With Love for Our Little Ones: Praying for the End of Abortion – Shades of Grace | Natalie Nichols- Shades of Grace | Natalie Nichols
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Jan 18th 19 Posted by Natalie Nichols in Fasting

With Love for Our Little Ones: Praying for the End of Abortion

praying for the end of abortion

With much God-given love for our little ones, we’re fasting and praying for the end of abortion. Over 60 million American lives have been lost to abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973. [1]

The Supreme Court and the American political system do not possess the power to drive this genocide out from our nation.

“This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Matthew 17:21

This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. This sin, this evil, this murder, this genocide, this shedding of innocent blood that is polluting the land and calling for God’s judgment on the nation—it will not be driven from our midst by any other means except by prayer and fasting.

During Pursuit 21 every year, we focus one day on praying for the end of the genocide of abortion. We do so on the day of the March for Life in the United States (which coincides with National Sanctity of Human Life Day and the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade).

The United States is not the only nation committing this heinous sin. Worldwide, there have been over 1.5 billion abortions since 1980.2

Each year, people from thirty to forty countries participate in Pursuit 21. No matter the location of your residence, take a moment to join us in this critical prayer. The date may not coincide with a special day in your country like it does in ours. But given the incidence of abortion worldwide, the prayer coincides with an urgent need, in your nation as well as in America.

For the Little Ones

The book of Ezra tells the story of Jews returning back to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon. For Ezra and those returning with him, the long journey ahead was plagued by gangs and thieves. Ezra and the Jews had their wives and children with them. The Jews were the perfect target for the thieves and thugs. They were loaded … and defenseless. They desperately needed protection for the long journey. Ezra took the right step and declared a corporate fast:

“Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, ‘The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.’

So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer” (Ezra 8:21-23, NKJV).

Ezra led the people to fast for the safety and protection of their “little ones.” This is what we’re doing today. Our little ones are in desperate need of protection … from death! 

War Against the Preborn

Our little ones are in danger too — in danger of death from the thief who has come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). If Ezra called for corporate fasting and prayer for the safety and well-being of the Jews’ little ones, how much more we need to engage in corporate fasting and prayer for the safety of our little ones amid the slaughter perpetrated against them.

The number of abortion deaths each year rival the number of American casualties in all our wars combined.

American Casualties of War Statistics:

A few of the major wars:

  • Revolutionary: War: 25,324
  • Civil War: estimates as high as 625,000
  • WWI: 116,516
  • WWII: 405,399
  • Vietnam: 58,209
  • War on Terror: 6,639
  • ALL WARS/CONFLICTS: 1,326,7333
  • War on the unborn: 60,984,366

In February 1995, before the President of the United States at the National Prayer Breakfast, Mother Teresa spoke about the effect of abortion:

I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child — a direct killing of the innocent child — murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?…

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.4

Genocide On Our Watch

In 2014, there were an estimated 926,200 abortions. One preborn child dies at Planned Parenthood every 97 seconds. Planned Parenthood ends the lives of over 320,000 American children every year.

How does the number of abortion deaths compare to the holocaust?

  • Six million Jews died tragically, mercilessly in the Holocaust.5
  • Over 60 million babies have died in the American Holocaust.

Would you define the occurrence of over 60 million abortions as genocide?

Genocide is “The deliberate and systematic destruction of a national, racial, religious, political, cultural, ethnic, or other group defined by the exterminators as undesirable.”

This Webster’s definition readily applies to abortion. The “national group” is American “unwanted” unborn children who are being terminated in an elaborate network of killing centers

The Shedding of Innocent Blood

God values humanity so much that He protects it with His judgment. A day of judgment is set if man does not obey Him.

“And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Gen. 9:5-6, NIV). (Click to tweet Tweet this)

The shedding of innocent blood pollutes the land.

“Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it” (Num. 35:33, NIV) (Click to tweet Tweet this)

Nothing can wash away our sin and defilement of the land except the blood of Jesus. We need to repent and cry out for mercy. (Click to tweet Tweet this)

“So he said he would destroy them — had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them” (Psalm 106:23, NIV).

It seems that as believers we are not sufficiently grieved over this heinous sin—the sacrificing of babies to demons.

“They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood….Therefore the wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people, so that He abhorred His own inheritance” (Psalm 106:37-38, 40, NKJV)

The sacrificing of babies to demons—it happens around us every day, every 30 seconds … yet we go about our way as if nothing is happening. We read in the Bible about babies being sacrificed and we think, “How brutal. How primitive. How evil. We would never let anything like that happen in our day. We’re more sophisticated and enlightened than that.” Yet it is happening all around us … in staggering numbers … and even worse, we seem undisturbed and unmoved by it.

When the blood is shed by a national law, then there is national guilt on us all.

“If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke and lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault” (Deuteronomy 21:1-5, NIV).

We are repeating Manasseh’s sin:

“Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 21:16, ESV).

“For he [Manasseh] had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon”(2 Kings 24:4, NKJV).

Only the blood of Jesus can wash away our sin and cleanse our land.

Except by Prayer and Fasting

As we saw at the beginning of this post, Ezra led the Jews to fast to seek God’s help for the safety and wellbeing of their “little ones.”

“Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones… 

So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer” (Ezra 8:21, 23).

Ezra properly led the Jews to seek help from God—not from the king, not from government, not from political systems, but from God.

In A Hunger for God, John Piper writes:

Fasting comes in alongside prayer with all its hunger for God and says,

“We are not able in ourselves to win this battle.

We are not able to change hearts or minds.

We are not able to change worldviews and transform culture and save [926,200] children.

We are not able to reform the judiciary or embolden the legislature or mobilize the slumbering population.

We are not able to heal the endless wounds of godless ideologies and their bloody deeds.

But, O God, you are able!

And we turn from reliance on ourselves to you.

And we cry out to you and plead that for the sake of your name, and for the sake of your glory, and for the advancement of your saving purpose in the world, and for the demonstration of your wisdom and your power and your authority over all things, and for the sway of your Truth and the relief of the poor and the helpless, act, O God. This much we hunger for the revelation of your power.” 6

As we fast, it’s important to to see how God answered Ezra and the Jews’ fasting and prayer for their little ones:

“So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.”
Ezra 8:23

Prayer

Lord forgive us for the sin of abortion that we as a nation have committed. We acknowledge our sin of the shedding of innocent blood.

Forgive us for not following Your Word. Forgive us for not valuing the lives you so fearfully and wonderfully created.

Father, we have blamed the taking of innocent life on convenience or science, but Your Word calls it murder. Israel did not escape Your judgment for killing innocent children and neither will we. For you are the same yesterday, today and forever. We ask Your forgiveness for killing the lives of untold millions. May we turn from our wicked ways and become a people who hide Your Word in our hearts, that we might not sin against You.

We are not able in ourselves to win this battle. We are not able to change hearts or minds. We are not able to change worldviews and transform culture and millions of children. But You are able! You are able to reform the judiciary and embolden the legislature and mobilize the slumbering population. You area able to heal the endless wounds of godless ideologies and their bloody deeds.

O God, You are able! We turn from reliance on ourselves to You. We cry out to You and plead that for the sake of Your name, and for the sake of Your glory, and for the advancement of Your saving purpose in the world, and for the demonstration of Your wisdom and Your power and Your authority over all things, and for the sway of Your Truth and the relief of the poor and the helpless, act, O God. We hunger for the revelation of Your power. Come. Manifest Your glory.

 

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TweetablesMore Tweetables

  • “The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child… If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” ~ Mother Teresa Click to tweet Tweet
  • “The occurrence of over 60 million abortions is genocide. Genocide is the deliberate, systematic destruction of a national, racial, religious, political, cultural, ethnic, or other group defined by the exterminators as undesirable.” Click to tweet Tweet
  • “From each man … I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.” ~ Genesis 9:5 #prolife Click to tweet Tweet
  • “Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.” — Numbers 35:33 Click to tweet Tweet
  • Nothing can wash away our sin and the defilement of the land from this genocide except the blood of Jesus. We need to repent and cry out for mercy. #abortion #prolife Click to tweet Tweet
  • Ezra led the Jews to fast for the safety and protection of their little ones — and God answered! When we fast and pray for the safety of our little ones, God will answer. Click to tweet Tweet
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Questions:

  • Have you thought of abortion as a war with casualties or as genocide before?
  • How does it affect you to see the numbers of those killed in wars and in the holocaust compared to those killed by abortion? 
  • What are you praying today as you open your mouth in intercessory prayer for the 926,200 babies appointed to die by abortion in America this year — and for those appointed to die by abortion worldwide?
  • If you do not live in the United States, is abortion polluting your land? 
  • Do you believe if we fast and pray for the safety of our little ones, God will answer our prayer as He did for Ezra and the Jews?
  • If so, are you earnestly praying with faith and expectancy for the end of abortion?
  • Is your confidence and expectancy in the courts and political systems … or in God alone? 

RELATED POSTS

FASTING DAY 13 FROM THE ARCHIVES

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  1. http://www.numberofabortions.com. Accessed January 17, 2019. (As of 2020, there have been 61,628,584 abortions since Roe v. Wade. This statistic is based on numbers reported by the Guttmacher Institute from 1973 – 2017. See https://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/2020/01/abortion-statistics-united-states-data-and-trends-4/. Accessed January 16, 2020.)
  2. http://www.numberofabortions.com. Accessed January 17, 2019.
  3. War statistic sources: American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics;http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf. Casualties of the war on terror: 2013 statistic.
  4. http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/mtspeech.html
  5. Holocaust Statistics: United States Holocaust Memorial
  6. John Piper, A Hunger for God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997), 171

*In 2014, an estimated 926,200 abortions were performed in the United States, 12% fewer than in 2011. For the first time in four decades the number of abortions dropped below 1 million, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, Shades of Grace will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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