By Mike Divis

Based on Psalms 14:1 Stephen Hawkins was a fool. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God“. No one can deny that the recent renown physicist was brilliant.  Yet, how could a man have looked into the massive expanse of the heavens with such love for it, as Hawking did, and concluded there is no God?  God created this vast expanse, this amazing earth, and man as the supreme of that creation due to our ability to think and reason.  Have we made the same mistake as Hawking when we use our intelligence to satisfy our own selfishness, greed, lack of love for God and our fellow man, jealousy hatred, prejudice, all of which we use to hurt one another?  God is an amazing God and allows us, as His children to approach Him in prayer.  In the Gospel of John 9:31, the blind man healed by Jesus concluded that “Now we know that God does not hear sinners.”  This was a known consensus among Jews, even the religious leaders questioning the man.  Though this is the inspired writings of John, it does not necessarily mean what the man said is the truth.  Does God hear us?  The “us” must be qualified before we can answer that question.  If the “us” has reference to sinful men, the man’s proposition would be correct based not on what the Jew’s taught, or what he thought, but what the Bible teaches. Isaiah. 59:1-2. “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” There is a contrast that God makes in hearing prayer, let us consider:

Psalm 34:15-16

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are      open to their cry.  The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”

                Psalm 66:18

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”

                Proverbs 15:29

“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

This past week, Stephen Hawking knew what we all have known by faith.  God is, and hears the prayers of the righteous.  God is listening, are you?  Don’t be a fool like Stephen Hawking.  God is…