First Fruits Friday - Healed People, Heal People
Have you wondered what God may be calling you to in His service? How can you use your talents, gifts, skills or strength to bring Glory to Jesus Christ? In response the the abortion crisis in our community, over 1,200 unborn babies have died next door to Seneca this year. We as a Christian community have to be the solution. As the hands and feet of Christ, He sends us out on mission, 2 by 2 to share the gospel and make disciples of all nations (Mathew 28: 19-20). On the sidewalk of the abortion facility next door to Seneca, it looks like meeting the mother where she is at, offering immediate and long-term solutions and realizing this work is not about us.
The temptation for Pro-Life people is to want to take the moral inventory of the woman who’s arrived for her abortion appointment. Essentially we are tempted to judge her for being at this appointment. However, judging her situation is not our job. Jesus is the only judge and we are not Him. Therefore, when we show up to do pro-life work, we must humble ourselves, asking God to work through us. We must know our woundedness, we must know our sins and seek repentance. If we do not intentionally know our temptations to sin and constantly seek alignment with God and forgiveness along with reconciliation, the sin we have will blind us and we will become a tool for Satan.
The outreach done along the sidewalk of the abortion facility is some of the most powerful outreach one can imagine. This is a matter of life and death. God allows us to be His vessels to bring light into the darkness, however, if we do not have our own moral inventory in check, our pride, our sin, our wounds will be used for bad and not good. What I’m describing is our own temptation to sin: judgment, condemnation, misunderstanding, gossip, whatever our weakness is, it will be amplified on the sidewalk if we do not keep it in check. It takes humility and grace to be a witness and do pro-life sidewalk advocacy in the midst of the persecution of the enemy alongside the “clinic escorts.”
When we trust in God’s grace to overcome our own temptations, our woundedness, our sin; we can persevere alongside what appears to be the opposition. We must constantly repent, and renew our baptismal promises to go and sin no more (John 8: 11). It’s really only by the grace of God that we are able to continue day after day in our woundedness so we can seek healing and mercy to bring about that healing and mercy to others. This is why being intentional with our prayer time, being in the Word and making conscious decisions about what we allow to influence our minds and hearts is of paramount importance.
When we actively seek healing, we begin to understand the depths of God’s love for us and His ever enduring mercy. The grace of this healing allows us to realize each day that His mercies are new. The healing of our woundedness in repentance and reconciliation allows us the strength to choose the narrow way. From the depths of our hearts, we each desire this closeness to God, but the reality of choosing the narrow way can be challenging. Being in relationship with our spouses, our small groups, our accountability partners, receiving the sacraments, all help us choose the narrow way. We crave community along the narrow way. Essentially, choosing the narrow way (Matthew 7:13-14) keeps us close to Jesus so that we can be healthy in our relationship with him and bring that healing to others.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14.
We understand that wounded people wound people, therefore as we humble ourselves and come to our Father in heaven, we can receive healing and be a conduit for that healing for others. So in this new year, as we pray for the unborn, pray for the courage to come and be a witness along the sidewalks and pathways of the abortion facility. Let us ask God to heal our wounded-ness so that we don’t have to be those wounded people. Rather we can be the healed people that heal people!