Reflections: Life Lessons from the Book “The Hiding Place”

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God” – Corrie Ten Boom.

This is an important truth to remember. Corrie Ten Boom’s story has really encouraged me so today i want to pass along some life lessons I have learned from the book The Hiding Place. This book tells Corrie Ten Boom’s story from her childhood from growing up in holland in the midst of World War I and World War ii and tells the story of her and her family’s part in helping to hide jews from the German enemy, to being taken captive to a concentration camp and making it out on the other side learning about patience, faith, joy in suffering, love and forgiveness and the faithfulness of God.

Patience and faith

Corrie had to learn about patience even as a young child. She had to wait for answers to questions that would be too heavy to carry the answer to as a child. When she became an adult she had to learn to be patient while waiting in prison not knowing what would happen next. In order to have patience you must also have faith, faith that God is in control and is able to provide the answer to your question at the correct time. Her faith grew each time she faced a challenge in life as she saw the hand of God in every situation. When faith grows your patience also grows.

I am learning this lesson in my own life. When I become inpatient about something in my life I find it is because my faith is wavering. I am learning that I may not be ready to carry an answer to my question and I must trust that God will provide me the answer when I am ready. This lesson is helping me to stop and wait on God instead of doing things my way and in my time frame.

Joy in Suffering

Joy in suffering is another lesson found in this story. We see this in Corrie’s mother. She suffered a stroke that left her unable to do much but she never lost her smile or her serving attitude. She still found a way to reach out to others and be a help and encouragement even in her state. We see this in Betsy who could find a way to decorate even something as gloomy as a prison cell. She always tried to find the good in even the worse situation. 

This has shown me to have a mind set that tries to find the good in whatever situation I am in. This is only possible when we know that God is with us. This also can only happen when we learn to be thankful for everything that comes our way whether it is a bad or a good thing. 

Love

Learning to love the way God loves is an important lesson to learn. Corrie had to learn this throughout her life. She had to learn to love karl the way God loved him. She had to learn to love those that took her and her family captive the way that God loved them. This lesson took time and much tears to learn but it is worth it. 

This is something that we can not do on our own, only God can mold us and help us love our enemy. We can only truly love when we realize that God loved us first. God also loves those that are our enemy. I am still learning this lesson, learning to love those that hurt me because God still loves them. 

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is another important lesson in this story. Corrie has to learn to forgive her enemies even as they caused the death of her loved ones. There is so much power and healing in forgiveness and she got to leave a positive impact on many people after she was free but it was a journey to reach that place.

I am learning what it truly means to forgive and that it is only possible to forgive when you realize how much God has forgiven you. God sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross and his blood that he shed was enough to cover for to forgive the sins of each person that comes to him in faith. Jesus rose to life again and all a person needs to do to be forgiven is to ask Jesus to save them believing that his blood paid the price of their sin and they will be forgiven. We can forgive our enemies and let God handle the rest.

The faithfulness of God

The faithfulness of God is evident time after time in this story. We see it in how he provided for Corrie and her family. We see it in how he provided a hiding place for the jews. We see it in how he took care of Corrie and her sister even in the worst situations of being in a concentration camp. We see it in the strength he gave Corrie to go on when facing the loss of her loved ones. We see it in the love and healing that took between those that were once enemies.

This has shown me to keep trusting God because he is faithful and his love is unending and he will lead me in all aspects of life. He will provide all that i need at the exact time not a day earlier or later. He is my strength when I am week.

Some extra thoughts

I hope that you will read the entire book because I believe that it will change your life for the better. I hope that you will give God a chance to change your life for the better.

You can find more quotes from Corrie and from the book here.