FaithAgent DevoDecks — Study Guide
Forgiveness You Cannot Give
A 10-Stage Devotional Journey Through the Life of Corrie ten Boom
Based on The Hiding Place and Corrie's testimony | For personal study, small groups, and discipleship
📋 Study Guide Overview
Subject: Corrie ten Boom, Holocaust survivor, forgiveness
Theme: Supernatural forgiveness through surrender to Christ
Audience: Individuals, small groups, Bible studies, counseling
Sessions: 10 sections (adaptable to 5 or 10 sessions)
This study guide walks through the life of Corrie ten Boom — from a warm Dutch home sheltering Jews from the Nazis, through the horrors of Ravensbrück concentration camp, to a Munich church basement in 1947 where she stood face-to-face with a former camp guard and discovered that forgiveness is not something you can do — it's something Christ does through you when you surrender.
Casper ten Boom was a watchmaker in Haarlem, Holland. When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, he made a quiet decision: "In this household, God's people are always welcome." It was a daily, costly "yes" that would eventually cost him his life.
Hebrews 13:2"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
Proverbs 31:8-9"Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute."
🙏 Pray
Confess where you've chosen comfort over costly obedience. Renounce self-preservation. Declare: "In this household, God's people are always welcome."
🪩 Reflect
When was the last time your faith cost you something? What would Casper's "yes" look like in your life today?
⚡ Act
Name one costly "yes" God is asking. Write it down. Tell one person. Take the first step this week.
Behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom, the ten Booms built a hiding place. Through an underground network, they helped save ~800 Jewish lives. Every knock on the door could be the Gestapo. Love always costs something.
John 15:13"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."
Luke 9:23-24"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily."
🙏 Pray
Confess self-preservation. Renounce fear of man. Present your home, your resources, your safety as instruments of God's rescue.
🪩 Reflect
If your faith were illegal tomorrow, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Where does faith cost you nothing?
⚡ Act
Identify one area where you can take a risk for someone vulnerable this week. It doesn't have to be heroic — it has to be costly.
February 28, 1944: the Gestapo raided the ten Boom home. Father Casper died 10 days later. Nephew Kik died at Bergen-Belsen at age 24. Corrie and Betsie endured Scheveningen → Vught → Ravensbrück.
Psalm 88:6-7"You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep."
Job 1:21"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
Psalm 139:7-8"Where shall I go from your Spirit? If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!"
🙏 Pray
Confess where you've questioned God's goodness in suffering. Renounce the accusation that He was absent. Declare: even in Sheol, You are there.
🪩 Reflect
What is the deepest loss you've experienced? Have you let it harden you against God — or have you wrestled honestly with Him?
⚡ Act
Write your hardest "where were You, God?" question. Don't sanitize it. Then read Psalm 139 aloud over it.
In flea-infested barracks, Betsie quoted: "Give thanks in all circumstances." The guards wouldn't enter because of the fleas — which is why the Bible studies thrived. Even in the pit, God was working.
Psalm 139:8"If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!"
Romans 8:38-39"Neither death nor life... will be able to separate us from the love of God."
1 Thessalonians 5:18"Give thanks in all circumstances."
🙏 Pray
Confess where you've only seen the fleas and missed God's purpose. Renounce despair. Declare: nothing separates me from Your love.
🪩 Reflect
What are the "fleas" in your life? Could God be using them as a shield? What would it look like to give thanks even for that?
⚡ Act
Name your "pit." Write Psalm 139:8 over it. Thank God for one thing you've been complaining about — for 7 days.
Betsie died December 16, 1944. Her final charge: "Tell them, Corrie. They will listen to us, because we have been here." Corrie was released by clerical error — one week before all women her age were gassed.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4"...who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may comfort those in any affliction."
Isaiah 61:1-3"...to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes."
🙏 Pray
Confess where you've wasted your pain instead of redeeming it. Receive the commission: comfort others with the comfort you've received.
🪩 Reflect
What is the hardest thing you've survived? Have you let it become a testimony — or have you buried it?
⚡ Act
Reach out to one person in a pit you've walked through. Say: "I've been there. You're not alone."
"There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."
— Betsie ten Boom
After the war, Corrie traveled 60+ countries for 33 years preaching forgiveness. Easy from a platform. The test would come with a face.
Matthew 18:21-22"Not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
Luke 6:27-28"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."
🙏 Pray
Confess hypocrisy — preaching forgiveness you haven't practiced. Renounce selective obedience.
🪩 Reflect
Is there a truth you believe intellectually but haven't actually lived? Who is the person you'd least want to forgive?
⚡ Act
Write the name of one person you've been preaching forgiveness about but not practicing it toward.
Munich, 1947. A church basement. The former Ravensbrück guard — balding, heavy-set, gray overcoat — extended his hand: "Fräulein, will you forgive me?" Corrie's hand stayed at her side.
Matthew 5:44"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Genesis 50:20"You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."
🙏 Pray
Confess the rage you hold. Renounce bitterness as protection. Say: "I need Your strength to do what I cannot."
🪩 Reflect
Is there a face that still triggers you? Have you ever told God honestly that you can't forgive them?
⚡ Act
Write their name. Say: "I can't do this. But I'm willing to be made willing."
Corrie's hand was concrete. Then she prayed: "Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness." She thrust her hand forward — a mechanical, deliberate gesture with no emotion behind it.
Romans 5:5"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit."
2 Corinthians 12:9"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
🙏 Pray
Pray Corrie's prayer word-for-word: "Jesus, I cannot forgive [name]. Give me Your forgiveness." Say it out loud.
🪩 Reflect
Have you been waiting to feel forgiving before you release someone? What would the mechanical decision look like?
⚡ Act
Pray "bless and do not curse" (Romans 12:14) over their name daily this week. You don't need to feel it.
The moment their hands met — a current. Warmth, healing, tears. "I forgive you, brother! With all my heart!" The miracle: divine love flowing through a surrendered vessel.
Ephesians 4:31-32"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Colossians 3:13"As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."
Romans 5:5"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit."
🙏 Pray
Surrender your arm — ask the Holy Spirit to pour His love through you toward the person you cannot release on your own.
🪩 Reflect
Have you ever experienced forgiveness that surprised even you — a love that wasn't yours?
⚡ Act
Write a letter of release. At the bottom write: "I release you to God." Burn it. If trauma is involved, seek a pastor or counselor.
"Forgiveness is not an emotion — it is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart." Corrie traveled 60+ countries for 33 years carrying this message.
Hebrews 12:15"See to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble."
Ephesians 4:31-32"Let all bitterness be put away... forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Matthew 6:14-15"If you forgive others, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."
🙏 Pray
Renounce every vow of "I will never forgive." Release them from the prison of your judgment. Declare: Christ's forgiveness flows through me.
🪩 Reflect
Have you said "I forgive" but still carried the weight? Is there a root of bitterness you've mistaken for wisdom?
⚡ Act
Make the decision. Write the name. Say: "I release you to God." Pray Romans 12:14 over them for 7 days. Tell one person you trust.
"Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness."
— Corrie ten Boom
My Forgiveness Commitment
Having walked through Corrie ten Boom's journey from costly obedience to impossible forgiveness, I commit:
"Jesus, I cannot forgive _____ in my own strength. I give You my will. Pour Your forgiveness through me. I choose to release this debt — not because the offense was small, but because Your grace is sufficient."
"Lord Jesus, thank You that forgiveness is not something I must generate — it is something I receive and pass through. I bring every name, every wound, every bitterness to the foot of the cross. I surrender my right to vengeance and receive Your healing current. There is no pit so deep that Your love is not deeper still. In Your name, I forgive. Amen."