Matthew 5:7 KJV
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
In Part 1 of this post on being merciful, I wrote about taking a stand against abortion and showing mercy to those innocent babies who desperately need it. Tonight I want to write about the other side of the coin. The women who abort.
I had never given the women much thought, other than to think them despicable and vile. But since beginning this Ministry, my viewpoint has changed. I've come to realize that these women don't need my condemnation. They need my love, my comfort, and most importantly my prayers and my Savior.
There are few women who have abortions that come out of them unscathed and emotionally whole. The full weight of what they have done and the regrets, the sadness, the remorse and depression begin to set in. Perhaps not immediately, but it does.
I have stood crying with a woman while she bared her soul to me, telling me of her abortion. She, like me, had been thrilled when her pregnancy test turned positive. But then the crushing weight of her husband's infidelity and demands to have an abortion broke her. I stood crying with her as she told me of her fear to conceive again with her new husband. A very real fear that as her punishment, the Lord would let her conceive only to miscarry. I held her and told her of my sweet Savior's forgiveness and mercy.
She had made the only choice she thought she could in the situation she was in. I don't condone, justify, or even comprehend how she could make such a decision, yet I don't need to to offer her, and the millions of others just like her, mercy.
In taking a stand against abortion, we must extend mercy and grace to the women who choose abortion. We must counsel them with love and forgiveness and teach them that there is a better way. We must educate our young girls and women about the consequences of premarital sex and the dangers of abortion. We must be proactive in our fight against abortion, in prayer, in changing our laws, in giving the millions of babies a voice.
I have never had an abortion, yet I understand all too well the pain of losing a child. It is debilitating, life altering, nearly life ending for me. The weight of the guilt that I may have done something to cause my babies to die was nearly unbearable. To think of the pain that millions of women are in because they know they took the life of their child is a staggering thought.
My only lifeline was my Jesus. These women need Jesus. Whether they are lost and don't know Him as their Savior, or have salvation and have wandered off the righteous path, Jesus is the answer, He is the cure for their pain, the balm for their sorrows. By extending our love and mercy to these women, we let Christ's light shine through us. A light that they are in desperate need of.
I was once in need of that light, that mercy. And I thank God every day for sending His Only Begotten Son to extend that mercy to me, to shed His blood on Calvary so that I would be reunited with Him and my babies in Heaven some glad day.
Charles Spurgeon said this, "Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that."
Having been redeemed myself, I cannot begrudge Christ's mercy for another's soul. In fact, I must actively seek to lead them to Christ for blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
Matthew 9:13 KJV
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
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