John Hagee Daily Devotional 13th March 2024 – Matthew 6:12

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker in World War II. Her family helped many Jews escape the Holocaust by hiding them in a secret room in their home. Eventually, they were arrested and sent to a concentration camp.

Under the atrocious conditions, her aged father died. She and her sister, Betsie, were starved and endured dehumanizing abuse. Her sister died, but in a miraculous clerical error, Corrie was released.

Years later, while speaking at a church, a man approached her after the service. It was one of the cruel, vicious guards who had tortured her! He stood before her, hand outstretched, asking for forgiveness.

Coldness clutched her heart, but she later wrote: “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” Out loud, she asked, “Jesus, help me.”

Woodenly, she grasped his hand. She recounted that the “current of heaven” raced from her shoulder, down her arm, and into their clutched hands. Flooded with a feeling of warm reconciliation, she heard herself say, “I forgive you, brother.” With clasped hands, the former guard and the former prisoner wept together.

She later said that she had never felt the love of God as intensely as she did in that moment: “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that the prisoner is you.”

Blessing

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you His peace. May God give you the courage and the strength to forgive your enemy. May He spring you from prison to walk in the freedom of His grace and mercy.

Today’s Bible Reading:
Old Testament
Numbers 19:1-20:29

New Testament
Luke 1:1-25

Psalms & Proverbs
Psalm 56:1-13

Proverbs 11:8