Just this morning, I finished my first ever reading of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. This amazing book has left me with much to process, so I will likely just do more than one post.
The Hiding Place tells the story of the German invasion of Holland during WW II and the eventual arrests of the ten Boom family for hiding Jews in their home in order to feed them and keep them safe from being sent to a concentration camp or killed. Along the way Corrie ten Boom relays stories of how she learned to rely fully on God and spread the gospel even through imprisonment first in Holland, then in Germany.
My first thought this morning is of the person I am angry with for a wrong done last night. Simultanious with that anger though is Corrie being released from prison alone without her sister after all that was done to them. Sometime later, she met one of the guards (who had been at one of the prisons she was in) after one of her talks and he came up to her and thanked her for her message of God's forgiveness.
His hand was trust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people of Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again, I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.
Corrie took his hand and was amazed at what she found...
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.
I am not comparing myself against this precious lady, but am reminded how trivial what angered me was, and that God is willing and able to give me His love and forgiveness for others.
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