16 Lessons of Hope For Those Who Hurt

Emotional wounds, while not as clearly evident as physical ones, are just as painful and your body reacts to this type of hurt as to a physical wound.

Some positive person said that “suffering perfects our character.” That’s not guaranteed. Some people become meaner and intolerable to live with because of suffering. Oswald Chambers says suffering “only perfects one type of person…the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I’ve known Leta Montague for over ten years. Leta went through the pain of her husband leaving, a divorce and then alienation from family. She hit rock bottom – emotionally, psychologically and sometimes physically.

Leta chronicles her journey to forgiveness and healing in her book, “Open Wounds, Open Heart, Open Hands.” 

Leta weaves her personal story alongside the similar stories of biblical personalities who deal with the issues of hurts and wounds in relationships and moving to wholeness.

16 Lessons of Hope for Those Who Hurt:

1. Suffering is like going through a desert wilderness. Broken promises and relationships burn us deeply. Its difficult to survive if you are there by yourself.

2. The danger of undisciplined anger is that it makes us vulnerable and we forget about our common sense.

3. “Forgiveness is a choice and if I wanted God to continue to use me I could not nurse my anger.”

4. Our reaction is just as important as the other person’s action.

5. Refusing to forgive leaves an open wound in our soul that festers and turns into resentment, bitterness and anger.

6. If you have complaints of constant stress, headaches, insomnia, depression and high blood pressure what is your forgiveness level?

7. The goal of getting to a healthy place where we have no animosity or hatred towards people who have wounded us is not an impossible dream.

8. Each pain, wound and trial is an opportunity to get closer to God and to make Him the centre of our future.

9. Remind yourself several times a day – “I am not my past.”

10. People do not have the final say in our destiny.

11. We are not able to love the people who wound us through our own strength but we can love them through Christ.

12. In the wilderness I developed a relationship with God that I never had before.

13. Forgiveness is a conscious decision on the part of the one who was wounded to release the person who has wounded.

14. “I pinned a cross on my wall and pinned the names of those who wounded me on the cross.”

15. Prayer leaves no room for revenge or unforgiveness.

16. Our reward for forgiving people who wound us is freedom from a bitter root growing in us; peace through the Holy Spirit and a stronger, more enduring faith in God.

That my friends is called victorious living! Read more about Let’s work with the “Empowered Women of Hope Association” here.

What did you learn from reading these hi-lites in Leta’s book? You can purchase a copy at Amazon.ca

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