Hit Delete!

A lady was upset because her mother-in-law forgot to ask her to a family picnic. So when she was invited on the morning of the event she replied angrily, “It's too late, I've already prayed for rain!”

Ernest Hemingway tells the story of a father and his teenaged son Paco (a very common name) who lived in Spain. Their relationship fell apart and the son ran away from home. After some years the father began searching for his lost and rebellious boy by putting an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad simply read, 'Dear Paco, meet me in front of the Madrid newspaper office tomorrow at noon. All is forgiven. I love you.' The next day at noon, in front of the newspaper office, there were 800 Pacos all seeking forgiveness!

One night after preaching about forgiveness, Corrie Ten Boom recognized that the man approaching her was a former guard from Ravensbruck, the Nazi prison camp where she was tortured and her sister Betsie starved to death. When he asked her to forgive him, Corrie thought about Betsie and felt she couldn't do it. Nevertheless she knew she must, otherwise everything she'd preached would be meaningless. So she told God, 'I can extend my hand, I can do that much but You'll have to supply the feelings.' Taking the man's hand she felt God's power rushing through her, enabling her to wholeheartedly say, 'I forgive you, brother.'

Corrie never experienced God's love as intensely as she did that night. Although she'd been badly tortured, she let God heal her, and then went on to help others. The truth is that forgiveness is the only way to have peace! Who do you need to forgive today?

'Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy' (Matthew 5:7 NIV).