As I look back at the journey of my soul I know that there have been times when I believed I could out-sin God’s mercy, out-frustrate his patience, and take advantage of his love. That somehow despite all the words of truth that contradict this distorted theology, I would be the person that finally caused God to say “That’s it – no more chances”. Audacious? To be sure. Distorted? Definitely. But real thoughts and feelings? Yes. Thoughts and feelings that had to be purged and purified, sifted through the truth sieve like flour is sifted to take out any tiny rocks or impurities before being used for baking.
Often friends with a clear picture of truth were those who helped me with the sifting. Today I am thankful to Robynn Bliss, a sifter, for her thoughtful comment on the post “Sometimes You Can’t Keep Silent”. May her words of truth wrap around you like a blanket of protection. Today may we know more of the God who is “pro”.
“I am pro-woman. I believe in supporting women, towers of strength in their communities and families, to fully engage the lives they’ve been given. I’ve prayed with women making decisions that will impact their souls. I’ve agonized with women coming to grips with decisions they’ve made. I believe God is pro-woman. He created her and declared that she was good too. He further invited her into the creative process by endowing her with the privilege of housing infants before they are birthed. She gives birth. It’s her’s to give. God gives life. And it’s very good. He’s pro-life. He longs that his created would truly live. His definition of life is so much deeper and richer than ours. His capacity to encourage life goes beyond political confines. He is pro-LIFE.
The difficulty is that God is also pro-choice. He allows his created to choose, to make choices. He longs for us to choose life but he doesn’t stipulate that we must. He waits and whispers in the core of who we are that there is so much more to living and to life.
He cheers loudly in his still small voice for us to choose him…but he’s patient and his love is unending. And God is pro-forgiveness and pro-second chances, He’s pro-mercy and pro-new beginnings.
Related articles
- Sometimes You Can’t Keep Silent (communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com)
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Marilyn R. Gardner 
I am so pleased to find your blog. Your posts are thought provoking and honest. I am enjoying looking around.
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Maggie – how lovely to have you come by and comment! Thank you! It’s that hard balance of wanting to be honest, yet also wanting to engage – sometimes I do it better than others! Welcome and I hope I hear a lot from you.
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“Yes” and “yes” and “yes.”
It’s so encouraging to hear from other women who are simultaneosly conscious of the need to campaign for women AND for the beauty of life. The world’s stigma that “pro-life” and “pro-woman” are mutually exclusive positions is so wearying–thank you to you and Robynn for voicing the Truth.
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Jay – love that as a man you commented on this post. I think you said it so well when you used the word “wearying”. That’s exactly what it feels. The pro-woman and pro-life arenas are so interconnected. Thanks again for reading and commenting.
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I’m a girl, Marilyn. ;)
But the men in my life who have this perspective encourage me greatly!
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I’m soooooo sorry!!! :) Thank you for the spirit in which you have taken this!!!! And a thousand apologies!
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Yes God acts selflessly on our behalf. That is some choice to make. That’s some kind of love :)
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Great post, Marilyn! I agree wholeheartedly–God gives freedom to us at such an enormous cost to Himself. And for some reason, we often try to control people instead of releasing freedom to them – don’t we know by now that this is the opposite of His nature? 2 Corinthians 3:17 – Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. If we could just learn to go out and breath life and freedom through every essence of our being, we could make a difference in this dark, broken world.
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“At such an enormous cost to Himself” – such truth. I’ve been so guilty of the wanting to control piece in the past and feel like I’ve had these significant things come up in my life, all designed to show me that’s an impossibility and God never intended that we be robots. Thanks for this Ruth.
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I must admit, when I read you, you always make me think. You make me reach beyond my ‘ safe and comfortable’ world and sometime reach beyond what others could deem the ‘safe or scary’!
For yes, God always gives us choices, it all areas, whatever the case may be. So many times we may want to rail against that, he still gives us that free will…
Thank you for this and also Petra’s answer!
I admit, my views on this are sometimes hard to get around, being I am so pro-life, how to we get around that, and still believe in our God? It is a question…
Thank you for having me ponder….
Traci
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Traci – I love your thoughtful comments. It’s like I get to hear you thinking aloud – which is some of what this blog is for me! Me thinking aloud (sometimes scary stuff!!) Thank you though for your insight into your own soul and how it helps me.
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Marilyn, both of your articles merged me into deep thoughts and sincere prayer. Our God is an awesome God. Below are my thoughts and prayer. Love always, Petra
We pray, dear God, when you created the world it was good. The world is still good in many places as children play in the garden, as we visit friends, or as music fills our homes. But there is also the other side – sometimes God – nothing is good. Humans are hurt and abused, wounds do not heal. It is difficult to see and comprehend this. We like to enjoy your creation but the evil in the world scares us. God, we need your help. Give us the strength to overcome evil, protect us. Amen
Jesus knew when we do good, we will meet evil. Jesus himself was tempted by Satan three times. During the last and final temptation, he tells Satan to leave him alone. He knew if he would follow Satan than he would be destroyed and enslaved. How much easier would our life be if we could do this as well? If we could also say, “Leave us Satan” and evil would leave from our lives. Unfortunately, we do not have this strength. Jesus knew that we do not have this strength; therefore, we pray to him “free us from evil”. We cannot free ourselves but God can free us.
Again and again, we need to face evil and we need to be freed from evil and we need to combat evil with good. It can be difficult to accomplish at times. How good, that someone exists, who sees behind the façade and sees us for whom we are and loves us for who we are. No person is only good and no person is only bad if we acknowledge this than we can ask God to free us from evil. God frees us from high expectations and allows us to be human. And as humans, we can reach out to one another assuring that good prevails evil.
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Beautiful prayer Petra – Thank you. And the bottom line is that there is no way we can confront evil without God, the source of all good.
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