The Wall Around Your Heart (Nelson Books, 2013)
The framework of Mary Demuth’s latest book, The Wall Around Your Heart: How Jesus Heals You When Others Hurt You, camps around the eleven phrases of the Lord’s Prayer, prayed in the context of community. The author comments: “Tucked within this prayer are secrets to understanding conflict, letting go of turmoil, and seeing God in His proper light.”
It is essential that we speak to God face-to-face, sharing our hearts and burdens, choosing to worship Him in the process. Mary emphasizes that we need to respond well by asking ourselves- and being truthful in our answer- this most important question: “Who is Jesus?” Our response determines the extent we allow Jesus into our pain. Allowing Jesus into our pain enables us to cultivate open hearts to Jesus and His people- to have complete hearts. To have complete hearts, we must begin from a place of healing and abundance. For if we can’t trust God, we can’t trust anyone. We must trust Jesus to enliven the kingdom from within us, growing toward the future He wants to give us. We must seek from the Lord that His name be hallowed within us.
God designed us to be filled up by Him first and solely, as we walk in the Great Right Now. Our past adversity can thrust us into Jesus’ arms or cause us to turn our backs on Him. That’s why, the author asserts, we must create closure to our pain. Jesus is calling us to moment-by-moment dependence on Him, to have a holy contentment for today. We were not built to carry offense, and only Jesus can live up to our expectations. God created us for joyful freedom. Our problems shrink to proper size in the light of God’s greatness.
Jesus has charged us to live an openhearted life and burst us for adventurous impact. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, our weakness welcomes Jesus’ strength within us. Our lives never will be the same.
