Mary E. DeMuth - The Wall Around Your Heart: How Jesus Heals You When Others Hurt You

Praise for TheWallAroundYourHeart

No matter how someone else has injured youbetrayal, abuse, abandonment, manipulation, neglect, physical harm, exploitationTheWallAroundYourHeart will be a balm of healing, because no injury is too great for Jesus to mend. If you are drowning in pain or bitterness or shock from a broken relationship, start on the first page of this book and set it down at the end healed.

Jen Hatmaker, best-selling author of Interrupted and 7: An Experimental MutinyAgainst Excess

Nobody escapes life without a wounded heart. Mary knows how deep the valley of relational hurt can go, leaving us with a half-hearted ability to love. She shares with unmasked clarity how Jesus can heal those relational riffs, so you wont stay walled off from Gods joy.

John Burke, author of NoPerfectPeopleAllowed

One of Christianitys premier authors has crafted a powerful healing balm for true Jesus followers.

Frank Viola, author of GodsFavorite Place on Earth, frankviola.org

When people let us downand they willthe Lords Prayer serves as a map on the highway to healing. In TheWallAroundYourHeart, Mary DeMuth takes readers on a journey of masterful storytelling, biblically sound content, and road-tested experience to show them how. Highly recommended!

Sandra Glahn, author of Coffee Cup Bible Studies series

I cant think of a woman I know who wouldnt benefit from the wisdom and hope to be found in Mary DeMuths latest book TheWallAroundMyHeart. The way she mines the Lords Prayer for healing truths is ingenious. As always, DeMuth writes with the kind of rare authenticity that draws you in and keeps you turning pages. You cant help but be changed by the message in this book, and youll never pray the Lords Prayer the same way again.

Heather Kopp, author of SoberMercies: How LoveCaught Up with a ChristianDrunk

Mary DeMuth offers here an invitation to habituate the Lords Prayer as a healing balm to the fractured and broken places of the spirit. Her frank and matter-of-fact turn of phrase journeys the reader through the depths of ache and up into the heights of joy. DeMuth whispers into the soul the gospel of peace, the promise of a Christ in whom all the fractured are made whole.

Preston Yancey, author of seeprestonblog.com

I love how my friend Mary DeMuth uses the stories of her life to tell the stories of Gods work in our lives. She did it for me today in TheWallAroundYourHeart, touching my heart with tender reminders of Gods love and grace. Mary weaves the powerful beauty of the Lords Prayer with the challenges of hurtful relationships and events, creating an exquisite tapestry of healing and restoration and hope.

Judy Douglass, author, speaker, encourager, director of Womens Resources, Cru

This is a fallen world. Others hurt us and we make our own bad choices. So how do we survive the wreckage of broken relationships? How do we salvage our identity when weve found ourselves at the bottom of the pile? Mary DeMuth knows the answers to these questions because shes lived them. If you long for healing and wholeness after relational heartbreak, walk with Mary through these pages. Shell help you recover your identity, learn to trust again, and find the beauty in worship amidst it all.

Susie Larson, author, speaker, radio host

The Body of Christ is beautiful, and Im glad to limp along with them in this crazy journey of faith. Along the way, I sometimes step on someones toes, or someone steps on mine. Mary has written this guidebook to help successfully navigate those seasons where Im tempted to hold a grudge and give up on the Body of Christ. Using the Lords Prayereach lineas a prompt, Im reminded of Gods desire to heal and comfort me in each of my relationships; especially the ones in which I have been deeply hurt, and even broken.

Deidra Riggs, writer, deidrariggs.com; managing editor of TheHighCalling.org

Life hurts us, we feel pain, and we struggle.... So what do we do with hurting lives and raw situations?... Mary says, Its counterintuitive to praise God when people hurt us, but its the best thing we can do!... This book is full of resilient hope and radiant healing.... Every page beats with life and fresh hope!

Johnny Douglas, Anglican pastor

2013 by Mary E. Demuth

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Nelson Books and Thomas Nelson are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

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Published in association with the literary agency of Fedd & Company, Inc., Post Office Box 341973, Austin, TX 78734.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the English Standard Version. 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked PHILLIPS are taken from J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition. J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

DeMuth, Mary E., 1967

The wall around your heart : how Jesus heals you when others hurt you / Mary DeMuth.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0521-9

1. Lords prayerCriticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Spiritual healing. 3. SufferingReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.

BV230.D36 2013

226.9'606dc23 2013009819

Printed in the United States of America

13 14 15 16 17 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Twilla Fontenot, the most openheartedperson I know. I want to live, laugh,and love like you when I grow up.

Contents

I SEE WALLS NEARLY EVERYWHERE. DEVASTATION AND BITTERNESS in the aftermath of relationship blowups. Folks walking zombie-like after friends betray. People leaving churches because of underhanded remarks. Friends, years in the making, departing as enemies. Hurt people barricading themselves from ever having to feel relational pain again, discovering instead the angst of loneliness behind the barrier. People holding tightly to control, only to see their relational worlds spin into chaos. Others who cannot focus on a task because of all the conflict hollering around them.