Matthew 5:23-24

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

• DAILY READING   2 Corinthians 9; 2 Kings 22:1-23:35; Nahum 3

In her best-selling autobiography ‘The Hiding Place’, Corrie ten Boom described the chance meeting with her former tormentor.

After Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Jews and members of the Dutch resistance flocked to the home of the ten Boom family for safe harbor, because the ten Booms were devout Christians known for their faith and social outreach in their town of Haarlem,

Between 1943 and 1944 the ten Boom family illegally housed countless refugees and helped them to escape. But on February 28, 1944 a secret informant revealed the family’s operation to the Gestapo, Germany’s secret police. Their home was raided and thirty people, including Corrie, her father, two sisters and brother were taken to prison. Miraculously, the Gestapo failed to find four Jews and two members of the Dutch underground, who were hiding behind a secret wall in Corrie’s bedroom. These would later escape to safety.

 The ten Boom family suffered greatly in prison. Corrie lost her father, brother and sister. However, months later Corrie was released from prison due to a clerical error. She would later find out that a week after she left, the rest of the women in her age group were all executed.

After the war Corrie ten Boom returned to her home in the Netherlands and established a rehabilitation center for postwar refugees. However, Corrie’s faith was put to the ultimate test in 1947 when she happened to meet one of the prison guards who had tormented her and her sister in prison.

 It was in a church in Munich where she had gone to preach that she saw him. Seeing him suddenly brought back very painful memories. But the former guard walked up to her and told her he had become a Christian after the war and asked for her forgiveness. As terrible as she felt, she grabbed his hand and with tears in her eyes told him she had forgiven him. Afterwards she said she never felt God’s love so intensely as she did then. Corrie ten Boom died on her 91st birthday on April 15, 1983. According to Jewish tradition, only special souls are chosen to die on their birthday.

Forgiveness is one of the most important lessons one must learn in life.

Matthew 5:23-24 says  “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Jesus says clearly in the Bible that offenses will come. But we must always remember that it does not really matter why someone has chosen to hurt us. What really matters is that we recognize that forgiveness is a necessity. 

Unforgiveness is life-destroying. It is the root of many terminal illnesses. And in medical books unforgiveness is listed as a disease.

Forgiveness has less to do with the guilty person’s reaction to it. It’s about obeying God’s instruction to forgive. It is also a decision not to allow yourself to be victimized twice by giving the pain room to continue to operate in your life and affect you.

The forgiving process means letting go and leaving all judgment to God.

Romans 12:20 says  “If; your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

Obey God’s instruction to love your enemies and leave the judgment to Him. No matter where you are in life, no matter what you have done in the past, or what someone else has done to you, Jesus is able to wipe the slate clean. He is able to heal, make us whole and cause His peace to flow like a river through our hearts.

PRAYER: Lord, please wherever there is still any root of bitterness or anger in my life, please uproot it and fill my heart rather with your peace and joy. May your love constantly flow through me  and cause me  to live as a reflection of Christ in Jesus Name.

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Your attitude always determines  your altitude in life. -WORDBITE 222.