For months, I prayed the same prayers, yet they seemed to go unanswered.
So each time I spoke to God, I made sure He hadn’t forgotten by reminding Him constantly of my needs and desires. I felt He had a right to know I was still anxiously waiting for Him to act and that honestly, I was getting a little annoyed at His seeming lack of swift action and attention.
Have mercy.
As I laid my head to rest one night after yet another exhausting, discouraging day, I finally asked the questions we all may be secretly tempted to ask when our circumstances don’t improve and our problems keep piling up: “Do You see me, Lord? Do You even hear what I’m saying? Do You know what’s happening?” Then moments later, I drifted off to sleep.
A few hours into the quiet darkness of the night, I abruptly awoke. There were no loud creepy sounds coming from another room and no startling thunder or lightning outside that would have interrupted my sleep. Total silence — except for a persistent musical rhythm dancing through my mind.
I recognized the tune but hadn’t heard it in quite some time, so it took my sleepy mind a couple minutes to figure it out. When the lyrics of the song finally came flowing into my mind, tears filled my eyes. The song title? “He knows,” by Jeremy Camp.
“He knows, every hurt and every sting; He has walked the suffering. Let your burdens come undone. Lift your eyes up to the One who knows. He knows.”
God had gently pulled me out of a deep sleep because He had something simple, yet so important, to tell me: He does see me … hear my prayers … and care. And above all, He knows.
My heart quickened at the thought of hearing from my heavenly Father in such a sweet and gentle way. In the midst of running the universe, God saw fit to remind me that just because I didn’t yet know how He was at work in my situations, didn’t mean He didn’t know exactly what was happening.
As the sun began to rise, I reached for my Bible and looked for verses about God’s attentiveness to our lives. I came across today’s key verse that reminds us: Even when we think God isn’t watching, He sees us. When we think He isn’t listening, He hears our prayers.
Scripture tells us, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight” (Hebrews 4:13, NIV). There isn’t a day or a tear that God doesn’t know about. He sees whatever we’re going though … and He knows.
God’s Word also reassures us the Lord hears His people when they call to Him for help (Psalm 34:17). God knows every prayer spoken, and He hears the cries of our hearts.
The struggle to believe God sees us often signifies a problem within our hearts, not His heart for us. And yet, doubts don’t make us broken believers, just broken people living in a world where things break our hearts — and God’s.
But there’s no greater joy than seeing throughout Scripture that the Creator of the universe deeply cares about what we’re going through. Hope and peace can be ours when we believe that in God’s timing and in His ways, He will answer.
This late-night encounter with God helped me refocus on my faith and remember although He may not have answered my prayers, I can trust He knows.
If you’ve ever wondered if God cares about what you’re going through, take comfort today in letting yourself believe He does.
Lord, help me remember You not only know what is happening in my life, but You have a plan. Fill me with peace and the ability to trust You as I wait. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Matthew 6:8b, “… for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (NIV)
Psalm 139:2-4, “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.” (NIV)
1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (NLT)
1 John 3:20 ESV / 9 helpful votes
For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Psalm 44:21 ESV / 9 helpful votes
Would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Romans 8:28 ESV / 8 helpful votes
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
John 3:16 ESV / 8 helpful votes
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
1 John 4:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 16:33 ESV / 6 helpful votes
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 14:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
Matthew 7:11 ESV / 6 helpful votes
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Hebrews 4:12 ESV / 5 helpful votes
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Romans 6:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 14:1-31 ESV / 5 helpful votes
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ...
John 4:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 3:16-17 ESV / 5 helpful votes
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:10 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
Matthew 6:33 ESV / 5 helpful votes
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
2 Kings 19:27 ESV / 5 helpful votes
“But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.
Revelation 21:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
1 Corinthians 15:1-58 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ...
1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Acts 4:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
John 14:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Luke 16:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Matthew 9:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes
But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?
Matthew 6:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Ezekiel 36:26-2 Peter 2:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. ...
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Psalm 94:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes
The Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.
Psalm 69:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes
I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 56:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
Job 37:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,
Genesis 6:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
1 Peter 1:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
Hebrews 12:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
1 Thessalonians 3:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes
So that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Colossians 1:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Philippians 4:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Galatians 6:6-7 ESV / 2 helpful votes
One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
1 Corinthians 8:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
1 Corinthians 2:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes
None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Romans 1:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Acts 28:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes
But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”
Acts 7:48 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
John 16:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John 15:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 14:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 5:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 3:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
John 1:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Matthew 23:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes
And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
Jeremiah 31:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes
The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Isaiah 55:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 53:1-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. ...
Isaiah 49:1-26 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.” And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— ...
Isaiah 43:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Proverbs 3:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Psalm 90:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Psalm 51:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes
A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...
Psalm 10:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes
In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
1 Chronicles 29:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever.
1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!
1 Samuel 2:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
Deuteronomy 33:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes
The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Exodus 6:2-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes
God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.
Genesis 2:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, ...
Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...
Genesis 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.