Last Tuesday, I read through my Twitter feed and was left in a bit of a shock with how the results turned out in Mississippi. CNN stated, “CNN projects Mississippi voters reject amendment to state constitution that defined life as beginning at conception.” Mississippi, a state considered to be part of the Bible belt, rejected a crucial amendment. For many, it was almost a given that the Personhood Amendment would be voted for rather than against. Considering the fact that 50 separate states still consider abortion legal, Mississippi had the opportunity to redefine life and change history. A thousand what ifs invaded my mind that night—what is it about the human heart cannot come to terms with recognizing a life? Why do women’s rights take precedence over lives lost by choice?

At the silent siege this past Saturday, our team stood with red tape over our mouths praying for the ending of abortion in front of an abortion center. We have returned to the same place time after time, not truly knowing, in our human knowledge, how our prayers are impacting the unborn. But we trust that as we plead Jesus’ blood over Virginia that the heavenly places are being affected. A friend expressed our stand best that day “Steadiness. Faithfulness. Unrelenting.” These words pierced my heart just as I saw a poster with the words “Keep Abortion” displayed on the window of the third floor of the abortion center.

The rejection of the Personhood Amendment in Mississippi brings us face to face with the reality of the state of our nation today. If the Lord has awakened your heart to LIFE, you cannot take your calling for granted. This is the time to persevere and be faithful and begin calling those things that are not as though they were. As Lou Engle says “the Lord is calling his Nazarites, ” radical people, separated to fight for the desires of Christ’s heart. We find our constitution and identity in Christ. The church cannot relent and shy away from our commitment to justice.

During the Constitutional Convention in the 1780s, the 13 original states came to agree on what we know today as “The Great Compromise,” which established the House of Representatives based on population and a Senate based on equality. In order to proceed with the ratification of the Constitution however, the Great Compromise was not enough to unify the newly founded country. The Three-fifths Compromise needed to be accepted by the majority of the states before the delegates agreed to ratify the Constitution. The Three-fifths Compromise stated that every slave would not be counted as a whole person, but rather counted as three-fifths of a person in the population statistics for each state. I have no doubt in my mind that many people were lifting their prayers before our Judge interceding for the end of slavery then. It wasn’t until President Lincoln, our sixteenth president, that slavery ended. And it was not until the 1960’s that “Separate but equal” went under judicial review and was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The day when abortion is declared unconstitutional will come. John Piper expresses the call for every believer the following way “Jesus did not mainly come to stop abortions in this world. He came mainly to die for abortion-committing sinners. ‘I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance’ (Luke 5:32).” We must rise up as a missional church—praying without ceasing for a new America. An America that turns their heart back to Christ.