things and inside of all things. God is above, but He's not pushed up. He's beneath, but He's not pressed down. He's outside, but He's not excluded. He's inside, but He's not confined. God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing and inside of all things filling. That is the immanence of God.

God doesn't travel to get anywhere. We may say in prayer, "Oh God, come and help us," because we mean it in a psychological way. But actually God doesn't have to "come" to help us because there isn't any place where God is not.

What an encouragement, Lord, to know that You are here with me as I seek to meet with You. Give me a clear sense of Your presence, both now and as I move through the day. Amen

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The Immensity of God

"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" (Isaiah 40:12)

Imagine going out millions of light years into space and finding a body so vast that you could throw all our solar system into it. Like throwing a shovel full of coal into a furnace, it would simply swallow up our solar system and go on. After you've thought of all that, remember that God contains all that. Remember that God is outside of all things and inside of all things and around all things. Remember that our God made it. That is the immensity of God.

We have here in Isaiah that which is vaster and more awesome than anything that ever came out of the mind of Shakespeare. It is the thought of the great God ... moving through His universe ... with its worlds so big that our whole solar system would look like a grain of sand by comparison. And God stands out yonder and calls all of these millions of worlds as His sheep; He calls them all by name and leads them out across the vast sky!

I'd say this is the highest thought I know of, in the Bible or out. And God does this "by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not on faileth" (Isaiah 40:26).

Lord, You are more immense than I can imagine, yet You are a personal God who knows me by name. I bow before You in total awe! Amen

~T. W. Tozer~