What God Sees
What we believe about what God sees can make all the difference. The simple and obvious answer is, everything.
Yes, that is true. The problem is, if we leave it there, it just scratches the surface. We could be gutting God of his feelings.
What God sees is all of who you are in the midst of a fallen world: Successful yet empty, beaten up and confused, struggling with faith, struggling with addiction, resting in his peace, and so on. Whatever it is, he knows and feels it all. It affects him.
"In all their afflictions he was afflicted" Isaiah 63.9 tells us. Yet, many times, in those tough and trying areas of life we think, "Yes, God sees everything and he must hate me" or "God sees everything and doesn't care! He's not there for me." But he is and his feelings aren't negative, they're empathetic because he has seen what we have done to the world he created and he knows the pains. Jesus came and lived out all of those so we could see an empathetic God who went through suffering at the hands of his own creation as the Father and Holy Spirit had to watch and then distance themselves from him for the first time in eternity as he took on our sins. God gets it. And he is there for us even if we don't understand the way he has to do it.
This is why God told Jeremiah (29.11), "For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." In Ephesians Paul tells us that we are his adopted children, while Peter says we are, "his special people,".
He is relational and wants to connect with us on every level, all the time. God values relationship above what we do or what has been done to us. That's ultimately what he sees, people recognizing he is a loving gracious God and they can trust him, even when they don't understand.
This is why Jesus said, "come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." This call isn't just for those who do not know Jesus, he calls us all to return, relate and trust him to take our burdens.