- Vincent Bujor
When you struggle to forgive
“…bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, … even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
Colossians 3:13
It was at a church service in Munich when she saw him:
a former S.S. guard from a concentration center at Ravensbrück.
Suddenly, it was all there—the room full of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, her sister’s pain-blanched face.
Corrie looked at the man. She had made it out alive.
Her sister had not.
And now, the former Nazi soldier came up to her as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing.
“How grateful I am for your message,” he said.
“To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”
Then he held out his hand to shake hers.
Could you forgive a man who was responsible for killing your sister?
Corrie couldn’t.
She kept her hand at her side.
Then, while the angry and vengeful thoughts boiled within her, she realized that Jesus had died for this man. She prayed a silent prayer, “Lord Jesus, forgive me and help me to forgive him.”
She tried to smile. She couldn’t.
She tried to raise her hand. It wouldn’t move.
Her heart was empty. No warmth. No love.
Have you ever wanted to do God’s will, but your emotions stood in the way?
Corrie prayed another silent prayer.
A prayer of surrender.
“I cannot forgive him. LORD, give me Your forgiveness.”
Then, she took his hand and something incredible happened. From her shoulder to her arm and through her hand this current passed from her to him, and suddenly, she felt a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed her.
That day, Corrie ten Boom discovered that true forgiveness is a miracle that only Jesus can provide. It is not on our forgiveness or our own goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. God tells us to love our enemies, and He gives us—along with the command—the love itself.
Excerpted and adapted from The Hiding Place, 35th Anniversary Edition (Grand Rapids: Chosen, 2006), pp. 247–248. Pronouns and other minor wording have been changed from first person to third person.
“We need to study the example of Him who was meek and lowly, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. A vindictive spirit will not be indulged by a true Christian. (…) He who possesses the Spirit of Christ will never be weary of forgiving.”
The Review & Herald, May 7, 1895
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