Fractured Faith Quotes

“Sin is not a habit issue. It's a heart issue. Sin is not about behavior modification but desire modification.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The longer I live, the more I wonder if my inability to see God in my pain is rooted in the fact that I’m not really looking for God. I’m looking for a god to show up in the way that I want him to and to give me what I want him to give me.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“Few things have hurt the cause of Christianity more than the pain inflicted on Christians by other Christians. Ask most Christians who used to go to church why they don’t go anymore, and they’ll tell you: it’s the Christians. An online search of the number one most common reason for leaving the church is not Jesus—it’s His people.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“Sin at its most basic form is a failure to trust God. Sin is less about your hormones or your genetic makeup and more about your view of God. As long as you see God holding back what you think you need most, you will never find the power to overcome the sin in your life. The key is in trusting that He knows what you need the most.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The idea that God promises to transform people but hasn’t bothered to transform me is too much to bear.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The biggest mistake we make in Christianity is to make ourselves the center of our story. When we limit our longings to our own personal success stories, we limit perfection, beauty, and harmony. When we limit our desires to our own understanding, we miss out.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“Most of us have wrestled with feelings of disappointment in our Christian life. We live with the notion that if I do my part, God should do His. Instead of rightfully developing a healthy understanding of who God is, we’ve developed a Christian model where I am the center of my world and God is a puppet, waiting at my beck and call to fulfill my every whim.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“When our Christianity hasn’t lived up to our expectations, it’s important to stop and figure out why.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The first step to reconstructing your faith is to start by telling the truth. You need to find a safe place to tell your story, like to a therapist or trusted pastor or friend. It’s essential.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“Lord, Open my eyes that I may see You. Open my ears that I may hear You. Open my mouth that I may praise You. Open my heart to receive all that You have for me today.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“Pain has a way of revealing who you really are and what you really believe. Pain doesn’t destroy your faith; it simply exposes it. Instead of seeing pain and suffering as the worst thing that could happen to you, it’s life-saving to see suffering as a pathway to God. Instead of allowing suffering to deconstruct your faith, consider how God wants to use your suffering to reignite your faith in Him.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The key is in remembering who God really is, not who we’ve made Him to be.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“A disciple is one who has counted the cost of following Christ and found Him to be their greatest treasure.”
― Lina Abujamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“It was in the boat that Jesus found Peter. It wasn’t at church or in a prayer meeting. It was out at sea in Peter’s place of comfort, while Peter was coming to terms with yet another failure, a night spent without catching a single fish. But instead of judgment, Jesus met Peter with grace. Instead of anger, Jesus came to Peter and showed him love. Jesus helped him make a big catch, and then Jesus cooked Peter breakfast.”
― Lina Abujamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“No matter how hopeless today feels, light is on the way, and it has less to do with what I do and everything to do with who God is. He is good. He is sovereign. If you’re in a season of pain, it might feel foreign for you to read those words. It might feel like a cruel joke to hear that light is making its way beneath the crack in your doorway. But it’s the truth. You might be praying for fruit right now, but perhaps God’s plan for today is the grain that will yield your harvest someday down the road.”
― Lina Abujamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The biggest mistake we make in Christianity is to make ourselves the center of our story.”
― Lina Abujamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“Is Christ's death the most unfair story you'll ever hear? It's unfair in the magnitude of God's love toward us and our lukewarm acceptance of Him most of the time. It's unfair in that it allows us to gain where Christ received nothing but our pain.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The most 'unfair' thing God ever did was offer HIs gift of salvation to anyone who would receive it.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“So how do you find your way back to God when you've been wounded by other Christians? You do what only you can do, and you let God do what only He can do. You choose to forgive and you let God do the vindication.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“We're all tempted to reach the wrong conclusions when we're living under the weight of our pain. Pain has a way of distorting our perspectives, especially when it's the supposedly godly people in our lives who are inflicting the greatest pain on us”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“So many Christians are stuck in a cycle of defeated living, experiencing no lasting victory over sin, and the result is a disbelief in the power of God to transform us. Without power for victorious living, faith in God is ultimately questioned and doubt soon takes over.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“The good news of the gospel is that, even in our failure, God is still waiting with open arms for us.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“God uses our desires and unmet expectations, not to put a wedge in our relationship with Him but to deepen our communion and intimacy with Him.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“Most well-intentioned self-help gurus give you a list of ways to love yourself more and live your true authentic self. It might work for a while, but it will leave you utterly exhausted. No matter what we tell ourselves, our human potential to fill our deepest longings is limited.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“As long as our expectations are based on God's promises, our happiness is sure to be complete. Those kinds of expectations will always bring delight because they rest in God's character and in His goodness. Our problems start when- with tight fists- we bring God expectations that hinge on our own wants and desires, often centered around our own comfort and perceived happiness, regardless of what He might want for us.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“We've led ourselves to believe that there is a virtue in just showing up, that somehow God will eventually reward our tenacity. And maybe He will. Maybe there is something to be said about just not quitting. But, year after year, the cost on our soul grows. Without noticing, we become anemic and inauthentic. Some might even accuse us of being hypocrites.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“We’re all tempted to reach the wrong conclusions when we’re living under the weight of our pain. Pain has a way of distorting our perspectives, especially when it’s the supposedly godly people in our lives who are inflicting the greatest pain on us.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“One of the biggest temptations I have to overcome when I’m dealing with rejection is the temptation to reach the wrong conclusions about God.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“It’s been said that “sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction

“For me things got messier before they got better. Breakthrough came through the unexpected form of God’s people. Though it was God’s people who had hurt me, they became the tool God used to heal my broken heart. A loving pastor who wouldn’t give up on me. His wife who understood me. A small church community who saw past my defenses. Though it was God’s people who fueled the deconstruction of my faith, it was also God’s people who would become the building blocks for its reconstruction.”
― Lina AbuJamra, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction