open your mouth for the mute

open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.
proverbs 31:8-9

abortion. i am inspired to say a little on this topic because it has been on my mind and heart since we prayed for it tonight at the watch of the Lord. i do not have a plan of what i am going to write, i am just going to share a couple verses that i feel move my heart and share a little of my thoughts.

open your mouth for the mute. open your mouth for those who do not have a voice. speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves. do not remain silent. do you hear their voices? God does. He hears and He does not turn away, even when we turn away. open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the afflicted and needy - that was the advice to a king from him mother. how are we as the powerful defending the rights of those most vulnerable - the unborn?
are we fighting for life for those who cannot fight for themselves? i love how those in bound4life wear the red tape with the block letters LIFE across their mouths to stand silently for those who have no voice to speak for themselves.

may He vindicate the afflicted of the people, save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.
psalm 72:4

here are some abortion stats that i took from the bound4life website:

78% of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority communities (Choice Nazi 3). According to the Guttmacher Institute, an African American is three times more likely to have an abortion than a white woman. Hispanics are 2 times more likely to have an abortion than white women (Jones, Darroch, and Henshaw “Women’s Characteristics”). African Americans constitute twelve percent of the national population and have 32% of the abortions (Hall). For every one black child born, three are aborted (Grant 116). 80% of unborn babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome are aborted (Will). The RU-486 pill was created by the same company that created Zyklon B gas for the Nazi death chambers (Choice Nazi 6). There are 45% more sterilizations among African American women and 30% more sterilizations among Hispanics than among White women (Grant 117). Not one school-based Planned Parenthood clinic is located in a white majority school (Grant 115).

they have some other great history on the beginnings of abortion in our country and an amazing list of sources for their claims and arguments.

i want to focus on what God says about it. how does He view the unborn? when does life begin?

He spoke to jeremiah the old testament prophet and said:

before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. jeremiah 1:5

before even the egg is fertilized by the sperm, the child is a plan of God's. there are no accidents. there are no surprise babies to Him. He knows each and every child that He breathes life into in the womb of a woman, and He does not turn away from the injustice done in the name of choice.

yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb; You made me trust {when} upon my mother's breasts. upon You i was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother's womb. be not far from me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
psalm 22:9-11

who is there to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves? though we may turn our eyes away and shut our ears to the sound of their cries, He does not turn away and He does not shut His ears.

for You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. psalm 139:13

did you know that it has only been in the last 100 years that women in the states even used birth control? i am not advocating any particular position on birth control, but i do want to raise the question to us all: since when did we decide that a child was no longer a blessing from the Lord, a sign of His favor, and instead decide he/she was an inconvenience? i have been as guilty as anyone else, being born into a culture where family planning is the norm, to think that my plans for my family, the number of children and the spacing and the timing of when we could "afford" them, were better than His. i had a wake up call with my last baby who came as a bit of a surprise in timing. i realized, guess what?! i am not in control and the Lord wants to bless me even when i may be entirely ignorant to what blessing even means. there is a reason my youngest son is named david - he is my beloved son and the most amazing blessing the Lord could have ever given me that i didn't even realize i needed so badly at just the right time.

behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
the fruit of the womb is a reward.

psalm 127:3

it has been estimated that 50 million babies have been aborted in the united states since 1973. a sickening 24% of all pregnancies in the states end in abortion. we have rejected the blessing of the Lord and instead have cursed our land.

behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. how blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
psalm 127:3-5

if no one else, shouldn't we as believers in this good God who loves us see the value in a life, a human life? children are a blessing. they are our strength. they are our inheritance. we as americans think of inheritance in terms of dollars and cents. the jews thought of inheritance in terms of having a big family. we think we need to control the amount of kids we have so we can leave them an inheritance. He said our inheritance IS the number of kids we have. we see the blessing of the Lord so backwards.

can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? even these may forget, but I will not forget you. behold, I have inscribed you on the palms {of My hands;} your walls are continually before Me.
isaiah 49:15-16

and even as bizarre as it may sound for a woman to forget the child she is the sole provider of nurishment for, that is exactly what we have done. we have allowed our hearts to grow dull and we have turned away from compassion for the unborn child. yet, He will not forget them. their blood will cry out day and night before His throne, their silent cries are never silent before Him, until there is justice on the earth. and He is a God of justice. He will not allow injustice to reign forever, but He will avenge the deaths of the innocent. (psalm 82)

let us come before Him and cry out for mercy for our nation, for ourselves, that we may have eyes that see and ears that hear and that we may love what He loves and hate what He hates.

Jesus, i plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to america.

he will restore the hearts of the fathers to {their} children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.
malachi 4:6

all images from bound4life.com

charis