If you’re just joining us, click here to see what this prayer team is all about! While we are a “pro-life” prayer team, we, IN NO WAY, stand in judgment against those who have chosen abortion in the past! We hold you and your heart in the highest esteem and you are SO WELCOME here. Many women (and men) who’ve experienced abortion often hold onto the memory in silence, suppressing feelings of guilt, shame and grief for, quite often, years. If this describes you, and you would like more information on how to find hope and healing, please visit this site, or click on the “contact me” button above.
This post comes on the heels of Christmas, after every gift has been opened and we’ve all made merry with friends and family, near and far. Our sights are likely being set toward the new year at this point, as we gear up to ring it in this week.
Change has been the theme of 2009 for me. What started with the advent of this “Changing One Heart for Many” prayer team in January, soon became a year that ushered in change after change – often enough to make my head spin! I was reminded again, yesterday, as I listened to what will likely be my last day of Christmas music, that we actually celebrate change at this time of year. The change brought about by a baby; a baby who was the result of an unplanned pregnancy, but through trust and obedience was allowed to live.
A baby Who changed everything.
Join me today in celebration of change. Certainly, the change brought about by all the babies that have been allowed to live this year through prayer, the valiant efforts of those on the front-lines of the pro-life movement, and the brave decisions of women facing unplanned pregnancies, but also, the change brought about in the lives of those who released their babies to heaven. May that change, in particular, be one that brings those parents to the foot of a manger in Bethlehem and, consequently, to that of a cross on a hill in Calvary. And may it be a visit that changes everything.
Father God, we come to You today – many believers, one voice – to stand for life. Lord, we praise You for making a way for us to change, leaving our old, sinful selves behind and becoming a completely NEW creation in You! Thank You for sending Your Son to us, not in a palace, though that would be the most fitting, but in the lowest, simplest of ways, so that we could relate to Him. Thank you for choosing Mary, a brave young woman, to show such a great example of trust and obedience. Father, we pray for President Obama and the other leaders and lawmakers of this country, that they would see beyond the sweet nativity story and be forever changed by the Baby who’s at the center of it. We pray together in the MIGHTY, LIFE-CHANGING NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, Amen.
Continue praying for health-care reform. The vote last week did not go in the favor of the pro-life movement.
Melinda,
Only eternity will reveal the changed hearts and lives of so many because of your efforts and those who plead the cause of the unborn. You will have a special welcoming committee in heaven of precious ones who were allowed to live because their moms were influenced to not abort by someone who cared.
God bless you, my friend.
Leah
Melinda, this post and Faith Hill's song so touched my heart that I just sat here feeling God's Spirit. Then I read Leah's beautiful post and it all brought tears to my eyes. I second everything she said!!
Evidently, God is planning to keep us on our knees, in prayer, for these little unborn babies. We need to keep reminding ourselves that God called us to Trust not to understand.
I love you!!!
Mom
Still praying with you!
That baby will change everthing……Hope you got my email…It probably had a hundred typos as
I typed it in the middle of the night…Just know I have walked this road with a beautiful daughter who today is the most awesome Mom…and life is good…
Praying…
April
Still praying with you, Melinda. May God bless you in the New Year!
Over Christmas, a friend of mine experienced the pain of "abortion" all over again. Her son's girlfriend decided to go through with an abortion, leaving a gaping wound in my friend and a haunting reminder of an earlier season when she, too, made the same choice.
Her pain is real, and she is hurting. How grateful I am to be on the receiving end of her trust and to stand alongside her in prayer for God's healing arms to cradle her heart and the heart of this young girl who made a life-altering decision.
It's been a year filled with a great many things, Melinda, as you have so aptly stated here. My emotions, along with yours, have run the full spectrum, along with our faith. Still and yet, we arrive at this point of 2009 in tact and with God at the helm–still in the lead, still being faithful, still being God.
That's the testimony and witness of great faith, and it blesses my heart to know that no matter what 2010 holds, should I linger on this earth through another year's moments, my God will still be God at the end of it.
Love you, and thank you for your diligence over the past 12 months for the unborn. You are precious to me.
peace~elaine