Silas
Beloved of All
What you felt when you saw that news is right and good. To see an innocent baby left to die and to feel horror and grief is the right response. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, and that hatred of evil is the beginning of wisdom. God hates evil, and when His heart is in us we will hate it too. Evil always asks to be tolerated and to be compromised with, but wisdom does not make peace with it.
What you read in those comments is exactly what Scripture warned would happen, that people would call evil good and good evil. There are those who rejoice to do evil and delight in what is perverse, and they will even try to justify the death of a child by saying a woman did not want to be a mother or by blaming a law. That is not compassion, it is a heart that has given itself over to evil and wants others to approve it. The path may look sweet at first, like honey on the lips, but its end is bitter and it leads down to death. It destroys lives, families, minds and whole cultures.
God has set before every person the way of life and the way of death, and it is amazing how often people choose the way of death. It can look for a time as though those who do evil get away with it, that they prosper and live long while the innocent suffer. Do not be deceived by that. God must punish evil, but He is patient and long suffering because He wants people to hear His warning and turn from their evil way so He can relent from the judgment He has promised. Even if a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his days, it shall still be well in the end with those who fear God. There is no lasting reward for the evil man. His lamp will be put out. Evil will in the end slay the wicked.
That is why your sense that we are near the return of Jesus matters. We do not yet see all things put right under His feet. We still see death and cruelty and lies. But Jesus, by becoming a man and tasting death for every one of us, paid the wages of sin which is death, and through His death He broke the power of the one who had the power of death, that is the devil, and He delivers those who all their lives were held in bondage by the fear of death. For the child of God the sting of death, which is sin, has been removed. That baby is not forgotten by God, and the evil done will not be forgotten either. Do not judge the story in the middle. Wait until the end and you will see what God has done to bring justice and to make all things right when Christ returns.
So we pray as you asked, not that God would bless what He calls evil, but that He would have mercy to save.
Father, we bring before You this precious life lost and the deep brokenness that led to it. Have mercy. We pray for those who made comments to justify this death, that You would open their eyes to see evil as You see it and turn from their evil way to life in Jesus Christ. We pray for women who feel trapped or who do not want to be mothers, that You would surround them with help and truth and show them the value of every life You create. We pray for our land where evil is so well entrenched and so loudly defended, that You would restrain evil and bring justice, and that You would give Your people courage to hate evil while still loving the people trapped in it. We thank You that Jesus tasted death for us so we do not have to taste the second death, and we ask You to comfort the heart that is grieving over this news and to keep it from growing tolerant or cold. Give hope as we look for the return of Your Son, when He will make all things subject to Himself. In Jesus name, amen.
What you read in those comments is exactly what Scripture warned would happen, that people would call evil good and good evil. There are those who rejoice to do evil and delight in what is perverse, and they will even try to justify the death of a child by saying a woman did not want to be a mother or by blaming a law. That is not compassion, it is a heart that has given itself over to evil and wants others to approve it. The path may look sweet at first, like honey on the lips, but its end is bitter and it leads down to death. It destroys lives, families, minds and whole cultures.
God has set before every person the way of life and the way of death, and it is amazing how often people choose the way of death. It can look for a time as though those who do evil get away with it, that they prosper and live long while the innocent suffer. Do not be deceived by that. God must punish evil, but He is patient and long suffering because He wants people to hear His warning and turn from their evil way so He can relent from the judgment He has promised. Even if a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his days, it shall still be well in the end with those who fear God. There is no lasting reward for the evil man. His lamp will be put out. Evil will in the end slay the wicked.
That is why your sense that we are near the return of Jesus matters. We do not yet see all things put right under His feet. We still see death and cruelty and lies. But Jesus, by becoming a man and tasting death for every one of us, paid the wages of sin which is death, and through His death He broke the power of the one who had the power of death, that is the devil, and He delivers those who all their lives were held in bondage by the fear of death. For the child of God the sting of death, which is sin, has been removed. That baby is not forgotten by God, and the evil done will not be forgotten either. Do not judge the story in the middle. Wait until the end and you will see what God has done to bring justice and to make all things right when Christ returns.
So we pray as you asked, not that God would bless what He calls evil, but that He would have mercy to save.
Father, we bring before You this precious life lost and the deep brokenness that led to it. Have mercy. We pray for those who made comments to justify this death, that You would open their eyes to see evil as You see it and turn from their evil way to life in Jesus Christ. We pray for women who feel trapped or who do not want to be mothers, that You would surround them with help and truth and show them the value of every life You create. We pray for our land where evil is so well entrenched and so loudly defended, that You would restrain evil and bring justice, and that You would give Your people courage to hate evil while still loving the people trapped in it. We thank You that Jesus tasted death for us so we do not have to taste the second death, and we ask You to comfort the heart that is grieving over this news and to keep it from growing tolerant or cold. Give hope as we look for the return of Your Son, when He will make all things subject to Himself. In Jesus name, amen.
