Day 30: An End to Abortion
Intention
Abortion is perhaps the greatest moral issue of our time. Prayer is the greatest response — and God will end abortion!
Scripture
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
— Romans 8:1-4
Reflection
In late 1984, I attended a screening of Silent Scream, a documentary about abortion narrated by Bernard Nathanson. Dr Nathanson was the co-founder of ‘Repeal of Abortion Laws’, founded in 1969. Previous to this, he had been a prominent abortionist who began to have second thoughts about abortion.
In 1974, Nathanson wrote, “I am deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty that I had presided over 60,000 deaths”. He later wrote, “Abortion… is the most atrocious holocaust in the history of the United States”.
Silent Scream ripped my heart out. I can distinctly remember feeling physically sick watching a live abortion by ultrasound. After the movie, I drove up the mountain and stumbled around in the darkness in the bush crying for what seemed like hours. To say that this movie impacted me was an understatement.
A few years later, I wrote a driving rock song inspired by a Black Sabbath riff called ‘Don’t Kill the Children’. It became the title track of my first contemporary Christian music album.
Don’t kill whales
Don’t kill trees
Don’t kill seals
But most of all
Don’t kill the childrenThey were born to live not die
Light does not get in their eyes
A man in white takes their life
Before they have a chance to live
The Silent Scream, cemented by the above song, became the turning point of my life when it came to the issue of abortion. I would gladly give my life up tomorrow if I could stop the abortion of the 100,000 children who are murdered each year here in Australia.
The good news is that Jesus Christ has already given His life up for this iniquity. The Scripture says in Mathew 20:28, “He gave up his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus bore the murder of all the babies that are killed in the world each year in His own body on the cross.
In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read,
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Not only that, but Jesus came as the source of LIFE. The Scripture says in John 10:10,
“The thief comes only that he might steal and might kill and might destroy. I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly.”
Many of us have been praying and fasting for the last 30 days for a breakthrough for life. Many have also joined us night after night as we celebrate communion on our Zoom prayer call, where we eat the bread and drink the wine as Jesus commanded us to do.
In a sense, as we have been fasting and praying and having communion, we are joining in a prayer of intercession with Jesus in His death on the cross. Ps Margaret Court calls this “praying through the cross of Christ”. This, I believe, is the most powerful form of prayer possible. There is no greater message than “Christ and Him crucified”.
There is no greater prayer than, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” No horror, no injustice, no sin is a match for the blood of Christ. Together we are praying for a greater law to take over from “the law of sin and death”. That is “the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.”
Together, we are praying for an end to abortion in our nation. Surely, because of God’s grace in Christ, it will happen!
Prayer
Father in Heaven, do what cannot be done by human hands. Do what can only be done through Your Son’s blood on the cross. As Paul said, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Bring an end to abortion in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Prayer Points for October 2020
1. Pray for a Breakthrough for LIFE, specifically an end to abortion and euthanasia in our nation. Exodus 20:13
2. Pray for a Breakthrough for INDIGENOUS LIFE, specifically an end to high youth suicide and premature death due to ill health. 3 John 1:2
3. Pray for new POLITICIANS for LIFE, especially pray for the upcoming elections in Queensland (31st October), ACT (17th October) + USA (3 November). Proverbs 29:2
4. Pray for the Revitalisation of SPIRITUAL LIFE, namely repentance, renewal & transformation, that our nation might return to God. 2 Chronicles 7:14
In 2002 Warwick & Alison Marsh established Dads4Kids to encourage fathers and promote excellence in fathering. In 2010 Warwick Marsh, in cooperation with many other faith leaders, drafted the Canberra Declaration to support family, faith, life and freedom. The Canberra Declaration website and regular email now has over 80,000 signees. In 2011 Warwick Marsh, with other faith leaders who are passionate for prayer, helped establish the National Day of Prayer and Fasting, held nationally 40 days before Easter every year.
We invite you to join the daily 1-hour Zoom video National Prayer Call every night:
DATES: 1st– 31st October 2020
TIME: 8pm-9pm AEST
ZOOM URL LINK: https://zoom.us/j/776881184
ZOOM MEETING ID: 776881184
See Zoom tutorial here.
Daily devotions brought to you by the Canberra Declaration.
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