We Don’t Do It Ourselves

Have you ever read the story, “The Hiding Place,” by Corrie Ten Boom. For those of you who haven’t I’ll give you a quick synopsis. Corrie Ten Boom lived in Holland during World War 2. She was a Christian who lived with her father and sister. They started hiding Jews in their home during the Nazi’s reign. Well Corrie and her family got caught and were sentenced to a concentration camp themselves. During this time, Corrie lost her sister and father.

In our Christian life we’re asked to do hard things. We’re asked to love people who are unlovable. We’re asked to resist sin, while our flesh desires it. We’re asked to forgive people, though they have wronged us. I have heard people say, for those reasons, they don’t want to submit to God-it’s just too hard. And it does seem hard. In our own flesh, how do we do these hard things? How do we love the unlovable? How do we resist sin that so entices us? How do we forgive people, when they done really bad things to us. I discovered the answer while reading, “The Hiding Place.”

I’m sure you have heard or read plenty of stories about the concentration camps during World War 2. They were brutal places to live. Many didn’t live. Many of you may have seen, “Schindler’s List,” with it’s graphic display of those places. Many of the guards were insanely brutal to the people. They were often, utterly inhuman in their treatment of the prisoners. They would beat and humiliate the prisoners at every opportunity. Corrie Ten Boon suffered through a concentration camp, with one particular guard that was especially brutal. Corrie hated that guard.

After the war, Corrie was free and spent her time making speeches and telling her story. At one of her speeches, the guard she hated greeted her:

“He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.’ he said. ‘To think that , as you say, He has washed my sins away!’

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in 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 your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than 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.” The Hiding Place 35th Edition, pp. 247-248

As I read the passage, I realized how true Corrie’s statement was. When God commands us to love our enemies, love the unlovable, resist that sin, forgive those who have wronged us, God does it through us. Like Corrie says, “When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

I have seen Christians try and do things in their own power and might. Some seem to have more power and might than others. But they eventually run out of steam. They burn out. God’s power and might never burns out. He asks us to rely on Him.

One of my favorite verses is Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

That verse basically sums up what Corrie Ten Boom learned-we don’t do it ourselves. God does it through us. When He asks us to take His yoke upon us, He is essentially saying, hook up to me. That is what a yoke is. Farmers used to yoke oxen together. They would take older and stronger oxen and yoke them to a younger oxen, so the older one could teach the younger one. When you are yoked to the God of the universe what could go wrong? He will do the forgiving through you-He provides the forgiveness. He will do the loving through you-He provides the love. And when you allow God to work through you-you find rest for your soul. Let Him who is capable work through you. Corrie was not able to forgive and love the guard, but God did it through her and gave the love she needed through her. We would do well to follow her example.