Praying for the Unborn

For several months the Lord has burdened my heart to pray for the unborn. As I contemplated the reality of nearly 3,000 children being aborted every day in our country, day after day without end, I wondered to myself what the Body of Christ could do. What could I do? What should I do? The answer seemed quite simple and clear. I can pray for them everyday and humbly ask for God's intervention. It may be both the best and the least I can do.

In the 30 years that I have been a believer, much has been done in the name of Christ to stop or lesson the occurrence of abortion. I believe that some of those efforts have been honoring to God and that some of them have been shameful and simply wrong. But as I thought about the matter I could not really recall a concerted effort of believers to ask God to intervene. To go to the throne of grace and make it a matter of prayer. Oh, I’m not saying that such prayers have never been prayed; that would be foolish. But I believe that the matter is of such a degree that it demands unceasing and fervent prayer. It seems to me that a week or a Sunday set aside each year to talk about this matter and pray about it is simply not consistent with the significance of the practice nor with the heart of Christ.

I am convinced that in His foreknowledge, among other things, God had abortion in mind when He said that men would even be “inventors of evil” as we read in Romans 1. There is nothing else like it, and there has not been anything like it in our lifetime. It is the purposeful ending of life on a scale unmatched by anything else. As our nation cries out for safe places for our children after each tragic school shooting, it escapes the hearts and minds of most that the womb of a woman is actually the most unsafe place for a child to be in America. We have taken that which our Creator designed to be the safest of places and turned it into a place where life of the most helpless is taken by the thousands every day. 

I believe the soul of our nation has been grievously injured by its callous disregard for the millions that have been aborted. Absent a mighty revival and genuine turning to God, I do not expect that we will recover from this great self-inflicted injury. I believe the Church has been greatly impacted as well. We have fallen into the enemy's trap as many have exchanged what the word of God says for words of human wisdom. We have been lulled to sleep as the killing of the unborn silently repeats itself everyday without much notice. And in apathy or unbelief we have failed to take the matter to the Lord in prayer as we ought. I also don't know if we have done very well at ministering to those whose hearts have been scared with past choices they have made to abort their children. I am sure that some made these decisions before knowing Christ and that some have made these choices after knowing Him. We need to pray for these women and help direct them to the God of all comfort and the giver of grace. Although I specifically mention the women who aborted their children, I know they are not alone in dealing with the effects of past choices made. May we make ourselves available to minister in love to all those involved and impacted.

I believe it is very important to say that I do not wish to make abortion my “cause” or to suggest that it should be the "cause" of the Church. It is not. Our cause is the message of first importance; “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures”. It is the Gospel of grace, the good news of Jesus Christ that “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”. It is the Gospel message and the Spirit of God that changes the heart of a man. But ought we not have a heart to labor earnestly in prayer for the unborn; for those with no voice? Should we not take this matter before the Lord and ask for His intervention in the hearts and minds of people? Some might say that it is simply a "social issue" that the church should not be caught up in. Scripture tells us that the love we show towards others is a witness of the love of Christ within us. I feel that praying for the unborn is simply an act of Christ-like love. Perhaps there are some who would also consider the visitation of orphans and widows as a social issue but the Apostle James was inspired to write that it was "pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father".

We believe that the return of the Lord is imminent. If the Lord tarries long before His return, I pray that those who come after us will look back and know that our generation rose up and prayed fervently for those most vulnerable among us. When my granddaughters are old enough to hear of and understand the practice of abortion and ask me if there is anything they can do about it, I plan to tell them to live and share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to pray everyday for the unborn. I hope to be able to tell them that a few years ago, thousands of Christians all over the country, perhaps all over the world, began laboring in prayer for the unborn and we have been seeing God change hearts and minds. Would you join with me in asking God to change the hearts and minds of those who have decided to abort their children or who are contemplating the same? That they might choose life and that they might come to know the One who gives and sustains life if they don't already know Him. Let me suggest again that it may be the best and least we can do.

Greg