When individuals decide to have an abortion, feelings of anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness often emerge towards those involved in this decision.
Women may harbor resentment towards their partner who may have impregnated them, refused responsibility, or pressured them into abortion. They might also be upset with family, friends, and their church for not offering support for their pregnancy, and instead, offering condemnation and pressure to abort.
Men may feel anger towards their partner for not informing them about the pregnancy and choosing abortion without their knowledge or making this decision against their wishes.
Of course, there are many other people and reasons that a post-abortive individual may feel anger and unforgiveness towards. Living a life of unforgiveness can be debilitating.
In Cheryl Braden’s book, All Things New: Finding New Life Through Forgiveness, she writes the following regarding forgiving others:
“Perhaps we’ve allowed our past pain and unforgiveness to become the major focus of our lives. In a sense, it has become our god. It has affected our allegiance, our beliefs and our unwillingness to surrender to God. Let’s say it this way. When we’ve propped up the idol of pain or bitterness, and God no longer takes first place, then we cease to feel and and experience His peace and presence. At this point, the destructive fire – a fire that consumes how we think, how we feel and how we view our yesterday, today and tomorrow – is fully all-consuming.
When pain becomes our god, it will make us into its very own image. Instead of bearing the image of God, we bear the image of pain. In doing so, we become bound to it telling us who we are, what decisions we must make and how we must operate. It affects how we view ourselves and how we interact with others.
The hurts against us must not turn us into a person we were never created to be – a person filled with anger, bitterness, brokenness or sadness. Yet, forgiveness releases the power of the offender over our lives and allows us to become what God intended us to be – a soul operating with peace, power and purpose.
When we forgive someone who has deeply hurt us, we’re not saying what they did to us was right. We’re not condoning their action against us, nor are we justifying their offense. Instead, we forgive them, so we no longer carry the burden and the power of their evil against us. God himself tells us that he will carry the burden.”
To order All Things News: Finding New Life Through Forgiveness, click HERE , or order through Amazon HERE.
Offering God’s pathway to forgiveness provides freedom, peace, and joy. Many pregnancy centers offer post-abortion healing to facilitate forgiveness and wholeness. Find a center closest to you HERE. Another powerful option is to offer post-abortion healing through your church. A few curriculum ideas, complete with facilitators training, can be found HERE.
May we be a conduit of healing and freedom through forgiveness!
