Job, the biblical character who endured more than his share of bad days, felt the same frustration and disappointment that anyone walking in his sandals might feel. Job expressed his feelings strongly in Job 30:26-31 (NIV): “Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls. My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever. My lyre is tuned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of wailing.”

May I paraphrase? “Just when I’ve had all I can take and I think it can’t get worse, it gets worse! Anxiety and depression are constant burdens. No one understands my pain. My body aches and my health is terrible. I can’t even get a good night’s sleep. I think I’m dying. The only music left in me is a funeral dirge.”

Job speaks strongly because sometimes you just have to let it out! Sometimes you just have to tell God how you feel. Job wanted God to know!

Maybe you’ve experienced times of your own when you wondered if God knew what you were going through. “God, do you know what it’s like to wait for the results of medical tests that could bring devastating news?” “God, do you know what it’s like to lay awake waiting for my teenager who was supposed to be home by 11 and now it’s after midnight? Where is she, Lord?” “Lord, do you know what it’s like to feel as if the person I’ve married has become a stranger? How can we reconnect?” “Lord, do you know the stress of being in an accident and worrying about a lawsuit?” “Lord, do you know how discouraging it is when there’s not enough money to pay the bills, and then the refrigerator blows up?”

God answers Job with a question of His own: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2, NIV84). God then posed a series of questions that demonstrated Job’s ignorance contrasted to God’s knowledge and power: “Who marked off the dimensions of the earth? Surely, you know” (Job 38:4). “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? (Job 38:19-20). “Do you know the laws of the heavens?” (Job 38:33 – a way of asking Job if he can control the weather!). “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?” (Job 39:1). Those questions are God’s way of saying, “Really, Job, do you think there is anything I don’t know?”

DNA has been called “the signature of God.” The information in one strand of human DNA would fill about a million encyclopedia pages. That means that if a typist typed 60 words per minute, 8 hours a day, it would take him about 50 years to cover the information in one DNA strand. Minister Kyle Idleman told the story of a computer software designer who was hired to help write software to study the human genome. After working a few months, the software designer said to his boss, “I can’t help but get the feeling when I’m looking at the design patterns in a human cell that somebody has figured this out before us.”

Yes, God knows. He knows because He is the creator and judge of all the earth. Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God knows because He wrapped himself in human flesh and experienced the troubles of humanity firsthand. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.” God sees our circumstances, hears our prayers, listens to our cries of pain and terror, and understands our hearts. God knows.

In Matthew 10:30, Jesus declared, “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” God knows you better than you know yourself! Now ask this: “Why does God want to know?” Isn’t it because He cares?