©2013
— 40 Days for Life, Inc. — www.40daysforlife.comDevotional for Day 8, February 20, 2013
Rev. Rob Schenck, President, Faith and Action
Intention:
We pray for a renewal of our zeal to offer
generous help to the unborn and
their families.
Scripture:
If I have despised the cause of my male
or female servant when they complained
against me, what then shall I do
when God rises up? When He punishes,
how shall I answer Him? Did not He
who made me in the womb make
them? Did not the same One fashion us
in the womb?
—
Job 31:13-15Reflection:
The ground is level as we stand before
God.
Job lived with an awe provoking sense
of God’s expectation of him, particula
rlyregarding his obligation to care for
the weak and needy. He knew that in
God’s economy everyone stands on
level ground when it comes to our status
a
s God’s creatures. Because of thatcentral truth, we must take care of each
other.
Job also knew that he didn’t deserve
any of the good things God gave to him.
Instead, those blessings came to Job
from God’s benevolent heart.
As an extension of that knowledge, Job
instinctively linked his obligation to be
generous to others to God’s kindness
toward him.
As in Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful
servant (Matthew 18:23-35), Job knew
that it is an egregious sin to deny to
others what we enjoy ourselves.
He actually calls down on his own head
severe condemnation and even punishment
should he fail to share with
others out of his own abundance (see
verses 16-23).
Proverbs 3:27 reads, “Withhold not
good from them to whom it is due,
when it is in the power of your hand to
do so.” Some things are so obvious that
we don’t even need to pray except to
ask of God forgiveness and the power
to do what so obviously needs doing.
Prayer:
God, forgive us when we try to explain
away the obligation we have to help
others who need help. Enable us to not
devalue them because they are in the
circumstance that they are in, but to
see them for what they are, those, who
like us, were formed by your hand in
their mother’s womb. Amen
.The first time I was invited to pray outside of an
abortion facility, I didn’t really want to do it.
Like me, many people’s initial reaction is to find
the most heartfelt and sincere excuse. However, when
we overcome that first natural hesitation and just
do it, we don’t regret it. And it’s never what we
thought it would be like.
When you pray outside an abortion facility at a
40 Days for Life vigil, you may affect women going
into the building ... the people driving by ... the
people who work there.
But there’s one other person your prayer experience
can affect — YOU!
Here are just a few examples from the sidewalk.
“Today I prayed for three hours in front of the
Planned Parenthood in Chapel Hill,” a volunteer wrote
on the 40 Days for Life blog. “The steady stream of
people going in and out, the sometimes packed parking
lot, other people walking in from nearby parking lots
and streets, was heartbreaking.”
People outside the building generally ignored him,
he said — except for two men holding babies. Whenever
he looked their way, he could tell they had been
looking at them. But they would quickly glance away,
trying to avoid making eye contact. Why were they
there? What were they thinking?
The volunteer just continued to pray. “I prayed for
babies to be saved, for mothers and family members to
have a change of heart and find real help elsewhere,
for workers to be convicted and quit” — anything to
stop what was going on inside.
“I prayed with a small stone cross in my hand, the
word ‘hope’ written on it,” he said. “I pray that
those considering abortion will find real hope, real
help and real life in Christ.”
Another volunteer, praying at the 40 Days for Life vigil
in Sacramento, was also seeking signs of hope.
“The clinic faces two streets,” she wrote in a 40 Days
for Life blog posting. “One is a very busy — Alta
Arden Way — with many cars whizzing by in both
directions. The other is Wright Street, which is a
far more quiet street. Our opportunity to witness is
greater on the Wright Street.”
As she and others were praying together, they
noticed the abortion center’s sign was in “utter
disrepair. I hoped that it meant that as the clinic
was losing business and ... that this battered sign
meant hope that soon no preborn babies would lose
their lives at this location.”
“It was an abortion day in Kalamazoo,” a third prayer
volunteer wrote. “I was new to the sidewalk.”
She had prayed at home during several campaigns, but
she said the daily 40 Days for Life emails — plus
God’s prompting — convinced her she had to do more.
As she and several others prayed outside Planned
Parenthood, a large truck pulled up and a man got
out. “He thanked us for being there and for praying,”
she said. “He explained that his oldest child was
aborted. All these years later he still carried that
pain and loss. He lived the tragedy.”
He thanked the volunteers again, then drove away.
“If I had any doubts of my need to be there, they
were instantly gone,” she wrote. “God sent the
guy in the big truck to tell me that my presence
mattered. God keeps showing me that our presence
on the sidewalk matters.”