God Is Everywhere (Even in Your Worst Moments) - S2E22

If God is everywhere, why does he sometimes feel so far away?

In this episode, we're diving deep into God's omnipresence — and the honest tension every Christian faces: the gap between knowing God is present and actually feeling it. We'll unpack what omnipresence really means (and what it doesn't), explore three common reasons we lose our sense of God's nearness, and discover practical ways to experience his presence even in your darkest, driest seasons. If you've ever prayed and felt like your words hit the ceiling, this one's for you.

"Your feelings are real, but they're not always accurate reporters of reality. You can feel alone when you're not. You can feel abandoned when you're held."

In This Episode, You'll Discover:

• What omnipresence really means — and why it's different from pantheism ("God is everything")
• The crucial difference between God's actual presence and our experience of his presence
• Three common reasons God feels distant — sin, spiritual growth, and overwhelming circumstances

Practical Applications:

• Preach truth to yourself when you can't feel it — faith is trusting God's Word even when your feelings disagree
• Look for God in ordinary places — the sunrise, the unexpected kindness, the ordinary Tuesday
• Remember that God's presence is most promised in your pain — he's closest to the brokenhearted

Your Assignment This Week: Practice "presence awareness." Each morning, before you check your phone, take thirty seconds to acknowledge God's presence: "God, you are here with me right now." Each evening, reflect on one moment where you can now see God was present — even if you didn't notice it at the time.

💬 Community Question: Have you ever gone through a season when God felt distant? What helped you hold onto the truth of his presence even when you couldn't feel it? Or maybe you're in that season right now — what's making it hardest to sense God's nearness? Your story might be exactly what another listener needs to hear. Email us at Charlie@heychurchmedia.com or just hit the "Send us a text" link below!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You're tuned into Everyday Theology in Plain English, making sense of God's truth for your everyday life. Here's your host, the man who talks to himself in the car and just found out someone's been listening the whole time. Charlie Miller. Hey there.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Welcome back to Everyday Theology in Plain English. I'm so glad that you're here. So last episode, we explored the ways God is completely different from us. His incommunicable attributes. Today we're going to dive deep into one of those attributes that has immediate practical relevance for your life. God's omnipresence. And here's the question I want us to wrestle with today. If God is everywhere, why does he sometimes feel so far away? Now, maybe you know exactly what I'm talking about. Maybe you've been in a season where you prayed and felt like your words hit the ceiling and bounced back. Maybe you've walked through a valley so dark that God felt completely absent while you were in it. Maybe even right now, even as you're listening to this podcast, you feel spiritually alone. Like God is out there somewhere, but he's definitely not here with you right now. And I've been there. There have been seasons in my life where I knew theologically that God was present, but experientially, he felt a million miles away. If you've ever felt that way, I want you to know you're not broken, you're not being punished, and you're definitely not alone in feeling alone. God's presence doesn't depend on your feelings. He is with you fully, completely, right now, whether you feel him or not. Today, we're going to discover together what omnipresence really means, why we sometimes don't sense God's presence, and how to experience his nearness even in our darkest moments. So let's start with the basics. What do we mean when we say God is omnipresent? Well, omnipresence means that God is present everywhere at all times. Not partially present, not like he's spread thin across the universe. Not like he's sometimes present, like he shows up for special occasions, but he's fully present everywhere, always. Psalm 139 is the classic passage about this attribute. David writes, Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there, if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. And David is making an exhaustive point. There's no place in the entire universe where God is not present. Heaven, he's there. The grave, he's there. The farthest corner of the earth, yes, he's there. You literally cannot go somewhere that God isn't. Now, here's something important to understand. God's omnipresence is different from pantheism. So pantheism says that everything is God, right? The tree is God, the rock is God, you are God. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God is distinct from his creation, but he is present everywhere within his creation. He's not the same as the tree, but he's present at the tree. There's a difference between saying God is everything and God is everywhere. So think of it this way: God is not contained by any space, but no space is without him. Let me explain why this matters with a helpful distinction theologians make. There's a difference between God's presence and our experience of God's presence. So God's presence is objective, right? It's a fact that doesn't change based on how we feel. God is with you right now, whether you sense him or not. His presence isn't something he gives and takes away based on your performance or your circumstances. But our experience of God's presence can vary dramatically. Sometimes we feel close to God. Worship feels alive, prayer feels connected, we sense his nearness. Other times, God feels distant. Prayer feels empty, and we feel spiritually dry, and we wonder if he's paying attention. Now here's the crucial point: God's actual presence doesn't fluctuate. What fluctuates is our awareness of it, our experience of it, our sense of it. The sun doesn't stop shining just because clouds block the view. And God doesn't leave just because we don't feel Him. So why don't we always feel God's presence? Well, let me give you three common reasons. First, sometimes our sin creates a barrier. Now, let me be absolutely crystal clear. Sin doesn't make God leave, He is still present. But sin can disrupt our fellowship with God, our sense of intimacy with Him. Isaiah 59, 2 says, Your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you. This isn't about God abandoning us. It's about sin creating static on the line, so to speak. When we're harboring unconfessed sin, we shouldn't be surprised if our experience of God feels distant. Second, sometimes God is doing a deeper work. Now this is this is harder to explain, but many mature believers throughout church history have experienced what's called the dark night of the soul. Seasons where God seems silent, not because he's absent or angry, but because he's developing a deeper faith that doesn't depend on spiritual feelings. Think of it kind of like training wheels. When you first learn to ride a bike, if you learn to ride a bike, you probably needed training wheels to feel secure. But eventually the training wheels had to come off for you to become a real cyclist. Sometimes God withdraws the feeling of his presence so that our faith can mature beyond spiritual emotions. Third, sometimes our circumstances simply overwhelm our senses. Grief, depression, trauma, exhaustion. All these things can affect our ability to sense anything, including God's presence. When you're in the fog of deep pain, it's really hard to see clearly. That doesn't mean God isn't there. It means your capacity to perceive Him is temporarily diminished. Here's what I want you to hold on to. Your feelings are real, but they're not always accurate reporters of reality. You can feel alone when you're not. You can feel abandoned when you're being held. Your emotions are valid, but God's presence is more certain than your experience of it. Let's hit the pause button for just a minute. If this is making sense to you so far, drop a comment and let me know. If you're confused about something, please ask. That's how we can all learn together. And honestly, your questions help me explain things better for everyone. So now you might be thinking, okay, Charlie, I understand that God is everywhere and that my feelings don't always reflect reality. But practically speaking, how do I experience this, how do I experience God's presence when he feels really far away? That's a really good question. So let me give you three practical approaches when you're in that circumstance. First, preach truth to yourself when you can't feel it. That's a really big one, I think. Picture someone, we'll call her Angela, who represents a pattern that I've seen in lives over the years, right? Angela is going through a painful divorce. She feels abandoned by her husband, and honestly, she feels abandoned by God. Prayer feels pointless. The Bible feels like just words on a page. She asks, where is God in this? Here's what Angela learns to do. She starts speaking truth to herself even when she doesn't feel it. Every morning she says out loud, God, I don't feel you right now, but your word says you will never leave me or forsake me. I'm choosing to believe that's true, even though I can't sense it. Maybe that's where you are. Maybe you're in a season where God feels silent and distant. And the idea of experiencing his presence sounds like a really cruel joke. Hey, I get it. I've been there, sitting in my car in a church parking lot, not sure I wanted to go in because worship felt hollow and God felt very far away from me. And here's what I want you to know: faith is trusting God's word even when your feelings disagree. It's okay to not feel close to God. It's not okay to conclude he's not there. Keep preaching truth to yourself. Keep reminding yourself of what's real even when you can't feel it. Second thing, look for God in ordinary places. You know, sometimes we expect God only in the dramatic spiritual moments, right? A powerful worship service or a mountaintop retreat, maybe a breakthrough prayer time. And we miss him in the ordinary every day. Let me paint you another picture. Imagine a man, we'll call him Thomas, who's been feeling spiritually dry for months. He goes to church, he reads his Bible, he prays, but everything feels routine and mechanical. He's waiting for God to show up in some powerful way. Then one day, Thomas is driving to work and he sees the sunrise painting the sky in impossible colors. And something just shifts inside of him. He realizes God has been showing up all along in the kindness of his wife, in the laughter of his kids, in the beauty of creation. He was looking for a lightning bolt and missing a thousand gentle whispers. God isn't just present in the dramatic moments. Sometimes experiencing his presence simply means opening your eyes to what's already there. Third, remember that God's presence is most promised in our pain. This might be the most important application of all. Throughout Scripture, God's presence is especially promised to those who are suffering. Psalm 34, 18 says, The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Not distant from the brokenhearted, close to them. Isaiah 43, 2 promises, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. Notice, God doesn't promise to keep us from the waters or from the rivers or from the fire. He promises to be with us in them. So if you're in a season of pain right now, lean into this truth. God's presence is most certain exactly where you need him most. The valley of the shadow of death isn't where God abandons you, it's where he walks closest with you. As we wrap up today's episode, here's what I want you to remember. God is with you right now, not partially, not occasionally, fully and completely present. Your feelings may fluctuate, but his presence does not. When sin creates distance, confess it and return to your fellowship. When God seems silent, trust that he may be developing a deeper faith. When pain overwhelms your senses, remember that he's closest to the brokenhearted. And in every moment, ordinary or extraordinary, look for the God who is already there. So here's your assignment for this week. Practice presence awareness this week. Each morning before you check your phone, take 30 seconds to acknowledge God's presence. You might say something like, God, you are here with me right now. Each evening before you sleep, reflect on one moment during the day where you can now see God was present, even if you didn't notice it at the time. Let this practice train your heart to recognize what's already true. God is always with you. Now here's our community question. Have you ever gone through a season when God felt distant? What helped you hold on to the truth of his presence even when you couldn't feel it? Or maybe you're in that season right now. And if so, what's making it hardest to sense God's nearness? Your stories of struggle or breakthrough might be exactly what another listener needs to hear today. And don't forget, we have a companion guide for this season that goes deeper into each topic. Check out the link in the show notes. Next episode, we're tackling another attribute of God that might make you a little uncomfortable. God knows everything, including every thought you've ever had and every secret you've ever kept. If that idea makes you nervous, I promise you you're not alone. But what I'm going to share might change how you think about God's complete knowledge of you. It's not as scary as it sounds. It's actually the foundation for his perfect love. Until then, don't forget, there is nowhere you can go where God is not already there. In the heights and in the depths, in the light and in the darkness, in your best moments and in your worst moments. He is always with you. Always. Thanks for joining me on Everyday Theology and Plain English. I'm Charlie Miller, and I'm so grateful you're part of this community. I can't wait to continue this journey with you next time.