Is Achievement Determined By Destiny ?

Do you believe in destiny? Some people do and some others don’t. There is a group of people I know who believe so much in destiny that they go as far as visiting soothsayers to give them an insight into what their future looks like, if they are “destined” to make it in life.

Another group I also know have the belief that if you were born poor, that is your destiny and there is nothing you can do about it and if you were born into a wealthy family, then that is your destiny.

These beliefs are deeply rooted in their culture and religion. I am a Christian by the grace of Almighty God, so am I supposed to believe in destiny? Sacred scripture says in Deuteronomy 13: 1-3 “A prophet or an interpreter of dreams may promise a miracle or a wonder, in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshipped before. Even if what he promises comes true, do not pay any attention to him. The Lord your God is using him to test you, to see if you love the Lord with all your heart”.

This admonition was addressed to the Israelites of old and in today’s time equally applies to Christians not to go to soothsayers to check for their “destiny” for such practice would lead one away from worshiping the one true God and into idol worship. For me personally, I hold this statement very dear to my heart.

Now in Mark 11: 22-24, our Lord Jesus clearly states, “Have faith in God, I assure you that whoever tells this hill to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. For this reason I tell you: When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given whatever you ask for.

So the Christian’s destiny, as it were, lies in his or her ability to have more faith than doubt in any endeavour embarked on. For this reason I don’t believe in destiny in the way the two groups I earlier talked about do. Rather, I know clearly that the words I speak and the thoughts of my heart are areas I should direct my focus.

Interestingly the nature of man is such that anyone can do this whether Christian or not because God has given us inherent qualities that produce the physical results of words we speak and thoughts we carry.

So I tell you, the destiny you have lies in you. God in His infinite mercy and love for man has made it so. Do what our Lord Jesus has advised in His word and achieve whatever you desire in life. There you have another wealth secret!

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Averse To Criticism?

Not all criticism is good. Secondly, you cannot be all things to all people; as a human that would make you a divine being. However, the individual who has fame, wealth, recognition or whatever achievement in mind must learn to sieve through the shaft of daily criticism and take the good ones on the journey to success.

The simple reason for this is because you cannot know everything about every situation. I have come to admire my spouse in this area because though she studied a social science subject at higher institution, she sometimes amazes me with her technical reasoning ability.

At times I find myself struggling to resolve an issue at home and she comes and says why not do it like this and this? I then look at myself and wonder why I didn’t think of it along the same line; when we try her advice, I get the result I had in mind and I tell you this has occurred a couple of times during our stay together.

I tell you pride is one major obstacle that could hinder one from listening to criticism especially when going in the wrong direction but when you find yourself doing the same thing and expecting a different result, then what happens? Do you remain there still doing the same thing? That, as someone once said is madness.

At this point I like to make a distinction - please don’t confuse open mindedness with foolishness. Some folks may take the comments in the preceding paragraphs out of context and think they should go about looking for people to criticise what they are doing. If you try this, you may land yourself in the hands of a never-see-good-in-anything-or-person kind of a person who would so criticise you that you could give up altogether on your dreams if you are not strong willed.

 On the other hand, a little stubbornness is good if you truly believe in a cause but like I said earlier, don’t be so stubborn that it turns to foolishness even when it is obvious that your path is leading to no where. You have got to know when to retrace your steps, change your strategy and continue until you get there. It just means you should be open minded to change to get past your obstacle on the road to achievement.

So in essence, what you must develop a good eye for is constructive criticism. Don’t be quick to defend yourself without first listening to what the critic is saying. You must make an in-depth analysis within your mind about what the person is saying and how it fits into your long term goal.

This is where you can distinguish between positive constructive criticism and negative destructive criticism. The person who criticises positively will also allow you the opportunity to speak while discussing with you to advance reasons for your present action and then use that to build on other initiatives you can try. The person’s countenance is calm; from his or words you can see a genuine desire to help you improve to get to your destination.

The negative critic’s countenance on the other hand exudes the very opposite. Please don’t allow their words and thoughts affect you or your dream. You were born to be great if you understand the power that resides within you. God put it there so be grateful to Him always.

Listen only to positive constructive criticism and when you expand your wealth of knowledge and then act on it, success is not far off.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Mental Preparation, A Must!!

How prepared are you for success? It’s easy to say a resounding yes but further probe would show that most people are just not ready for success, especially mentally.

I attended a Catholic Church wedding recently where 4 couples were getting married including a Catholic and a Protestant. The officiating minister at this wedding preached a most beautiful message every intending couple ought to hear to have a successful marriage.

He emphasised the fact that the Catholic and Protestant couple should realise their different religious views and the fact that this will become a source of misunderstanding they should be prepared to deal with. He also emphasised the fact that couples don’t take time to realise what they are getting into and prepare enough for it. This he said unfortunately results most times in the breakdown of the marriages.

Mental preparation for success in whatever endeavour (business, marriage, sports, entertainment, etc) is much more important than physical preparation because it is the one factor that gets you going when challenges show up. It is also the factor that drives you and keeps you remaining focused on your results and not just activities.

If you were given cash of a million United States dollars, what would be your reaction? How about 2 million, or 10 million dollars or 100 million dollars or even a billion dollars, would you faint? The answer to that question is very important and shows how mentally prepared you are for success.

Mental preparation simply means you must never be afraid of figures when it comes to money, no matter the amount. You have to state in your conscious mind exactly how much it is you want to get in life, no matter the amount. You have to be specific, not saying, about so so and so figure but the exact amount and the exact currency (dollars, pounds, euros, etc etc).

A story is told of Jim Carrey the American comic actor who years earlier had written himself a 10 million dollar cheque when he had nothing and years later, he was cashing a cheque of same amount because he mentally prepared that figure in his mind.

It is the same thing with prayer just like our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:7 - 8. He said you must not beat about the bush and say long prayers like pagans do but go straight to the point because God knows what you want even before you ask for it. So its very important to be specific on the profession you want or whatever it is you want out of life.

So how do you prepare mentally? A simple way of putting it could be found in what Late American billionaire J. Paul Getty said that you think of the worst that could happen and then do all it takes to ensure it never happens. Remember you have to think of it first mentally to know the steps to take to handle it when it does happen.

This process could again be compared to what married couples pass through as the years roll by. Some couples cannot stand themselves for even one month of marriage while some others manage a year, two years, three, four or five. After five years there is usually a bit of stability though at times it crashes within the next five years.

Do you know what is the one common factor with couples whose marriages succeed? There is mental preparation where they decide that they will remain with each other no matter what happens. This simple decision enables them to overcome the roughest challenges they are likely to encounter with time. The challenges must certainly come because no two people are perfect with different upbringing, background, experience, etc.

That decision comes to mind to keep them in check anytime they reach a critical threshold triggered even by the smallest of issues. So you cannot run away from this process if genuine wealth and success in whatever endeavour is your goal in life. You just have to be mentally prepared.

© copyright Gabriel Ama

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Plan Your Work; Work Your Plan (2)

I had to write this as a rejoinder to last week’s article to emphasise the importance of tracking one’s plan. As a child growing up, it was quite easy recalling things I had to do. This ability stayed with me even while at the University. When I left school and starting working, I noticed that I could no longer recall things I had to do as easy as it was those early days.

I recall even once when my first boss at work told me several things I had to do and I said okay, okay, okay and then he asked, “won’t you write all I’ve said down?” to which I responded that I wouldn’t forget. Then my boss said, “oh, so you have a computer brain?” Honestly then I thought my boss was making a fuss until I noticed like I said that I starting forgetting things to do.

It was my reading of motivational books that made me see what I had to do: write things down. If you are like me and read motivational books you’d see one of things advised to do is write down one’s goals and plans.

Please take that advice very seriously especially where you have a very busy schedule. It would make the difference between keeping focused and losing track of what one is doing. When you write things down, it is easy to see where you are, what you’ve done, what you’re yet to do, what requires modification and even the process of doing them if your plan is very detailed.

Never assume you can clog your pretty head with things to do because with a busy schedule it just won’t work. You will find yourself drifting from one activity to another without really accomplishing things in an ordered fashion as planned, but haphazardly. More importantly, you will forget most things you intend doing unless they are written down.

It would look just like going shopping with a list of things to buy in your head and not written down. How many things can one possibly recall shopping this way? Very few I can assure you. Your head is best left free to do serious thinking about providing solutions to challenges if genuine wealth in life is your goal.

Finally, keep what you’ve written where you can see it most likely pasted on a wall if it’s a major plan so it gives you a picture of your progress as you accomplish each milestone.

There you have another wealth secret.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Plan Your Work; Work Your Plan

My Principal in High School used to tell us then that “to fail to plan is to plan to fail”. He was a University graduate of English Language and must have quoted this statement from one of the many books he must have studied. He used to give us advice through such quotes.

We were young then and most of us never really understood those comments. However, as I grew older, I began to see signs of the truth and wisdom of those comments, especially the failing to plan that meant planning to fail.

Most people do not have a road map for their lives and just sort of follow any direction in which life pushes them. This lifestyle looks just like a road junction that opens into many road arteries and yet only one leads to the correct destination. If there is no map to guide one, such person would have to keep trying each road, come back, take the next one and so on and so forth. You can therefore imagine how time consuming and tedious that would be.

On the other hand, with a map that has the destination, you can immediately tell which road to follow. This is why you see many people jumping from one venture to the other all in a bid to make it in life. They start a venture, fail, give up, move to another one, fail, give up, move to yet another and so on and so forth.

If the truth be told, some few are able to keep moving this way until they hit the right venture. However for most, the result is a continuous struggle without any positive result to show.

Research experience has shown that most projects fail at planning stage. They fail because the planners do not properly think through before drawing the plan and at implementation stage, they get bogged down by so many challenges that the project becomes somewhat like a white elephant.

This therefore should guide you reading this piece that proper planning is required if you are to obtain lasting success in your desired endeavour. You just cannot afford to leave things to chance as the average person would do and get average results. You must think through carefully and come up with something that will work.

Take note though, that no plan is foolproof for the simple fact that you cannot get all details once; and that is why a constant periodic review is required to further consolidate on the initial plan. Planning is better than not planning because it gets more than 70% of the work done.

The other part comes from the implementation where attitude, discipline and focus are the main drivers required to get things done. So, what then should be the components of one’s plan? The very basic components should be:

(1)   an objective or goal

(2)   required resources – tools, people and things required to work the plan

(3)   likely challenges to encounter  and how to tackle or overcome them (very important)

These should be expatiated to obtain as much information as required and it would vary slightly depending on the objective.

This should then guide the implementation and as I said earlier, a constant periodic review would be required to ensure we are on track. This review would show what is working, what needs modification, what additional resources are required and what is not working. This could be done either monthly, quarterly or bi-annually.

 I can assure you this takes a lot of discipline to achieve but it is worthwhile if your objective is true wealth from any endeavour you undertake. On your road to achievement, never forget the maxim, “to fail to plan is to plan to fail”.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Service, then Profit

Don’t try to take advantage of people; only ignorant folks do that. Everyday we see people doing the very opposite of this advice – people who want to profit from cheating others all in a bid to make money.

If only they understood the secret of success that lies in genuine service, they would stop short in their ignorance and begin to do the right thing. People are in need of solutions to their problems. The person who is able to provide solutions or services of value will profit.

He or she will profit because people are willing to pay especially for solutions that can change their situation almost immediately. Now this is where the problem lies. Some want to take advantage of another’s seemingly desperate situation to wreak havoc in the name of helping.

Humans experience a variety of challenges – financial, health, psychological, spiritual, etc,etc. If you want to profit, be genuinely committed to providing a solution to any of these problems. 

Do your researches, read books, listen to tapes, attend events where these issues are discussed and within a short while you would have become an expert whom those with such challenges would look forward to for help.

In providing the help, make sure not to promise what you cannot do; if anything, under promise and over deliver and that way the person or persons to whom you have rendered help will surely recommend your services to others. 

On the other hand if you over promise and under deliver, you come across as one with integrity problems and before long, the news of your insincerity would spread and you will lose customers in their thousands and eventually lose business.

Once again, I state categorically that you don’t have to take advantage of anyone or people to profit. Solve their challenges genuinely and you will surely profit.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Compete Against Yourself, Not Others

Most often during competitions we hear of football teams studying other teams’ style of play to determine their areas of weakness to build their game plan around this to beat their opponents.

We also see business organizations undertake similar study of their rival organizations offering similar products or services to see how they can outperform them.

While this could be a good strategy, it may not always work to produce the desired results. If anything, it could breed a lot of stress and bad blood as you try to outdo the other person or business or football team.

The way to go as experience has shown is to compete against yourself- yes, compete against your previous performances. If a football team can focus on improving their individual players’ performance and work as a team, it gives them a better playing strategy than focusing on what opponents are doing.

As simple as this may seem, most teams unfortunately do not practice this strategy and this I must say is the major reason a football team like Brazil has consistently performed well at all major international competitions at youth and senior level.

Football fans, analysts, critics and other footballing nations have continued to admire but also wonder how Brazil has maintained this consistency but the reason is that simple if only they would look at the team’s players. They have so many talented footballers who focus on improving their individual performances but they also focus on team work that gives them the desired results most of the time.

For organizations too that focus more on what they are doing and what their customers want and not just what competition is doing will consistently produce world class products and services. Again, we see this in the Japanese manufacturers who are able to consistently churn out products in great demand from customers because of the very high quality of these products.

You can see an example in their luxury automobiles with lower purchase cost, maintenance and other running costs but higher quality than even American made automobiles.

If you wish to achieve in life, your focus most times should be on improving your previous performance, that is, competing against yourself and not against others. You will have less stress, less anger or bitterness towards competition and a healthy mindset that would allow you tap from the God given resources within and produce great results.

It is really amazing how most people or businesses expend a lot of time and resources studying competition. If only that time and resource could be channeled to study what they are doing and how to improve, there will always be light years ahead of competition.

I say this because man has a lot of hidden resources within him that should always be developed and tapped into for great results. This is even what competition uses and yet some are looking at competition rather than their own resources.

Focus more on yourself and your inner resources and see what great results you will consistently churn out. How to do this? Kindly check my previous posts on this please.

There you have another wealth secret.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Always Strive for Excellence

Some folks are okay with average performance, which ultimately produces average results. Some strive for something higher, and obtain better results. In business, work, school or whatever endeavour one engages in, the key to great achievement is in a focused striving for excellence.

You have got to make sacrifices, put in extra effort, work longer hours all in a bid to excel. There is no shortcut to life as most people believe just like you cannot get something for nothing.

By this I mean is you cannot just sit down without doing any meaning work and expect to achieve results or your heart’s desire. There must be a conscious effort in undertaking some meaningful activity geared towards your goal in life.

Since we are now clear on this, it then means that striving for excellence should be the focus of the person who wants to obtain true wealth. So how do you strive for excellence?

We strive for excellence by careful preparation. Research has shown that most projects failure at planning stage. Therefore, there must be careful planning or a road map for the person who strives for excellence in a chosen task or goal. This helps one undertake an analysis and research into the goal, obtaining valuable information on the pros and cons of the task and what to do to achieve it.

We also strive for excellence by a review of the task after a period of undertaking it for a while, say every quarter or every six months. The objective here is to compare notes between the planning stage or road map and actual execution of the task to see areas of possible improvement. There will always be areas of possible improvement if we are sincere to ourselves and are always ready to get the best results.

We also strive for excellence when we sincerely listen to what others or specifically what clients have to say about our products or service. This gives us a wider perspective and helps us to see things from the client’s view point and make sure to implement the ones that would give the results we desire.

We also strive for excellence when we listen to what our staff say. As an employer of labour for instance, you cannot claim to have monopoly of knowledge. Your customer facing staff deal with and interact with customers on a daily basis during the work week. They therefore also have firsthand knowledge of their work challenges, the customer’s challenges and can suggest ways of improving them.

It is important to note here that it is not all customers who will want to later discuss an issue they have mentioned earlier in front of a customer facing staff. It is that staff who is in position to relay the message and the person or organisation striving for excellence would do well to listen and implement the suggestions given if they are focused on achieving results.

As simple as all these look, it takes patience and a lot of discipline to implement them. However, the person or organisation that takes this cardinal point as their rule is sure on the path to excellence and true wealth.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Get Yourself A Mentor

My life’s experience has made me understand the importance of having a mentor. However, it is important to also note that there are different kinds of mentors out there so I need to distinguish that I’m referring to positive minded mentors to fit into the purpose of this site.

A mentor is simply put, a person who will point one in the direction to go in life. This is why I said one should get a positive mentor. The mentor has experience having been through several challenges and coming out of them with lessons learnt. Such a person would therefore be in a better position to give direction to a less experienced individual.

Most teenagers (13 – 19) and young adults between ages 20 to 30 do not really understand why they should have a mentor since they believe they know so much at their age. Yes, I felt that way too during my teenage years and as a young adult and I took a lot of decisions on my own then.

However, looking back now, I know better and I also know that someone should have been there to guide me.

With a positive mentor, you will avoid many of life’s mistakes and make better decisions. You will gain insight into things that ordinarily would not make sense to you at the time and you will most certainly have less regrets later in life.

So how do you choose a mentor? There are several ways to choose a mentor. It could be from the books you read. I want to assume that for you to be reading this article shows you already have an interest in reading and so from your reading, it would be clear to see if the writer’s articles or books arouse your interest.

If it does create an emotional experience for you, then you will look forward to reading more articles and books from the same writer with a view to applying the lessons learnt. Thus, the writer becomes your mentor even without a physical meeting with him or her.

You could also choose your mentor from the physical evidence of the person’s lifestyle. Again, this should be a positive lifestyle as this site is about true wealth secrets. You would be so moved and impressed with the person’s lifestyle that you want to become like her or him.

In this case you would have to find a way of reaching out to the person either by e-mail or telephone or a letter requesting exactly what your intentions are. This way the person knows upfront why you are interested in meeting him or her.

It is pertinent to note here that having met with the mentor and shared from mentor’s experiences and advice, it would most please the mentor to see you apply those lessons and get the results you so desire. This would encourage the mentor to give more of their limited time to sharing with you as a good student.

Take action now and go get yourself a mentor and see how you become way ahead of your contemporaries in your achievements in life.

I do have myself a mentor now, in the person of my Lord Jesus Christ. With His words contained in Sacred Scripture, I know I can never fail in life. His word says in Proverbs 3: 5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and He will show you the right way” (Good News Bible).

His word also says in Mark 11: 23, “ I assure you that whoever tells this hill to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him” (Good News Bible).

With these scripture passages and many others from my mentor, Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I know I can never fail in life because His words are true and they are life and He is pleased with me when I put them into practice and achieve results for myself.

I encourage you to try this today and see the results you’ve always wanted.

There you have another wealth secret.

© copyright Gabriel Ama

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Become a No Limits Person

Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to buy something and when told the price you went "that's rather expensive" and then walked away without buying? If you are in the habit of doing that, one of the reasons you would give for such action is you cannot afford it, right?

Well, as true as that may sound, one question I want to ask you is those who are able to afford it, how do they behave? If you were to interact with a genuinely wealthy person, one of the things you would notice about them is that they rarely react when told the price of an item they want to buy.

Rather, if they really need that item, they look for ways to raise the money to buy it! At this point you might say, well they have the money so why wouldn't they behave that way and go ahead and source the money to buy it?

If you have said just that, then I want to tell you today that within such simple actions lie the difference between achievers and non achievers, between the wealthy and those who struggle financially.

The wealthy always look for solutions while those who struggle financially spend the same time complaining...........in other words, the wealthy are no limits people while those who struggle financially consciously and unconsciously place limits on themselves by their thoughts, words and action!

If there is anything you desire and at that moment you do not have the cash to buy it immediately, rather than tell yourself you cannot afford it, ask an important question, which is, how can I buy this item? Once you do, your mind starts working and you will surely come up with a solution.

Why do I say so? It is because the human mind always throws up a solution to whatever questions thrown there. Unfortunately, those who struggle financially are not aware of this fact! And those who know are able to overcome whatever obstacles they encounter in life.

Make up your mind and become a no limits person from today and remove the fear of figures from your mind whenever you want to buy anything. You will then begin to attract the resources you need because there are no more limits to your ability to achieve in life…..unless you place the limits on yourself.

(c) copyright Gabriel Ama

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Meditation Vs Worry

There is a similarity between meditation and worry. Both are derived from thought process and in turn affect the way we feel. 

The significant difference between them is that one is a constructive process for the conscious and subconscious minds while the other is a destructive process for both the conscious and subconscious minds.

When you engage in meditation, your mind dwells on issues for a number of reasons that could include reflecting on a past incident, reflecting on a current incident or reflecting on the future with a view to seeing what one can learn from them or trying to figure out a way of solving an issue.

In meditation, we look at the pros and cons of an issue but with a definite eye on finding a solution and ultimately finding one because every situation has a solution as has been proven over and over again in human existence.

Worry on the other hand involves seeing only the negative part of an issue and creating monsters of fear and doubt in one’s mind. The result? The mind becomes disarrayed in a state of frenzy…..confusion sets in and the person sees only the worst in what is happening. 

Worry destroys one’s ability to see things clearly and come up with a proper solution on an issue. 

 

Unfortunately, because the human mind responds to stimulus whether positive or negative and thereafter attracts the physical aspect of it, those fears created in the person’s mind would come to pass physically since they are the dominant emotions therein.

Most of the time, humans engage in worry rather than meditation, and this accounts for the unfortunately high number of people suffering all over the world…..if only they knew the difference between meditation and worry and engaged more in the former, how different their life’s situation would be.

Some people find it difficult to engage in meditation without worry because to them, you can only concentrate on both positive and negative things to be “realistic” and anyone engaged in only positive thoughts is not being “realistic”. So what does the word of God say about thought process? The book of Proverbs 4 verse 23 (Good News Bible) says, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts”.

Can you see that we are advised to be careful “how” we think? If our lives are shaped by our thoughts as sacred scripture says it is, then is it not wise for us to engage in positive thoughts? Do we then need to engage in negative thoughts to be realistic? I guess not since we know what the result will be physically! 

This simply means worry is destructive thinking while meditation is constructive and positive thinking. Being realistic as most people want to be means putting negative thoughts and emotions into one’s mind and what scripture says is the result one would get.

So as seen from the word of God in Proverbs 4:23, the only reality we get is what we focus our minds on, the thoughts that go on therein. 

Do begin today therefore to focus on meditation and not worry so that you can achieve all you desire because your thought process will get you the exact same results physically.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Compromise (3)

Good day all and so sorry for my inability to post the concluding part of this series last week. In the spirit of the season, I humbly seek your understanding. I wish you all compliments of the season, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2008. Do enjoy the remaining part of our series on compromise until next week when we have a new topic for discussion.............

Now what happens when we refuse to compromise? Sometimes it leads to pain and involves a lot of sacrifice but ultimately, it ALWAYS leads to achievement, success and accomplishment. Refusal to compromise is usually alluded to when we use such words as courage, persistence, determination, etc. Anytime we refuse to settle for anything less than what we believe in, then that is refusal to compromise.

Examples abound in scripture on refusal to compromise. Abraham, our father in faith refused to compromise to doubt God’s word concerning sacrificing his only child Isaac when God asked him to do so. He believed God was going to give him another child and he was accepted by God as righteous and that sealed his covenant with God (Gen. 22: 1-18).

David refused to compromise to the threat of the Philistines and God gave him victory over Goliath of Gath and the philistine army, though he was just a little lad (1 Sam 17: 22-54).

Noah did not compromise his faith in the command of God that he builds an ark to save himself and his family from the impending destruction of the world God was planning. He obeyed God and he and his family – eight of them – were saved (Gen. 6: 5-22).

Even though he was sold into slavery by his siblings, Joseph did not compromise his faith to sleep with his slave master Potiphar’s wife. He suffered the pain of imprisonment for a while but rose by God’s special grace to become the second most powerful man in the whole of Egypt, a foreign land! (Gen 39: 1 – 41:46). There are many stories of refusal to compromise seen in scriptures in Heb. 11.

In our time, we see refusal to compromise resulting in great achievements: Henry Ford was able to produce the first 8-cylinder engine by refusing to compromise to his worker’s claims that it could not be done.

England’s former Prime Minister Winston Churchill refused to compromise and surrender to Adolf Hitler’s war threats in spite of Hitler having conquered much of Europe, and the war was eventually won against Hitler’s forces.

In his bid to save many of his patients who were dying from surgical infections (though unknown at the time), Joseph Lister, a surgeon, refused to compromise to his colleagues tauntings and criticisms for over 16 years between 1865 and 1881 and was eventually able to discover the importance and use of antiseptics that we know today.

Thomas Edison who had only three months of formal schooling and was sent home to his mother as one who would not amount to much, did not compromise and give up. Today, his refusal to compromise with his mother’s support has placed him in history as one of the greatest inventors with over a hundred such inventions as the incandescent bulb, telegraph, and so on.

No matter what it is you choose to become in life, always remember that true wealth derives from non compromise in what you have set out to achieve. There is a story of a man who travelled from Africa to the United States in search of greener pastures.

Though he was married back in his home country, he needed to get a permanent stay in America so he entered into a union with an American lady who now insisted contrary to their original agreement that he must sleep with her before she signs the documents to give him his stay in America.

This man was a supposed Christian and after seeking advice from a wrong source, he compromised and went ahead and slept with the lady and behold, she had HIV, which passed to him and he eventually died and lost all his dreams.

If you are still not moved by that tragic story of compromise, then what do you say about our first parents Adam and Eve who compromised, disobeyed God’s command and that singular act has resulted in death entering the world and mankind losing the eternal joy found in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3: 1-24)?

Never seek to compromise your situation in your pursuit of wealth, fame or recognition. There is always regret lying in wait for such a person. Concluded.

© copyright Gabriel Ama.

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Compromise (2)

The next question we need to ask at this point is, what fuels or drives compromise? Issues like values, beliefs, discouragement, greed, fear of the unknown, peer pressure and bad influence come to mind. In Saul’s case, it was fear of his soldiers. Influence was the cause of compromise in Samson’s case.

In Ahab’s case, it was greed and bad influence that caused his compromise. In the case of Whitney Houston, it was fear of losing her husband’s love and bad influence. In Winnie Mandela’s case, compromise was caused by fear of the unknown, discouragement and bad influence. Patricia Etteh compromised because of greed and fallen values.

The compromise in the examples on corporate organisations was fuelled by greed, fear and fallen values.

Talking of values and beliefs, we see a world where things that were once considered abominable are now fashionable: women dressing half-naked and young men wearing falling pants without belts, cheating in examinations by students and their parents with active connivance of teachers, publicly displayed gay marriages and gay ordinations of so called “men of god” (certainly not the God of heaven and earth)

The word of God condemns in very strong terms any gay relationship (Romans 1: 18-28). Note especially verses 26 & 27. So those who think the word of God has no message for gay people should read this particular scripture quotation and if they choose to ignore it, too bad.

As is the case with human nature, one can be doing the wrong thing for a long while out of a false belief and see nothing wrong in it. A typical example is seen in racism. One person sees himself or herself as being superior to another because of skin colour and begins to taunts and call the other person names like nigger, black monkey and so on and so forth.

The word of God makes it clear that God created man in His own image and after His likeness (Gen. 1: 26-27). God never created anyone less than another. This false belief and segregation has led to compromise on the part of those claiming to be superior to others. Unfortunately too, some other people have compromised and accepted themselves as inferior.

This false belief led to several hundreds of years of slave trade in Africa and still continues in another form nowadays. How unfortunate!

No matter the excuse given for one’s compromise as earlier defined as “bringing to a dishonourable position or to bring to shame”, we have clearly seen how it ALWAYS leads to devastating consequences

………. to be continued

(c)copyright Gabriel Ama

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