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Slavery, cruelty to animals, senseless destruction of the environment, and genocide. We look back at history when these practices were widely tolerated, even justified. We cannot believe that people once accepted these practices, which we know to be cruel and costly.

How we look back on these practices is exactly how future people will look back on our practice of abortion today.

We justify abortion in all sorts of ways. We say it is a woman’s right. We say it is necessary. We say that the baby is better off not existing than being born into poverty. But deep down, most of us — even those of us who believe in a woman’s right to an abortion — know that there is something very wrong.

Never before in human history have we known more about human life in gestation. By the time a woman knows she is pregnant there is a recognisably human being in her: she is not just a pregnant woman, she is a mother. This means that there is also a father. We know this.

But we are in a deceptive matrix that tells us that babies and children are a cost, a liability, even a threat, an enemy, a parasite. We are told whatever we need to be told to keep the abortion culture and industry going, to keep women in the modern workforce, to keep us free from personal responsibility, to snuff out what so many of us know deep down: that we are killing our children.

This is a matrix that is very hard to escape, namely because so many of us are complicit in the very wrong we know. So many of us have either had abortions, been complicit in abortions, pressured others to have abortions, or have participated medically in abortions. We don’t want to admit that we have done things so gravely wrong, so we prefer to stay in the matrix of denial and suppression.

But truthfully, it is much better to confess than suppress. In confession there is freedom from the crippling weight of guilt, in suppression that weight gets heavier and heavier, contorting and twisting our souls.

Repentance and Redemption

To bring up slavery again, I am reminded of a man, John Newton, who lived hundreds of years ago. He worked on a slave ship, captained slave ships, and invested in the slave trade. He was neck-deep in that gruesome, deathly industry. He had blood on his hands, for how many slaves died as a result of his deeds? Dozens? Hundreds? Who knows.

There came a point when John Newton could no longer deny his guilt. He threw himself at the mercy of Jesus and confessed his sins. As Jesus promised, Newton received forgiveness and was freed from that guilt, freed to live a brand new life. He wrote a song about it: Amazing Grace. I suspect you’ve heard of it. Now you know what it’s about.

“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found;
Was blind, but now I see!”

Just like John Newton realised it was better to confess than to suppress his guilt of slavery, so we must realise that when it comes to our guilt of abortion, individual guilt and collective guilt, it is better to confess. We can be free from our guilt and free to start again, knowing we have been forgiven by God through Jesus and His death on the Cross and Resurrection.

Did you know that every time you see a cross, it is crying out to you either “You CAN be free from your guilt!” or “Rejoice, you are free from your guilt!” If you have been involved in an abortion, I declare that’s what you will think every time you see a cross from now on.

Pray

Here is a simple prayer you can pray to receive that forgiveness and start your new life free from the weight of guilt of abortion:

“Dear Lord Jesus,
Have mercy on me.
I’m tired of the guilt that I’ve been suppressing.
Lord Jesus, I confess my wrong deeds. I confess my guilt.
I confess my abortion. I confess being complicit in an abortion.
I confess pressuring someone to have an abortion.
Lord Jesus, forgive me and set me free from my guilt.
Lord Jesus, thank You for setting me free FROM my guilt,
and setting me free TO live a new life; a brand new beginning in You.
Lord Jesus, please draw close to me.
Lord Jesus, protect me from the lies of this age and from Satan’s lies.
Lord Jesus, I declare that You are my Saviour.
Lord Jesus, send me Your Holy Spirit to guide me and help me.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for rescuing me.
Amen.”

God bless you all.

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