Our Resolute Hope Podcast

Pastor Frank, Dr. John, and Pastor Phelim Doherty continue discussing the experiences and challenges of delivering the message of Christ as life to believers in Ireland.

Guest Phelim Doherty, pastor of River City Church in Derry, Ireland, discusses his early life, his wife’s miraculous healing, and his journey to the Savior.

The enemy will try hard to hinder us.  We must set our minds on the truth that, no matter how we feel, we have forgiven and we’re now free.

Because Christ’s life is in us, we CAN forgive, and we CAN walk in freedom, no matter the wound.  Pastor Frank and Dr. John offer detailed step-by-step guidance on how to do it.

Forgiveness is not restoration.  That comes when, and only when, our offenders have repented.  God doesn’t restore people without their repentance.  Neither should we.

Justifying the actions of our offenders might seem like an understanding and compassionate thing to do.  But we must never forget that compassion is not forgiveness.

We don’t have to feel like forgiving our offender to do it.  It still counts!  And we mustn’t wait until they repent.  We must step forward and bear the cost if we’re to live free.

Forgiving others isn’t forgetting the wounds they caused you.  We can recall the pain vividly and still choose to forgive.  But we must never assume that it will be a quick fix.

After being wounded, it’s normal to retreat within safe boundaries.  But when self-protection becomes a driving motive, boundaries can become emotional prisons.

Try as we might, we can’t ignore our wounds or stuff the anger that results.  This will drag us down or erupt and wound others – often those we love most.

Feeling angry after an offense is healthy, but rage and revenge are sin.  These might feel good for a while, but they can become roots of bitterness that defile many.

Feeling anger is a healthy response when others wound us.  It’s a crucial first step on the road to forgiving our offender … so we can experience our freedom.

God didn’t wait to forgive us until we apologized.  He forgave us while we were His enemies, reconciling Himself to us and inviting us to reconcile ourselves to Him.

Scripture commands us to forgive others just as God has forgiven us.  We must understand how He did this if we are to forgive in the very same way.

Some verses seem to show forgiveness as conditional, but the New Covenant teaches us otherwise.  In Christ, God forgave us unconditionally, and we are to do the same for others.

Forgiving those who wound us can feel like the hardest thing ever.  But doing so frees us from what others have done to us … and what we’ve done to ourselves.

God can be silent when we suffer.  We pray for understanding, but our words seem to go nowhere.  At these times, God offers us Himself, so we can see Him as we never have and receive the blessings we didn’t even know we needed.

Job’s friends teach us to be compassionate when others suffer.  They were purposeful in their actions, meeting Job where he was and suffering with him.  They gave the gift of silent presence, allowing Job time to recover emotionally.

Watching someone suffer can be painful, moving us to desire relief at any cost.  But Jesus’ words, “Shall I not drink of the cup the Father has given Me?”, call us to view suffering through a different lens.

Job was blindsided, his world shattered in seconds.  Still, he embraced his suffering and blessed the name of the Lord.  He learned it’s possible to worship and praise God through tears.

Many believers see Satan as a vicious enemy, fiercely ravaging whomever he wishes.  But that’s not true.  He can’t do anything without God’s permission, and his power is completely limited by God’s divine purposes.

God’s people are not immune to suffering.  Sometimes it’s due to consequences, or to Father’s discipline.  But most often it’s to accomplish His divine purpose in our lives … to conform us to the image of Christ.

No matter what we experience, Father is right there, comforting and encouraging us with His very life.  He shares all our sorrows, collects all our tears.  No suffering is too small to escape His attention.

Father’s encouragement of Mary was crucial as she walked through unprecedented suffering.  She kept her focus on God and finally experienced what the angel first told her – she was blessed among women.

For Mary, the mother of Jesus, blessing was braided closely with suffering.  But through it, she came to see herself as her Father saw her.  And she grew to know Him as she never had before.