Cradle My Heart: The Bondage of Silence - Living Free - May 28
Cradle My Heart: The Bondage Of Silence
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Living Free Every Day®
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Today's Scripture
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 NLT
Thoughts for Today
In Cradle My Heart, Kim also tells some of Sheila’s story. Sheila kept silent about her abortion for more than half her life.
“I decided to pretend the day of the abortion never happened,” she explains. “That way I could fool my mom and myself. I basically turned off all my emotions and acted like that Saturday never happened. I stayed that way for a really long time. I was in high school when I had the abortion, and it wasn’t until twenty years later that I finally faced it.”
But the silence left Sheila feeling dried out . . . the freedom in life wrung out of her. “You cannot keep the past a secret from yourself,” she says.
Sheila grew weary from spending adulthood trying to hide the fact that she had been a pregnant sixteen-year-old who chose abortion. When she finally accepted that Jesus already knew all the details of her abortion, she was able to risk her fear of not being accepted and share the truth with those in her life who needed to know, including certain family members. In the process, she came to see herself anew. She began to thirst for acceptance from God more than acceptance from others. She found the courage to have loving conversations with her mother and her teenage daughter about the painful experience of abortion and the hope she had now found in God’s love.
Consider this …
What worked for Sheila can work for you with time and much prayer. But please don’t disclose the story of your abortion until you have spent time with God in prayer and established the loving support of at least one other person who fully understands the needs of those who have experienced abortion.
Facing the truth is never easy. It wasn’t easy for the woman at the well to talk about her many husbands, and it’s not easy for those of us who choose to talk about abortion. It takes the love of Jesus Christ to give us the courage to admit that abortion is the loss of a child. Without the assurance of his love, that is a hard truth to confess.
Letting Jesus shine his love into areas of your life now hidden because of abortion marks a subtle but significant shift from self-reliance to dependence on and full trust in God. When we trust and obey Jesus, we gain knowledge of the truth ... and freedom from the past.
Committing to change does not mean you have to know how to change. Just focusing on Jesus will banish the deepest darkness.
Prayer
Father, thank you for your unconditional love. I don’t want to live this life of silence any longer, but I’m not sure what to do about it. Please help me. In Jesus’ name ...
These thoughts were drawn from … Cradle My Heart: Finding God's LOVE After Abortion by Kim Ketola. In this book, Kim seeks to help those hurt by abortion to grieve with hope. Sharing her story and the stories of ten other women, she reveals that God's love is not a casualty of the abortive process. With an appendix of helpful resources and a study and discussion guide included, Cradle My Heart is a timely and important resource for the hurting woman, the counselor, and the church.
With an understanding and empathetic voice, Kim Ketola exposes the hurt in your heart, reveals the healing in God's heart, and brings the two together to create a whole heart where restoration and celebration are possible.
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