Devotionals by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

Today I want to write to you who have had an abortion. I hope my words will help you. I also write to you who have aided in an abortion medically . . . or have encouraged someone you love to have an abortion, thinking it would help, and you realize now it did not.

First, I want you to understand me. I am not soft on abortion. If you start to doubt that, just return to the things I wrote previously. Nothing I write now is designed to take the edge off what I wrote earlier. My hope is to bring a needed balance between what could easily have come off earlier as uncaring, cold, and statistical. That was never my intention. But sometimes when I feel passionate about a subject, my zeal for truth can overshadow my compassion for the hurting. My hope is to communicate in this chapter the possibility of full recovery and a return to a life that is productive, fruitful, and free of guilt.

Second, I want the person who has had an abortion (or advised someone else to do so) to have an understanding of God’s response. Life not only can . . . it must go on. We live in an imperfect world. Disobedience happens on a daily basis. To require perfection of others or of ourselves is going too far.

If I have learned anything in the decades I have spent in the pastorate, it is that sin happens on a regular basis. In others’ lives and in my own life, disobedience occurs. Irresponsible actions following bad decisions take place even among good and wise people. And when it does, what I have discovered is the last person we are willing to forgive is ourselves. Most of us are readily willing to forgive another individual, certainly upon confession and repentance, but though we may confess and repent of our own wrongdoing, we put ourselves under such a cloud of shame, we enter into unproductive years by refusing to take God at His Word and accept His full forgiveness. My desire is that the person who has made a regrettable decision and acted independently of God’s counsel will find hope to go on. There is a tomorrow.

He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103:12

Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright 1990 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.

Used with permission. All rights reserved.

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