A Contrite Heart -- Lessons from the Abortion Center

I saw a woman at the abortion center two days ago who stopped to talk with one of our counselors. She told him she had aborted, “But it’s ok. I will fast and pray today.” She smiled. Not a tear. No suggestion of sorrow, or remorse. If there was any sense of the grief she caused in defying God, it was not evident.

Yesterday, I met another woman who also had aborted her child. As she told us about the abortion, she said all she felt was deep depression and sadness. She longed to have the baby back. I shared the gospel with her, and she told me she had never prayed to commit her life to God. She wanted to do so immediately. As we prayed with her, she began weeping. Her whole body trembled. I lay my hand across her knee as I sat beside her. With cracking voice, she begged God for forgiveness and told Him that she was done with her life of rebellion and sin. She wanted Him to be Lord of her life. She wanted to follow Him as best she could from this point forward.

The first woman showed no sorrow, no remorse, no understanding of the grievous nature of her sin before God. She thought the simple sacrifice of fasting and praying should suffice to remove the stain of the murder of her child.

The second made no excuses, and threw herself upon the mercy and grace of God. She came to Him utterly broken. Later she wrote me, thanking me.
“You all have made my day one to remember, even if things in my life don’t work out. I want to thank you very much.”

Psalm 51 is a lament by David as he comes to God in the despair and horror of his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. David cries out:

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

A broken and contrite heart God will not despise. Of the two women I met the past two days, I suspect healing came to the second alone.
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Psalm 34:18
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.