1JN 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

I had a friend named Teresa, she was fairly young but she dressed like a bag lady and her hair and appearance was generally pretty disheveled. Teresa always seemed sad and although she was a Christian she was very depressed and unhappy, but she had a sweetness and a brokenness about her that made her very gentle and kind. She also had addictive behaviors in her life that kept her very isolated from the rest of the world. One day while we were running some errands I was waiting for her in the car when I heard the Holy Spirit say, "She has had an abortion and she needs to know I have forgiven her". He then told me that she had had a little girl, and to tell her that her little girl was there with Him. When Teresa got back into the car she asked me what was up and I told here word for word what the Holy Spirit had just told me, and she broke down crying right there in the car. Apparently, several years back, Teresa had gotten pregnant and she didn't know what to do, so she got an abortion. This had haunted her ever since and it affected every area of her life and fueled her need for addiction. I did not know she had an abortion but God did, and God wanted her to know that she had been forgiven and that her baby was with Him. Teresa also confirmed that it was a little girl she had lost.

The next day someone came to my front door that I did not recognize, it was a really pretty girl dressed very nicely. I opened the door and looked more closely, and it was Teresa! God had lifted such a load off of her the previous day that it transformed even her appearance. She was baptized in the Holy Spirit later that week and went on to serve the Lord free from the torment of her past and the addictions she had used to keep all the guilt and shame stuffed down inside her. I just want to encourage you today that if you have had an abortion as a Christian or non-Christian, just know that God will forgive you if you ask Him to and that your child is there with Him. We all do things in life that haunt us and God wants us to be free of that guilt and shame connected to it and to walk forward forgiven. It is time to forgive yourself and to let go of that old pain. God can take the very things that have tormented you and turn them into a trophy of His goodness and His loving grace for all those who need it. Just ask Teresa, she knows first hand.