Are we really pro-life?
Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?”
Every so often, I use this scripture to evaluate my personal life. I ask myself if I am living this truth out in my day to day decisions. I am convinced that these three qualities are the gateway to what real abundant life in Jesus looks like. If our desire for justice is held in tension with a love for mercy and saturated in humility before God, we will live a life that honors God and reflects His beauty and holiness to the world.
Recently as I have been letting the Lord speak to me about the status of my heart before Him, I have been reminded of this scripture again. God has been causing me to evaluate a very specific area of my life in the light of this truth. Logan and I have been actively involved in promoting a pro-life agenda for the last 6 years. We have spoken in churches, campus ministries, and missionary training schools about the sin of abortion. We have led teams of people to pray at abortion clinics and government buildings. We moved to Washington D.C. to fast and pray for the end of abortion and for revival in America. Most people would probably say that we are committed to the cause. We have invested our time and energy to see abortion end, healing come to America and restoration to come to the countless lives that have been affected by this terrible scourge.
As the Lord began to prick my heart in the light of Micah 6:8, I have sought to see if I am really living a life that honors God in this issue. I can honestly see that I have loved mercy. I understand, in part, the breaking heart of our God over the issue of the shedding of innocent blood. I understand that our God is a God that avenges the shed blood of the innocent. He is a God that longs to bring speedy justice to those who cry out to Him day and night. I also know that God takes no delight bringing judgement on nations. He truly delights in giving mercy rather than bringing judgement. But He is waiting to see how His body will posture themselves before Him. The judgement that is deserved by a sinful nation can be turned back by the repentant hearts of the body of Christ in that nation. To understand this and to then put your self in the place of intercession and repentance on behalf of the nation is to “love mercy.”
The place where I have felt the conviction and urging of the Holy Spirit to yield more of my life to Him is in the area of “doing justly.” Up until this point, I believe that I have done all that I have known to do and been obedient to what God has asked of me, but recently I have felt the desire to do more. As Logan and I have talked about what it really means to “do justly” with the issue of life and the ending of abortion, we have come to the conclusion that we are supposed to be the answer to our prayers. Not only have we prayed that God would end abortion and send revival to America, but we have prayed that God would use the church to be the answer to these problems. We have asked God to raise up an adoption movement from within the church to provide real solutions to girls who find themselves in crisis pregnancy situations.
As the church we often call ourselves pro-life, but practically we live only as people who are anti-abortion. The time for this one-handed approach to the life issue has to stop. How can we, as the pro-life community, tell people that abortion is wrong and then not provide a viable alternative to women in crisis pregnancy situations. These women wrestle with serious questions to which we need to be the answer. Many of these women are scared. They wonder if they are ready to be mothers. They wonder if they will financially be able to afford caring for a child. They wonder how this will inconvenience their lives and what adjustments they will have to make in order to bring a child into the world. And because of fear, lack of viable alternatives and selfishness an average of 3000+ women a day choose to abort their children.
The church must come to grips with this. Many of us in the church, when confronted with the option of adopting children from crisis pregnancy situations, wrestle with the same things as these mothers. We wonder if we can afford to take in a child, if we are capable of being good parents to these kids. We think of how inconvenient it will be to adopt a child. And so we come to the conclusion that now is not the best time for me to adopt a child. This is the same conclusion that millions of mothers have come to over the last 37 years in America and countless lives have been lost because of it. The church can no longer stand by and not take action.
Logan and I have decided that the next step in our journey as believers who value the sanctity of human life is to take the steps necessary to adopt a child from a crisis pregnancy situation. We want to be a part of the answer to our prayers for God to end abortion. We have been talking with an adoption agency and are attending a weekend seminar to give us all the information we need to get us in a place where we are able to take a child when one becomes available.
Logan and I both desire to be parents and are ready for the Lord to give us children. We know that children are a blessing and are excited about the size of our family growing. We strongly desire to have biological children of our own, but feel strongly that adoption is not an alternative to having our own kids. It is an equally valuable dream to pursue. If we found out tomorrow that we were pregnant, we would still pursue adoption with glad, hopeful and expectant hearts.
Please be in prayer for us as we walk through the steps necessary to become adoptive parents. We will keep you updated along the way.
Comments
Leave a Reply
Join our email list or get the feed
Latest News from YWAM.org- Living Water at Festival in ThailandOf all the festivals celebrated in Thailand, Songkran is considered the most significant. It is a time to celebrate Thai New Year with family ceremonies and “blessing” one another with water. In Chiang Mai, this tradition has turned into the country's biggest city-wide water fight, attracting visitors from around the world. This super wet shindig takes […]
- YWAM Team Assists Storm Recovery in ArgentinaOn Wednesday the 4th of April around 8p.m., a large part of the Western suburban area of Buenos Aires and even the downtown, were affected by the passing of a storm that left considerable damage. In Ituzaingo, the area surrounding the Youth With A Mission centre in Buenos Aires, the damage caused by the wind gales, the rain and the hail, left thousands of fa […]
