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Day 28 - March 20

Intention:

Pray that those standing in peaceful vigil will extend mercy and grace to others as they remember that Christ did not treat us as our sins deserve.

Scripture:

You have heard it was said, 'you shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

-- Matthew 5: 43-44

Reflection:

Perhaps it is obvious by now that not everyone thinks this campaign is a great idea! In fact, those on the front lines standing in peaceful vigil are perhaps being cursed and hated for what God has called you to do. Because we are all fallen creatures, our natural response may not be as Christ-like as we would hope it would be.

So, how do we keep our natural response in check, while allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us to love, bless, do good, and pray for those who hate us or would do us harm?

Consider first the Holiness of God. It seems that sin has clouded our ability to think clearly about God's nature. We simply don't have a clue of how outraged God is by our sin, what an insult sin is to His person, or how sin fires the flames of His wrath. Praise God that He didn't leave us in our depravity destined for His divine wrath!

Ephesians 2:4-5 says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, made us alive together with Christ; by grace you have been saved."

Because of God's mercy and grace towards us, we who receive Him receive eternal Hope. Those who curse you, hate you, spitefully mistreat you and persecute you need that same Hope. That is the only way we can ever expect them to behave differently. Ask the Holy Spirit to love them -- through you -- so they are drawn to the Hope that is in you, that is Christ Jesus.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, may we reflect your character of grace and kindness to those who hate us and curse us. Guard our hearts and our tongues as we respond in love to words and actions meant to rile us or cause us harm. Let others see the Hope that is Christ in all we say and do. In His precious name we pray, amen.

Carmen Pate
40 Days for Life board of directors

Christ said those who follow Him could face persecution.
And He was certainly right about that.

Whether it’s “pledge a picketer” efforts, media
misrepresentations — or something altogether novel —
we’re pretty much seeing it all during this campaign.
The abortion business does not like 40 Days for Life.

What to do about it? Just keep praying! This is, after
all, a spiritual battle. Here are a couple of stories
about campaigns under attack. Please keep ALL of the
258 campaigns in your prayers.

LONDON, ENGLAND

The London 40 Days for Life coordinator, Robert
Colquhoun, said, “We have been totally harangued by
the media with lies and intimidation.”

Indeed, the campaign has been in the middle of a media
firestorm. Newspapers have published stories about
40 Days for Life participants “harassing” women
outside the abortion center where the London vigil
is taking place. Of course, there was no such behavior
in evidence.

Vigil participants were also accused of taking pictures
of women entering the facility. Also not true — they
had cameras to record the people who were directing
their anger at the people praying.

One newspaper had a headline with the word “intimidation”
in it — right above a photo of three people quietly
praying, with their eyes cast down at the pavement. The
photo spoke louder than the abortion center staff’s
trumped-up accusations.

Robert appeared on BBC radio’s morning news along with
Ann Furedi, the CEO of BPAS, which is England’s largest
abortion chain.

Robert fielded a barrage of loaded questions from the
interviewer with an air of calm confidence and outlined
the 40 Days for Life mission — and the necessity of a
peaceful prayer presence outside the abortion facility.

An estimated 4 million listeners heard the interview.

For a link to the BBC radio story, please go to:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=2994

NEW ABORTION CENTER TACTIC

We’ve received reports from several locations that
suggest the abortion centers are trying something
new in their efforts to get 40 Days for Life prayer
vigil participants to go home: fertilizer. And lots
of it.

The idea, apparently, is to spread the stuff along
the public right-of-way and generate a foul odor in
the area where people are praying. In at least one
of the locations, the sidewalk itself has been
covered in awful-smelling fertilizer. A staff member
said they’re just maintaining their landscaping.

Of course, fertilizer does help things grow. What’s
growing on the concrete outside the abortion centers?
The vigil!

“We have dedicated vigil people who will not let this
keep them away from the vigil,” said one of the local
leaders confronted with this tactic. “If they think
this will make us go away, they are very wrong.”

“It did not deter us at all,” reports the coordinator
of another campaign, “and now God has sent the rain
for hours, which washed away the smell.”

TORONTO, ONTARIO

Need a bit of positive encouragement? Then take two
minutes to go watch a short video of the midpoint
event for 40 Days for Life in Toronto and recall the
words of Isaiah: “Here am I; send me.”

To see the video from Toronto, please go to:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=2994