Do You Dare Rise to This Proverbs 31:8 Challenge?
Editor’s Note: Friday is the annual March for Life. As we cry out for the end of abortion, prayerfully consider how the Lord can use your testimony to bring healing, restoration and justice for families devastated by the death of an unborn child.
“All things were created through Him, and without Him nothing was created that was created. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind” (John 1:3-4) We, as His people, as Christians, have a job to protect that God-given life—especially in regard to human life.
I am so excited to have the opportunity to be attending and participating in the March For life in Washington, D.C., this January. I see participating in this march as an amazing opportunity to go out and stand up for something I strongly believe in. My beliefs have developed from my family life, where I am the oldest of nine children and, as I was being raised in such a large family, my parents instilled in me a value and love for children and infants. They taught me that it is not up to us to decide how many children we should have, and who those children should be, but that we need to trust the Lord for the children He desires for our family. I have taken my parents’ teaching to heart, and I now see it as being vitally important to fight for those beliefs, and to fight for the lives of those that the Lord has created but who can’t speak for themselves.
As I have thought about my reasons for wanting to attend the March for Life, I have realized that, while it is good to be in support of the March, it is important for me to be willing to go and be one of those individual faces standing for life. Even though my presence may just be another number in the statistics, I don’t want someone else to be standing for my beliefs when I can and should be standing myself. It is no longer enough to hide behind others to support life. It is instead time for me to stand up and actually give voice to the young, the old, the handicapped, the critically ill and the unborn—those who all have a God-given right to life, and whose lives God will use to His glory in accordance with His will.
God has challenged me and all people who follow him in Proverbs 31:8, saying, “Open your mouth for the speechless in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction” (Prov. 31:8). God also says to the prophet Isaiah,” “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I [Isaiah] said, ‘Here I am! Send me'” (Isa. 6:8).
I desire to respond to the Lord in the same way in response to the call to save those who cannot speak for themselves. So by going to this march and standing for and encouraging others to stand for life, I want to and get to say, “Here I am, Lord, send me!” This year, He is sending me—and I hope and pray that I can be a voice for the voiceless, and that I might be able to work to make a change in this nation and the world in understanding the priceless value of life. {eoa}