I don’t know about you, but I am completely heartbroken and overwhelmed with what is going on in the world lately. I’ll admit that I don’t even click through a majority of the headlines I read, because just reading the headline feels like a kick to the gut. When I do read through I find it hard not to lose hope for humanity and our world.
I am specifically talking about the mass murder of babies being done here in America (and I’m sure all over the world) by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. And the fact that women seem proud to have had an abortion is baffling to me. Personally, I have never met a woman who hasn’t said that abortion was either the hardest thing she’s ever done or that it is the one regret they will always have. Yet, here are all these women coming out with this hashtag on Twitter (which I won’t even name here because it is so disgusting-if you really haven’t heard I’m sure a quick google search will satisfy your curiosity) who are praising the murder of their own babies as good and necessary for them to have the life they do now. But you know what? They can sit behind a computer screen all day and pretend that there isn’t a hole in their heart left by abortion. They can justify the murder of their own babies all they want, because at the end of the day that guilt is still there-that “what if.” The shadow of the life and baby they were supposed to have. It never goes away, so don’t let the hashtag fool you.
And then there is ISIS. Even typing that word fills me with dread. They are evil, evil, evil but somehow they are allowed to continue without much thought from our government, or from most Americans. We see the headlines, maybe read the article, then go on our merry way. Out of sight, out of mind. Our current culture of avoidance and distraction sickens me. I dislike ISIS to my very core-so much so that I could even use the h-word and not feel guilty.
But what can I do about either one of these? What can any of us do? We certainly can’t go over and kill ISIS ourselves. And we don’t have enough power here in the US to stop abortion from happening. It seems helpless and impossible to face these problems-so we turn away.
There is something we as Christians can do. We can pray.
Now I hope that if you consider yourself a Christian that you are already praying for both of these horrendous entities to be stopped. But today I want to challenge you to a different kind of prayer.
Lately I have been convicted, not to pray against ISIS and Planned Parenthood-but to pray for them.
I feel like both of these groups are like Hydra (you know, from Captain America). You can cut the head off their leader, but 10 more will pop up in their place. Just taking them down isn’t touching the root of the problem, the evil that lies at the core.
I challenge you to pray for the heart and soul of the people in charge of both of these groups.
Pray for the most depraved, vicious, deadly member of ISIS. Pray that he will have a change of heart and come to love the children he is killing and the families he is persecuting. Pray for him to see the truth behind what he is doing and how wrong it is. Pray for him to have a change of heart, to come to Jesus, and to then turn around and change the hearts and minds of those he has influence over. Pray for him to start fighting for God’s people instead of against them.
Pray for the most wicked abortion provider. The one who carelessly jokes about the babies she delivers alive while she watches the life drain out of their bodies. Pray for the one who values money over life and who gladly uses the organs of our most vulnerable citizens to feed the black greed in their soul. Pray that God will touch her heart and expose the truth she has believed in as filthy lies. Then pray for her to move night and day to stop the atrocities she once took part in.
God can work this way. I truly believe God wants to work this way. We can see it in His word. Saul was the most brutal of persecutors of the early church-yet Jesus got a hold of his heart, changed his name to Paul, and he did more for the cause of Christ than any one person has ever done before or since. God can turn darkness to light. He can pump love back into the blackest of hearts.
Maybe He is just waiting for His people to ask.