We’ve probably all made resolutions to help us start the year off right. Whether they were geared toward your physical or mental health, none are more important than those made for your spiritual health. We can be healthy on the outside while our heart is over-burdened and sick on the inside. Usually that specific heart condition comes from an overload of anger or bitterness caused by an unforgiving heart.

Corrie Ten Boom was a woman who lived during the Holocaust and, along with her family, had been arrested for concealing Jews in their home during the Nazi occupation of Holland. After her release in December 1944, she traveled the world as an evangelist often referring to her experiences in the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. The message she often shared with other former prisoners of war was of forgiveness. On one occasion, however, her message was put to the test.

It was 1947 and she had been speaking in a church in Munich when she spotted a certain man in the crowd. She had just finished sharing her favorite analogy of God’s forgiveness when we confess our sins.  “God casts them into the deepest ocean,â€� she had said, “gone forever.â€�  The balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat made his way, against the crowd toward her. One moment she noticed the overcoat and the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. She was instantly transported to that harsh reality she had survived just a few years prior: the huge room with its bright overhead lights, the pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. This man. He had been a guard at the Ravensbrück concentration camp where she and her sister had been sent. Now he was standing in front of her, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!â€�

She had just finished speaking of God’s love and forgiveness and rather than take that hand, she froze in her place. She knew he would not remember her, of courseâ€"how could he remember one prisoner from among those thousands of women? But she remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since her release that she had been face to face with one of her captors.

“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,â€� he was saying. “I was a guard in there. But since that time,â€� he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräuleinâ€�â€"again the hand came outâ€" “will you forgive me?â€�

She stood there contemplatingâ€"her sins were forgiven daily, but her sister, Betsie, had died in that placeâ€"could he erase her slow terrible death simply by asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to Corrie Ten Boom it seemed hours as she wrestled with the most difficult thing she ever had to do. She knew she had toâ€" the message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,â€� Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.â€�² As she stood there with the coldness clutching her heart she prayed silently, “Jesus, help me!â€� I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.â€�

And so, she thrust her hand into the one stretched out to her. And as she did, an incredible thing took place. A healing warmth seemed to flood her whole being, bringing tears to her eyes. For a long moment they grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner.

“I forgive you, brother!â€� She cried. “With all my heart!â€�³

Corrie Ten Boom had never known God’s love so intensely as in that moment. Make a resolution to forgive this year. Allow God to heal your heart and let all the bitterness and anger that have been afflicting you melt away as God’s love takes their place!

Suggested Prayer: Dear God, You sent your Son to shed His blood on that cruel cross so that my sins, and the sins of the whole world would be forgiven. My forgiveness is nothing in comparison but it honors you. Help me to forgive any wrong done to me, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

1.    Luke 17:3-4 (ESV).

2.    Matthew 6:14-15.

3.    Story by Corrie Ten Boom, 1971.

Today’s Encounter was written by: Veronica B.