Wounded by God's People Quotes

“But God loved Hagar. He loves those who just can’t take it anymore and who run away. In fact, the Bible is filled with stories of His love for those like Hagar.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Did your big break turn into a big bust? Sometimes a great escape from a wounded past can turn into something worse as we discover the wounds were not just from without, but they were within. So regardless of where we go, what we do, who we are with, we carry those wounds with us.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“authentically. I am deeply motivated to know God. I want to know Him as He truly is, not through the distorted reflection of those who called themselves by His name. And I want to make Him known to others as accurately, winsomely, clearly, and compellingly as I can.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“God’s people don’t always act like God’s people should.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“God is in the darkness and God is in the wilderness. I now know that by personal experience.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“God cares about each of us and all of us — period! And because He really does love you — He really does care about you — you and I can run, but we can’t outrun Him.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Don’t blame God for the behavior of the people who have wounded you. I understand the desperate desire to run from them, but not from Him.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“When we are wounded we need to be very careful about what happens next. Because in the aftermath we are vulnerable to the enemy of our souls who would seek to use us to wound others. Watch out!”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Run to God and cling to Him. God understands every verbal barb, every covert injustice, every emotional shard, every leering look, every jeering smirk. But He also keeps the books, and one day He will make everything right.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“So I refuse to let religious phonies destroy my heart for the One who loves me and draws close to me when I am wounded. I refuse to be robbed of life’s greatest treasure — a personal, permanent, passionate relationship with God through faith in Jesus.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“but running back, that God showed up and taught her a profound life lesson: Even if you run from the wounders, you can’t outrun God.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.1”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“If ever someone had the right to protest, This isn't right, this isn't fair, I don't deserve this, it was Jesus.

If ever someone had the right to walk out and walk away, it was Jesus.

If ever someone had an excuse to complain, feel sorry for Himself, find fault with God, it was Jesus.

If ever someone had the right to retaliate and - literally - condemn those who mistreated Him, it was Jesus.

Instead, Jesus entrusted Himself to God. He knew His beloved Father well enough to know that these very religious people, although they considered themselves God's representatives on earth, were nothing of the sort. They were wicked, sinful pretenders who would one day stand beffore God and give an account for what they had done.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God's Love Heals Our Hearts

“As painful and devastating as wounds inflicted by God's people can be, they have made me more determined to live out what I believe authentically. I am deeply motivated to know God. I want to know Him as He truly is, not through the distorted reflection of those who called themselves by His name.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God's Love Heals Our Hearts

“Let go of the overwhelming desire to justify what you did and explain what they did.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Wounding smashes relationships. We can never return to the way we were before the wounding took place, which in itself adds a dimension to our grief that is very deep. Yet it is possible for severed relationships to be reconciled.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“God has forgiven me. As an act of grateful worship, I choose to forgive others.10”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Love is a choice — a decision we make to put the well-being of the other person before our own. And forgiveness is also a decision.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, Where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; Hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. Let me learn by paradox That the way down is the way up, That to be low is to be high, That the broken heart is the healed heart, That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, That the repenting soul is the victorious soul, That to have nothing is to possess all, That to bear the cross is to wear the crown, That to give is to receive, That the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, And the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; Let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy riches in my poverty, Thy glory in my valley.7”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Jesus’ example teaches a powerful lesson. He demonstrates that one way to overcome emotional pain is to focus on the needs of others — to reach out and help someone else who may also be suffering.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground … . I remember my affliction … the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.1”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“While many good friends stood by us and stood up for us, we knew that we had obviously become a problem for the majority. So taking great care not to split the church by forcing people to take sides, we quietly left.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“God, how do I do that? What would You have me to do? What is the message You would have me act out?”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Jesus, the Son of God, “did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer.13”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“God’s purpose for us is not to make us healthy, happy, prosperous, and problem-free. His ultimate purpose is to conform us to the image of His own dear Son, that we might bear much fruit to His glory.12 And sometimes, in fulfilling that purpose, He allows us to be hurt.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Are you having a difficult time accepting the fact that God can command us to do something that will hurt someone else? But sometimes He does. God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.10 There are times He leads us in paths that go against conventional wisdom and the advice of those we might otherwise consider experts. He may direct us to make decisions that go against our own strongly held opinions or feelings. But when we choose to do what Abraham did — simply trust and obey — in time, we will discover that God always leads us on the right path.11 Pruning produces a healthier, more vigorous, and more fruitful vine.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Sometimes doing the right thing wounds others — and also wounds the wounder.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“No discipline [wounding or pruning] seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts

“Turning around is a courageous choice —it’s hard to do! It can hurt to take the plank out of your own eye, confront the past, change your focus, die to your pride, admit your wrong, deny your vengeance, face the person, risk another wound. And it takes courage to say you’re sorry”
― Anne Graham Lotz, Wounded by God's People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts