Lately, in my prayer time, I have been more focused on finishing my journey without compromising the truth. I often cry out to God for grace to stand faithful in times of adversity, testing, and persecution. We are living in a different America. We are facing a culture where Christian views are placed on trial. A culture where God is mocked. We are bombarded with attacks against our convictions to stand on absolute truth. The battle between good and evil is blatant.
I recently watched a video of Abby Johnson, an American anti-abortion activist who previously worked at Planned Parenthood as a clinic director, but resigned in 2009, after God opened her eyes to the truth about the sanctity of life.
In the video, Abby shared a dream that she had after praying and asking God to speak to her. In the dream, she took her friend to the hospital for surgery. When they arrived at the hospital, Abby was asked to assist with her friend’s surgery because the hospital was very short-staffed. Given her medical training, Abby agreed to help the medical team.
While the friend was in recovery, Abby was asked to then assist with an abortion procedure. Abby refused and the staff questioned her character with a sentiment of disdain for her lack of compassion. Later as the dream continued, Abby was telling her friend what had happened and shared her conviction about truth and refusal to assist the medical staff. To Abby’s surprise, her friend responded: “You should have helped them. You put that woman at risk. Sometimes we just have to compromise.”
This video with details of Abby’s dream caused me to stop and examine my own convictions. What matters most to me? If truth is not subjective, how can I assist in behavior that compromises truth?
In this season, I am motivated by love to look at the tough questions. Jesus asks tough questions. I am thrashing through my personal tension with Jesus and the word of God because that is how I grow and mature spiritually. Learning to walk by the Spirit is a journey that requires diligence, yet we rest in Christ’s finished work.
Below are the verses that bubbled in my heart as I pressed into my questions:
“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands to take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
1 Corinthians 10:12-13 ESV
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:20-21 ESV
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