Motivation and Inspiration by Peter Mbada: 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!