The will to forgive

The will to forgive

If it were you what would you have done?

The past week was a very hectic one for me with lots of travelling. I literally spent the whole of it on the road and in hotels and I thank God for His preservation, protection and refreshment. I had an unfortunate incident in one of the great hotels. I checked in in the evening and paid for my 2 nights stay. The following day after a long and tiresome day in meetings I got back to the hotel for an early rest only to discover that my door card wasn’t working. I dragged myself to the reception to get it activated. I thought probably I had kept it too close to my cellphone and it had de-activated. The front desk guys re-activated the card and I went back to the room. Back at the door again the card would not work and it showed that the door was locked from inside. After a few attempts the door opened and to my surprise there was somebody in the room. I quickly closed the door and went back to the front desk. It’s at this point that I realized that somebody had been checked in, in the same room that I was booked in. For some reason, I don’t know why the person didn’t notice my belongings in the room and why the hotel booking system allowed a double booking in the room. To cut the long story short, after all the talking and apologizing by the hotel management I was moved to a different room. They were surprised that I just made fun of the incident and never lost my temper or my smile. They offered me a free dinner for the inconvenience but I turned it down because I wasn’t taking in dinner that evening.

 

I know my rights!

Make no mistake I know my rights and I know that I should have taken the hotel management to task for the inconvenience and should have demanded to talk to the top man or woman in the hotel. I had very valuable belongings in my luggage which was in the room which could have been exposed to theft. I had every reason to make noise about the situation and I was very justified too. I had paid the full price for the length of my stay in the hotel and did not deserve to be treated like that; but I deliberately chose to waive my right to fight. There are many situations we face in life when we are justified to fight back, to stand for our rights or to revenge. Do you know that what hurts you is not what people do to you but how you chose to react to what people have done to you? You might have been ill-treated by the system, unfairly treated by your employer or cheated by your spouse; you can chose to fight or you can choose to forgive and move on.

 

Choose to forgive

Forgiveness is deliberately choosing to surrender your well-justified right to revenge or to fight back. Forgiveness is a choice and not a feeling. When it hurts; when it feels painful; when you have tears on your cheeks and a big lump on your heart; you can choose to forgive. Choosing forgiveness is choosing humility over personal ego. It may feel like you have lost the fight, or you have been humiliated but ‘let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2 v 5 – 8). Choosing forgiveness is choosing to lose the chains of the past to win the freedom for the future. When Jesus said you must forgive ‘seventy times seven’ (Matthew 21 v 22), He knew that in life you will be hurt, not once, but many many times; and all the time you are to choose to forgive. You can’t say you have been hurt so many times and now you can’t forgive any more. It’s never more than enough! It’s not meant to be easy but it’s your way to liberty.

 

Why carry around somebody’s monkey and feed it with bananas!?

When you choose unforgiveness you choose to carry around somebody else’s monkey! It will wear you out. No matter how justified, choosing unforgiveness is choosing to pay the full price for somebody else’s wrongs. You can’t choose how someone behaves towards you but you can choose your reaction. Unforgiveness breeds bitterness; and bitterness produces barrenness and unfruitfulness. Unforgiveness tethers you to the past and holds you back from soaring to the heights you are destined to get to.  It’s the simple things in life that are most extraordinary; only the wise are able to understand them. Check your life; you might have to begin to release some monkeys you have been carrying for too long!

 

Imagine a perfect world!

Imagine a world where politicians forgave each other; husbands forgave their wives, and wives forgave their husbands; a world where children forgave their parents and parents their children; a world where bosses forgave their subordinates and subordinates their employers. A world without divorces, wars and rebellion! Imagine a world without anger, hatred and revenge; a world where people deliberately chose to forgive.  Against all odds Esau forgave Jacob for stealing his birthright; Joseph forgave his brothers for dumping him and selling him as a slave; David forgave Saul for tormenting him and Shimei for humiliating him; Jesus forgave you and I for our innumerable sins. You and I can begin a forgiveness revolution! We can change the world one person at a time. Nelson Mandela forgave Botha and his apartheid regime; you can choose to forgive too.

 

Let’s begin a forgivessness revolution and change our world.

 

Calvary love 

Peter Mbada

 

 

      Thanks for purchasing ‘Destined to Succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’ and for the great testimonies! You have to read it to believe the testimonies!

 

 

‘Destined to succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’

Check other articles on: www.pmbada.org  and www.pmbada.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Debswana Diamond Company Email Disclaimer: The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, copy, distribute or disclose the e-mail or any part of its contents or take any action in reliance on it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please e-mail the sender by replying to this message. All reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this e-mail and the sender cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage arising from the use of this e-mail or attachments.

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Stuff happens!

Stuff Happens

 

Abstinence is the solution!

Last week we were battling with getting our girl to complete her homework in time. You know one of those times when 5 minutes before taking off in the morning the kid tells you she has some schoolwork due that morning which is still outstanding.  We realised she had been watching too much television – even though its Christian networks; Christian cartoons, but it was consuming so much of her time. I declared a TV blackout! We switched off the television; not just for her but for everybody because we are in it together. We can’t teach her a principle which ourselves are not able to live by. If we are to teach her abstinence from television or from anything else for that matter we have to lead by example.  We were not about to take her where we have not been ourselves. Don’t teach somebody what you are not prepared to do yourself!  It was awfully quiet and weird for the first day but we had to go through it. Guess what – we never died! By the third day of abstinence you will be amazed how much time we found ourselves with in our hands; homework was done in time and we still had plenty of time for more valuable things. Even my daughter proposed that we extend the blackout season! 

 

Don’t opt for a user friendly relationship

In a generation were there are so many conveniences and alternatives faithfulness has become a scarce resource. Loyalty and sticking in there is now a thing of the past. Days when people would get a job for life are gone; professionals are mobile and are unwilling to make permanent and life-long commitments. Couples are shunning the marriage institution and resorting to live-ins and co-habiting because you can have a user-friendly relationship without any binding commitments. But ‘Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Hebrews 13 v 8) has not changed in His demands for faithfulness, loyalty, commitment and obedience.  He is looking for faithfulness.

 

Stuff happens

I once witnessed one old man, very committed to God, testifying on how his son came home one day to introduce to him his ‘boyfriend’ whom he was going to get married to! Stuff happens! Sometimes things can go wrong in life; very wrong. Things can fall apart! Sometimes the happenings in life can swing completely out of control and you can wonder whether you are coming or going. Life is not fair and is never meant to be. You just need to know how to play the game. Whatever you have gone through or whatever you will go through God’s commitment to your life will never change. Even if things go wrong you must never shift in your faithfulness and commitment to God; because God is never glorified in what never happens! When things go wrong; it’s so that the power of God may be manifested in your life and that at the end of it all His name be glorified. If stuff doesn’t happen you will miss an opportunity for God to be glorified through your life!

 

Counting begins when the pain begins

Faithfulness is unconditional. It is not dependant on the actions or reactions of the other party. In fact with faithfulness, counting begins when the pain begins. The substance of your commitment is seen when your faithfulness is tested. True faithfulness is when you are exposed to disappointments, pains and heartbreaks and you remain loyal and committed. You don’t opt for ‘tit-for-tat’. The substance of your faithfulness is not measured in times of bliss and abundance; but in times of pain and frustration. Abraham waited 25 years to receive his promise but he remained faithful to God. David was anointed king; he was the true authentic, God ordained king of Israel; but for 40 years he continued to serve under Saul who had been rejected by God. He did not organise a coup – he remained faithful! Moses was stressed and wearied by the grumblings and complaining of the children of Israel in the wilderness but he never gave up on them; he remained faithful to the service. You were born in sin and over the years you have disappointed God but he has never given up on you. He has remained faithful and true to His word and covenants.

 

God honours faithfulness

God does not measure ability by how much you have performed against others. He measures ability on how you have performed against yourself. The true measure of your ability is not how much you have performed against others but how much you have performed against how much you should have performed! The servant who multiplied the five talents received the same commendation with the servant who multiplied the two talents (Matthew 25 v 14 – 23) because the master was not measuring them against each other but against their faithfulness to invest in their given talents. Paul said ‘I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, and I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim 4 v 7). He did not indicate winning against anybody else but finishing his course. ‘The race does not belong to the swift nor the battle to the strong’ (Ecclesiastes 9 v 11), but to those that endure to the end. God honours your willingness and endurance to remain in the game till the finishing line. The reward is not for those that get there first; but for those that get there! Your dependability and reliability is a measure of your ability.

 

God honours faithfulness more than ability!

 

Calvary love 

Peter Mbada

 

 

      Thanks for purchasing ‘Destined to Succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’ and for the great testimonies! You have to read it to believe the testimonies!

 

 

‘Destined to succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’

Check other articles on: www.pmbada.org  and www.pmbada.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Debswana Diamond Company Email Disclaimer: The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, copy, distribute or disclose the e-mail or any part of its contents or take any action in reliance on it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please e-mail the sender by replying to this message. All reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this e-mail and the sender cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage arising from the use of this e-mail or attachments.

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Be the last person standing!

Determine to be the last person standing

A weekend in Real Estate

During the weekend I spent sometime viewing some properties in a very nice area. The properties looked very beautiful, well built and relatively well maintained. However, there was something peculiar about most of the properties or buildings I saw in that area. They had fairly extensive cracks on the walls! My engineering eyes are trained never to take anything for granted; so I had to do a root cause analysis for this common pattern of failures. I didn’t need to look up the buildings to find the cause of the cracks but I looked down and around the buildings. A quick look around the area showed me the problem – the soil or ground conditions of the area! The builders had not taken time to do the necessary – invest in the right foundations for the type of the soil in the area.

 

Problems upstream are a result of neglect downstream

I realised that the cracks up the walls were a result of compromise down in the foundations. The sandy soils in the area required that the builders put up a special foundation or dig right deep to anchor the building in the rock; but they had not done that. Do you know that in life most of the problems downstream are a result of neglect upstream? Most of the challenges we face later in life are a result of what was neglected earlier in life; and the cost of fixing the problem increases as you progress further and further away from the source of the problem. Think of it this way; if the problem is in the foundation it is easier to fix it at the foundation stage than when the building is already roofed because then you will then have to demolish everything you have built in order to access the foundation! Fix the problem at the source. You might bury and hide the foundation but you cannot hide the cracks on the wall!

 

Pay the full price

It’s painful; it’s costly, but it’s worth it. Pay the full price for the foundation; it’s worth the investment because the returns are high. Don’t compromise or take short cuts on the foundation. A good foundation does not come at a bargain price! When you set up the foundations for your children’s lives, their characters, the foundations of your career, your business, your marriage or what ever it is, determine to pay the full price for ‘they that sow in tears shall reap in joy’ (Psalm 126 v 5). Even if the foundation is hidden and no-one can see anything except your sweat, don’t give up because ‘he that goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him’ (Psalm 126 v 6). You have just missed the right point to say AMEN!

 

Let the storms of life be the ultimate judge

The difference between wisdom and foolishness is in the amount of time spent in investing in the things that matter the most. The wise man in Matthew 7 spent time digging deep into the rock to set up the foundation whilst the foolish man had it all easy on the sand.  ‘Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it’ (Matthew 7 v 24 – 27). The external finish on the top structure of the buildings was the same and excellent; but the difference was in the foundation. The wise man’s work seemed in vain as he got deeper and deeper into the ground and no wall was seen rising up; while the foolish man was the hero who could set it all up in a day. But it’s the storms of life that became the ultimate judge to determine who the true hero was. Don’t neglect the foundations; the deep seated things which no man can see. Invest in them even if your hard work and labour might seem in vain. One day, in a season of storm, your firm foundations will save your day! You will have the last laugh and you will be the last person standing!

 

Practice makes perfect

By the way I had one of my best sights last week when I got home and my little boy, Shabach, walked to me. He just made his first baby steps at 9 months. It was such a joy seeing him trudge along a few steps and drop hard on his back. He never gave up! He rose up again and plodded on until he got to me. You missed the sight - you should have seen me with an ear-to-ear uncontrollable smile and feeling like the proudest dad in the whole world! During the rest of the week I watched him gain more and more confidence and the trudge developing into a more controlled gait – what a sight! Practice makes perfect. I tell you, the little chap is perfecting the art of walking daily. The hard falls on his back never discouraged him. By the way – if you are beginning on your baby steps in any area of your life don’t let the hard falls on your back or the hard knocks discourage you - rise up and move on. Practice makes perfect, you will soon be the master in the area. God bless you.

 

Calvary love 

Peter Mbada

 

 

      Thanks for purchasing ‘Destined to Succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’ and for the great testimonies! You have to read it to believe the testimonies!

 

 

‘Destined to succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’

Check other articles on: www.pmbada.org  and www.pmbada.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Debswana Diamond Company Email Disclaimer: The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, copy, distribute or disclose the e-mail or any part of its contents or take any action in reliance on it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please e-mail the sender by replying to this message. All reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this e-mail and the sender cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage arising from the use of this e-mail or attachments.

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Mind your step, we are all watching!

Mind you step; we are all watching!

Charity begins at home

In Botswana September is a month of prayer to encourage Christians to take an active role in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Earlier in the week I had 2 invitations from the company to speak at a prayer meeting arranged by the employees and later on to speak to the community at a prayer meeting at the customary court. I thank God for every opportunity to plant a seed. Many people dream of touching, influencing and impacting the world. They are waiting until they find their way into the White House or in Hollywood before they can make their contribution to the world. If you are like that, then be prepared for a very long wait. We influence the world one person at a time starting from where we are. Christ said ‘You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth’ (Acts 1 v 8b). In other words, He said you must start from where you are.  

 

Watch your step

Do you know that everyone of us no matter how insignificant we may feel, we all have some people that look up to us and admire us as role-models whether we know it or not. As you walk you may think nobody is noticing – but there is somebody who is watching and who is yearning to learn something from you. Paul said, ‘You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men;’ (2 Corinthians 3 v 2). Mind your step, somebody is watching! What do you want them to copy from your life?

 

Enabling Qualities

Effective role-models must be positive influence and must possess the enabling qualities that will point people in the right direction and to the Cross. Wisdom and character are some of the enabling qualities you need.

 

1.          Wisdom

There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is all the information and facts that you know in your head. Many people think that having knowledge and having big qualifications is being wise. Other people think that knowledge is power but knowledge is not power; it is only potential power. Knowledge only becomes power when it is intelligently organised and directed towards solving a specific problem, in which case it becomes Wisdom. Wisdom is the application of knowledge to solve an existing problem. Wisdom has nothing to do with the level of education or qualifications. You can possess a PhD, master’s degrees and still lack in wisdom; or you can possess no formal school certificate but be rich in wisdom. Wisdom is about intelligently organising the knowledge you have and effectively applying it to situations.

 

The man who was heading a campaign to educate people to stop smoking was found burnt to death after falling asleep while smoking in bed! All the knowledge he had against smoking did not help change his own habits. How many people have so much head knowledge but are still destroyed with the same things they are schooled in. ‘Wisdom is a defence and gives life to those that have it’’ (Ecclesiastes 7 v 12). We need leaders who possess wisdom and not just qualifications. The first step in gaining wisdom is to fear God. There is no wisdom outside of God. The bible clearly says, ‘the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom:’ (Proverbs 9 v 10).

 

2. Character and Integrity

You need character and integrity for positive influence. We live in a generation were there are so many people out there who are ‘talking the talk’ but very few who ‘walk the walk’; but you must walk the talk. The bible says a good name is better than precious ointment (Ecclesiastes 7 v 1).  A good name gives you a good reputation but a good character will establish you. A good reputation is a testimony of past achievements but a good character is assurance for future achievements. You must have character. Your character is the sum total of the choices and decisions you make when nobody is watching. Your character defines who you are.

 

Your personality and skills will earn you a promotion but it’s your character that will sustain you up there. The world watched with cheers as Mike Tyson rose to be the boxing champion of the world; and the world watched with laughter as he tumbled all the way down. What made the difference: discipline and character – or the lack thereof? We are tired of leaders with a porous character; leaders who say one thing but act the other way; leaders with great CVs but no self discipline or character. Naaman (2 Kings 5 v 1) was a great man who had won great victories; but he was a leper. Lepers were counted among the dead. So, even though Naaman had had great exploits; had fought and won great external battles; but he had lost the internal struggles – he was a leper. True victory begins with personal victory.

 

So, watch your step; we are all watching!

 

Calvary love 

Peter Mbada

 

 

       Thanks for purchasing ‘Destined to Succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’ and for the great testimonies! You have to read it to believe the testimonies!

 

 

‘Destined to succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’

Check other articles on: www.pmbada.org  and www.pmbada.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Debswana Diamond Company Email Disclaimer: The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, copy, distribute or disclose the e-mail or any part of its contents or take any action in reliance on it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please e-mail the sender by replying to this message. All reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this e-mail and the sender cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage arising from the use of this e-mail or attachments.

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