Why have people made up their own ideas of “god”? Perhaps they feel that they can more easily understand and control a “god” they have made for themselves. The true God is so great that He is beyond all that we can understand or imagine. When King Solomon (David’s son) built a temple for God, he prayed to God,
But will God indeed dwell [live] on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! (1 Kings 8:27).
When we think of just that part of the heavens we see, this is truly amazing. How can one Person fill the whole universe, and even go beyond it? Yet the New Testament also says of God,
For in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
How can He be so far away, and yet also be all around us? If “He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27), why do we not see Him?
The answer is in a basic truth of God’s nature. Jesus stated,
God is spirit (John 4:24).
How is “spirit” different from an earthly “body”? Jesus said that a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). The normal human body is very limited by the weaknesses of its flesh. It is tied down to one time and place. It cannot see or be in two places at the same time. Such limits or weaknesses do not have to apply to spirit. They especially do not limit the One who is called the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9).
God, as spirit, is so great that He is always present at all places. He can hold all in His control. There is no way ever to hide from Him.
Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol [death], You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost [furthest] parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me (Psalm 139:7-10).
And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed [shown] to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13).