Listen to podcast audio:
It takes courage to recognize the ways we have hurt others and to forgive people for the ways they have hurt us. From their perspective as mature Christians who have walked through this process, John Bailey and Mark Renfroe discuss how forgiveness can open the door for relationships to be restored.
Key Points from the Podcast
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A lot of us choose not to deal with our brokenness, preferring to ignore it and sweep it to the side. We put up a façade and pretend that everything is okay.
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God raises the dead, so there is no situation so broken that he can’t restore it. Our mistakes and failures can be redeemed by God.
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Healing from our brokenness will not come in isolation. It requires authentic community who will tell us the truth and not just try to make us feel good about ourselves.
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You cannot fix something that you will not acknowledge is broken. We must identify, own, and face our brokenness.
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The more intimate your relationship with someone the more vulnerable you are to being hurt.
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It isn’t uncommon after confronting our brokenness and taking steps toward healing to face barriers and seasons of difficulty where we don’t know how to continue moving forward.
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When we don’t want to face our pain, we will often self-medicate with things like food, sex, drugs, etc. Christians may do something similar, but instead of vices they distract themselves with the busyness of ministry.
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A sequence of doing the next right thing will give you a string of winds building momentum toward success.
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Some days you must fight for joy. Nothing brings victory and healing in our lives like joy.
Bible Verses Referenced in the Podcast
Romans 12:18
About John Bailey
Pastor John Bailey serves as the Chief Operating Officer at World Challenge. John came to know Christ in jail after some difficult struggles as a young man, and God has done a powerful work of transformation since! Spending 13 years in Next Gen ministry, he excelled in discipleship and helping young leaders discover giftings to serve God. John was called next to serve as a missionary and pastor in Western Europe. John and his family then returned to plant the Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Today, the church is a thriving body of believers excelling in outreach and missions. John has now brought his giftings and vision to World Challenge, accelerating the spread of the gospel in America and around the World.
About Mark Renfroe
Mark married his college sweetheart, Amy, with whom he has four adult children—one girl and three boys. The Renfroes have been involved in field missions work for 30 years. They served in the Arab community of San Francisco for four years before becoming foreign missionaries in 1995. Mark was asked to serve as the Area Director for Assemblies of God World Missions in 2007. As part of his role, he led missionaries and interfaced with national church leaders in the 18 countries of the Arab World. In 2017, Mark created Reaching Africa’s Muslims, an initiative to mobilize, equip, and deploy indigenous African missionaries to reach Muslims on the continent. Mark has graduate degrees in Intercultural Studies and Executive Leadership. He currently serves as the Chief Missions Officer for World Challenge in Colorado Springs.