I have met many girls/women who feel totally worthless after having an abortion. There are intense feelings of shame, guilt, unforgiveness, regret, grief, sadness . . . the negative feelings are endless. At some point, you really would rather die than to feel the pain. Coping mechanisms begin to weave in and out of every part of your life in order to “deal” with the abortion and move on with life. But even though you may move on, you still have the sense that something is wrong. As much as you try to deny these feelings, they always surface in one way or another no matter how much you try to control them.
Control. That’s the key word. We don’t want to let go because we feel we may go crazy with all of these negative feelings inside. What if I said that letting go is a key answer?
I can’t explain it any better than God. He says this in James 4:7, “So give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Yes, this means give up the control, give up the negative thoughts that the enemy keeps feeding you . . . lay it all down and reach for God. Guess what happens then?
James 4:8, “And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you.”
God will ALWAYS come to you when you ask Him. God is just that way. When you come to Him, ask for forgiveness so you are good with God (just as when you say you are sorry to a friend and they respond in a positive way and then you are good friends again). BUT with God’s forgiveness, your heart is filled with HIM – which makes your heart pure and true to God. I know this because it explains this in the rest of James 4:8.
Then James 9 goes on to explain, “Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and sincere grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.”
This part of the scripture really bums me out because it’s all of the negative feelings just weighing me down and making me feel bad. In truth, though, I am choosing to carry these feelings because of how I feel about myself. But God is a great God and here is the answer:
James 10, “Then when you realize your worthlessness before the Lord, he will lift you up, encourage and help you.”
So when you give up control and realize you can’t do it yourself and God CAN, reach out to Him. He will NEVER NOT grab your hand to help you and lift you out of your shame, guilt, or fill in the blank!
Sometimes we are so deep into our shame (or whatever) we think God will not answer. Or we think we have done the unforgivable. Many post abortion women believe this. The Truth is NOTHING can separate us from God. He is just waiting for you to reach out to Him.
If you haven’t reached out to God about your abortion (or anything thing else), please do your heart and life good and do so right now. Just pray and talk with God. You don’t have to have a fancy prayer – just be you in saying a sincere from-your-heart sorry, asking for forgiveness. God will fill your heart with Him – which is all good. I promise you will then feel His Peace, His Joy and His never-ending love.
