DAY 37: Prayer is the key
Today’s devotional deals with sacrifice … and really, that’s what 40 Days for Life is all about — sacrifice.
It’s a lot easier to hit the snooze button and roll over for a little more sleep than it is to get out of bed early in the morning and drive down to an abortion center vigil.
It’s a lot easier to stay at home at night to watch a movie with the family than to go pray outside a building where the doors are locked and all the lights are off.
But we make the sacrifice.
We do it not for ourselves … but for Christ, who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us. And when we pray, He listens.
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
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When it comes to ending the abortion crisis, Mary Anne in Ithaca put it simply: “Prayer is the key.”
People will walk past vigil participants, telling them that their presence on the street is a waste of time — or that they should be doing something useful, like providing food and clothing for the poor. “Many do not see prayer as an activity,” she said.
Mary Anne recalled a young couple who got out of their car to talk to her. The man spoke about all of the supposed “good” that Planned Parenthood does.
She responded, “Think about your fatherhood. You’ll regret your lost fatherhood. I would not go in there.” She told him about the pregnancy help center around the corner. The couple walked up and down the street — but never went into Planned Parenthood.
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LONDON, ONTARIO
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The 40 Days for Life team in this Canadian city told of an 18-year-old woman who stopped to talk to the people praying outside the hospital.
She was pregnant and was considering abortion. Every day, she had to travel past the people praying outside the hospital. And every time she went by, in her mind she would hear the words, “Don’t kill.”
It really bothered her. So she figured she’d just take an alternate route. But still she thought of the vigil, and the words would not go away. She then told the vigil participants she was no longer abortion-minded.
“I imagine she’ll have many obstacles to overcome,” one of the volunteers said, “but God can do all things.”
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PORTLAND, OREGON
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“This is our second campaign at Planned Parenthood in Portland,” Therese said. “This time, Planned Parenthood actually hired two security guards to work on surgical abortion days.”
Last week, one of those guards came to deliver a message to vigil participants — the abortion center had put up a sign. The volunteers couldn’t see it from where they were standing, so the guard came and told them. The sign read, “Planned Parenthood will be closed at 2:00 today.”
“They normally close at 4:00,” Therese said. “This is the first time I know of that this has happened.”
She also noted the presence of mothers and children at the 40 Days for Life vigil. “It is such a powerful witness to see Moms and kids out there,” she said … adding that the children love to hold signs.
“The Holy Spirit is moving in so many ways here,” Therese said, “It is just amazing!”
Here’s the link to today’s devotional.
For Life,
Shawn Carney
Campaign Director
40 Days for Life
PS: What’s new with 40 Days for Life in your community? Please share any stories by leaving a comment below.
November 1st, 2012 at 7:54 am
What a blessing and powerful message to see these children made in the image of God proclaiming that LIFE is Precious! Thank you Portland! Our God Reigns!
Isaiah 52:6
Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore they shall know in that day that I Am He that doth speak: behold it is I.
November 1st, 2012 at 8:03 am
Good Morning To All:
I just have one thing to say: I am 110% PRO LIFE, and don’t believe in abortion. I am adopted and I truly believe there are other options and that GOD will be with you every step of the way. What I’m trying to say is that I truly hope that when people go out and vote they think before they do so. They should vote for a PRO LIFE campaign and for someone who believes in God.
November 1st, 2012 at 9:51 am
Father God,
I praise You for all of these 40 Days for Life campaigns! I praise You for all You have done, are doing & will do in & through them. We bless You & praise You for all the mercy You’ve shown us through Your presence with all of us who have participated. I am forever grateful! We LOVE YOU!
November 1st, 2012 at 10:15 am
Christ’s message is about sacrifice for others and our reward is great when we do! May God give our nation this message over and over again and transform us for His glory. Happy All Saints Day!
November 1st, 2012 at 10:22 am
I will never forget the time I went with friends to pray at a Planned Parenthood location. It was so sobering to see young women enter and come out. We started praying right outside the facility and we were asked to leave or the police would be called. We all felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and the sorrow that abortion represents. Our plan was to enjoy dinner together after our prayer vigil. Not one of us felt a desire to do this when we were finished praying. We went home with the awareness that our Lord grieves over what takes place at Planned Parenthood.
November 1st, 2012 at 10:41 am
St. Paul, MN.
This morning I went to Planned Parenthood to find a black curtain had been put up over the fence that separates the patients entering the building and pro-lifers who try to hold up signs and encourage women to choose life. I felt discouraged, but continued to pray.
In a few minutes a regular group of men who pray Thursday morning approached. One carried a ladder. In a few minutes, this man had climbed to the top of the ladder and was holding a sign with a help number on it. He also tries to talk to women who are entering the clinic from the parking garage. This is the only opportunity to intercept them before they enter the building.
And now it’s done from a ladder.
What an amazing thing, to see the heart of God expressed in his people. (I have some pictures on my website)
November 1st, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Your theme today of “sacrifice” spoke to me. I am so grateful for the beautiful testimonies and pictures! This is my 8th campaign participated in and though I have had some powerful blessings from them, I must admit that each one, for me at least, gets more difficult to go out to the clinic. Prior campaigns I was able to talk a few friends from church to join me, but they have dwindled off. It often happens that the hour I commit to, I am alone. It is a safe neighborhood, during the day, so safety is not an issue. More frequently, the clinic has been closed–which I know is a GOOD thing! It is simply the devil who tempts me to —”oh, just pray at home, or go to church and pray.” But the writings hear that remind me of the power of public witness, and the whole purpose of sacrifice spur me on. Two main thoughts, keep me out there: one, I unite my prayers and sacrifice with all the other prayer warriors participating in 40 Days, and two, I think of my beautiful daughters, (ages 21, 18, 14), my 7 lovely nieces and all their friends and pray that they will never be in a situation to be contemplating abortion and that they will be strong witnesses to the world and stand up for LIFE!
November 1st, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Let us pray on this All Saints Day for an end to abortion. God Bless!
November 1st, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Some of us participating in the Livingston, Montana, campaign have been showing up to pray almost every morning before work. One woman has committed to going every single morning of the 40 days and her determination is inspiring. In Livingston, there is a strong pro-abortion group called the “Trust Women Fund” -part of a larger organization, the National Network of Abortion Funds- which supports the abortion mill and raises money to give loans to girls seeking abortions. The local organization strongly promotes its “Pledge-A-Picketer” campaign, a clever fundraising tactic designed to scare us out praying, and its members even showed up at our Kick-Off Rally to announce to us that “every protester here tonight is paying for one woman’s abortion.” (I think that may have been a slight exaggeration- it’s unlikely that they have a donor willing to shell out $600 x 60 people!)
The next tactic the Trust Women Fund tried to discourage us was putting up signs on their building informing us that we’re raising money for them, and even taped off their bench saying that it’s “under repair” to discourage prayer volunteers from sitting on it! (see attached photos) We don’t mind the signs, because they draw attention to the fact that the building is an abortion facility, and it shows how much they want to be seen as victims. As for the taped-off bench, it’s so obvious that the bench ISN’T broken that it just looks silly to people walking by. (We also wonder, if we’re such a great fundraiser for them, why they don’t promote 40 Days for Life and participate in it themselves…or at least leave us alone!)
Finally, they tried direct confrontation to intimidate us. A clinic “deathscort” showed up one morning and began filming us with her cell phone and telling us that we were breaking Montana’s “bubble zone” law. We know the text of the law and generally keep a copy of it with us, so we knew that we were within our rights. The deathscort proceeded to get in each of our faces one at a time while filming and taking pictures, and tell us that we were too close to her, to which we calmly responded that she had approached us and not the other way around. Her friend even showed up to take pictures of us with his professional camera! It was a full 5-minute photo shoot and we later realized we should have asked for copies (the pictures probably turned out great).
Most of the responses we’ve gotten each morning have been positive, including some of the children walking to school saying hi to us each morning. But early Halloween morning, as we stood with a crowd of 7 people, a car with the passenger window open sped by and a scary-masked occupant yelled “Get a life!” at us. Some of us prayed that he and the driver might come to the realization of the ironic truth in what he yelled. If he thought it through, he’d actually hollered something that we could take as an encouragement: a very joyful reminder that to “get a life” saved, and glorify the Author of Life, was the exact reason we were standing on that sidewalk on a windy Wednesday morning!
November 1st, 2012 at 11:53 pm
Before I was confronted with the pro-life movement I never gave abortion a second thought, but you guys made me aware of the atrocity of abortion. Thanks to you, I now know where I stand concerning abortion, I’m 100% pro-life. Keep up the good work, you did make a difference in my life.
Suzanne
November 2nd, 2012 at 5:14 am
I thank God 4 his love and mercy,i thank God for his forgivness of our sins i prayed 4 his strength and understanding 2 guard those fighting 2 stop abortion because the bible condemn killing and also those involue in abortion seem 2 b ignorant of the comsequencies because they do no know what they are doing.i wish they are enlighted 2 let them know that abortion is a great offence b4 God and i pray 4 forgivness not 2 b involued in such attitude again.