by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Jun 8, 2017 | Uncategorized |
Escape of some kind is usually the most tempting solution to our problems. In fact, it can become a habit. Sometimes, instead of facing our fears with courage, we seek for a way of escape because we are afraid to take risk. To achieve success in life, you have to first overcome the fear of the unknown by inculcating the truth. Accepting that there is no victory without battle prepares your mind for the worst that may happen.
Though,the biblical Hagar, Sarah’s maid servant’s biggest challenge was not self- inflicted. Her greatest problem was bought on by the choices of Abraham and Sarah, yet she chose the escape route when the going was tough.
Sometimes, God operates to make our escape attempts fail because escape is only a temporary solution. God’s desires is for us to face our problems with His help. The scriptures says, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity,but of power, love, and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7.
We experience His help most clearly in and through our conflicts and difficulties, not away from them. So, don’t try to use Hagar’s approach, rather, face your fears! Don’t go down into the valley because of the mountain before you. Instead, climb the mountain or go around it.
Giving up on your dreams or aspiration, abandoning a life of devotion, compromising the right standard, or retorting to self pity are easy routes of escape from your problems. Dear friends, life is full of challenges, and it is only those who put their trust in God that will survive the hard times.
The only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet. So don’t chicken out in despair, face your fears! With God’s help you will win! You’re winning! Yes, we are winning!
WHAT DO YOU FEAR?
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by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Jun 7, 2017 | Uncategorized |
“Just relax and you will get pregnant…take a vacation…don’t think about it too much… you are trying too hard… just adopt and you’ll get pregnant…” If you have been trying to get pregnant chances are that you have heard from someone all this advice. Underlying this statement above is a basic assumption that infertility and stress are linked. This advice, while well meaning, is often hard to bear because that assumption has negative implications for you.
The message is one of blame: if you were better at relaxing and not being overly concerned with infertility, then you would be pregnant. When you are trying to get pregnant, it is impossible not to feel stressed has month passes by and diagnoses are confirmed. Hope waxes and wanes depending upon what treatment and how long you have been trying to get pregnant. Add to this, emotional mixture the real demands of doctor’s visits, medications, monitoring, and cost and it will seem impossible for stress not to enter the picture of coping with infertility.
Truth is that there are some physical causes of infertility ranging from blocked Fallopian tubes, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, poly-cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), uterine fibroid, increasing age or unexplained infertility. In addition to all these, there are probably, also the psychology causes. This is one area of research that has not received a lot of attention in recent years, and even the limited attention it has received has been both preliminary and conflicting.
Effect of Stress on Reproductive life
Stress can have a dramatic impact on reproductive life. Physicians and mental health professionals who walk in this field have encountered men who have experienced temporary impotence who diagnosed with azoospermia (the inability to produce sperm), or women who have temporarily lost all interest in sexual intimacy after a diagnosis of female factor infertility. Feelings about infertility are entwined in feelings about sexuality.
Many women with infertility tell me that they do not feel like “real women” as they are not members of the club who have experienced pregnancy and child birth. These women feel like outsiders at social functions when discussions inevitable turns to children related topics. Men can often feel that having normal sperm function is related to virility, when in fact impotence (male sexual dysfunction) and female infertility are not the same. Hearing phrases such as “shooting blanks” reinforces feelings of inadequacy and complicates these feeling for men.
Does stress cause infertility or is it infertility that causes stress?
The question really is which causes which and to what effect? The relationship between stress and infertility can be seen as either causative (where stress causes infertility) or reactive (where infertility causes stress). There have been studies to show whether stress infertility. Unfortunately, these studies have concluded each other, some show relationship and others do not.
No study is yet to show a strong relationship between stress and ability to become pregnant. Recently, researchers in Denmark wanted to determine if work related stress had had any influence on whether men their fertility or not. Nearly 400 couples were trying to become pregnant were followed for a total of 6 months. Men filled out a questionnaire about job stress, and donated semen and blood samples. In the end, the researchers found no link between job-related stress and male fertility.
But in Israeli study published previously, doctors found 200 male fertility patients found out that “male infertility was associated with working in industry and construction as compared with other occupations.” Furthermore, in these types of occupations tended to work more often than not in shifts, reported physical exertion in their work, and was more exposed to noise and welding. Thus, the researchers determined that work-related psychological stress was linked to male fertility cases.
Studies involving women have been just as conflicting. A Denmark study followed nearly 400 couples who were planning for their first pregnancy. Information about each individual’s stress was also collected over a 6-month period. The researchers discovered the highest levels of stress, the likelihood of conceiving was just under 13%. That compares to odds of about 16.5% in months in which the couples reported lower levels of stress. The difference was found to be significant. The association between distress and infertility was found almost exclusively among women with menstrual cycle of more than 35 days.
By contrast, investigators in earlier analysis at the University of Bristol in the U.K. set out to determine if stress might be the cause of infertility by following a group of women undergoing IVF treatment. They were compared to women undergoing laparoscopy for conditions other than infertility. The researchers found out that anxiety levels increased in the group of women receiving stimulated IVF compared to those un-stimulated IVF or undergoing unrelated laparoscopy.
They concluded that anxiety increased because the woman was undergoing treatment. However, their stress did not affect pregnancy outcome one way or the other. Women who achieved a pregnancy had similar state anxiety (levels) to those who failed, suggesting that the degree of anxiety observed during IVF treatment is likely to influence the chance of pregnancy.
Whatever the situation, keep out of stress. Let your mind be at rest because God is on your case. You are winning! Yes, we are winning!
To be continued…
Doctor Ajayi (Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos), 2006
by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Jun 5, 2017 | Uncategorized |
Yes we are winning, and this is who we are!
We are poised to Inspire people to win through words of encouragement, motivational messages, insightful ideas, and empowerment initiatives.
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By weaving together personal stories, experiences of others, current affairs and Scriptures, we invite those reading to discover the true essence of living as they connect with the God who made them for His pleasure and loves them deeply.
YWAW Initiative: Inculcating A Winning Attitude.
We are a people who believe that excellence is the hallmark of godliness, and so we strive for excellence in all things. Through the eyes of faith we are assured, and so we proclaim, that through partnership with God, all things are fitting into a glorious plan for those who love Him.
We believe that by the divine spirit of excellence we are wired to pursue godly purpose through a lifestyle of intercession, reconciliation, selfless service, and demonstration of love thereby giving hope to the hopeless and promoting a winning culture.
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by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Jun 5, 2017 | Uncategorized |
Finding the circumference of your life is knowing where you stand with reference to your creator. Every man is created by God to uniquely fill a vacuum in this world. Therefore there is no duplication of persons! It is discovering where you are positioned in God’s plan for your life that gives your life a true meaning. The way of knowing that you are living and fulfilling destiny is to locate your center.
You are gracefully and specifically wired to fulfill a divine purpose in life. God made us gods, with attributes that reflect His image and likeness, including creative abilities, and dominion over all things. Therefore, we are ambassadors of heaven; representations of God on earth. By this, we stand us out of all other creation, and thus should be one reason for us to be always connected with God, whom we represent.
Even though we dwell in a world ruled by sin and satan, God has made us overcomers through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! So, the seed of greatness dwells in us, and we have been made more than conquerors! Amid the allurements, and adversities of a godless age, we are made superior to our world and not made to be driven by it. We have been destined for greatness and excellence through the grace of God. Therefore, we are fashioned to Win!
The first and simple purpose to which everyone must swear his loyalty to is God. Loyalty to God is simply the center where you are to begin to construct your circumference and set the externalities of your life right. Do not attempt to construct your circumference in order to be in right relationship with your center. A circumference is only named by the center. Therefore, you need to find your center in order to construct or correct your circumference. The heart may be firmly determined to loyalty, but, unless we know how to lean hard upon God, the forces against us will prove too much for us.
Stretch Yourself
The point is to stretch ourselves further; pace forward, stretch yourself beyond the distance you thought was already far. You need not be contented with where you’re currently because you are made for greatness. You need to soar new heights and break free from your comfort zones. It’s time to take your unique place in destiny. You are not a failure. You are not unfortunate! Challenge yourself always. You need to keep exploring, and learning. Keep moving forward! You are winning! Yes, we are winning!
#youaremadeforgreatness
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by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Jun 3, 2017 | Uncategorized |
To fight to finish is a situation in which two groups or people intend to fight until one side has been defeated. “One of d most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting to life’s battle if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve.”1
Life is full of battles, and the Christian life is not exempted, in fact, it is suffers more violence! The Bible puts it rightly,” Be prepared. you’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over you’ll still be on your feet.” -Ephesians 6:13. The battles we fight daily may be financial battles, health battles, spiritual battles, relationship battles – all kinds of battles in our daily lives. These battles are potent to limit our progress if we are not strong enough to resist them. Here’s the battles we must fight to finish -the battles that contends with our destiny here on earth and in eternity.
In order to fight to finish you should never give up on any of your desires to achieve this life’s good. Situations around you, including people might suggest you let go of your goal or aspirations. You may even think it is no worth fighting because of the realities around you, and the fact that many persons have failed in that same situation. But the truth is if you see yourself differently and rest in God’s love, you will have all you need to fight to finish to achieve your desired goal.
You have every right to be afraid because the battle of life is far more than what you can handle on your own. And in fact, that is the reason you are afraid. What ever is beyond you would natural create fear in you, and that is why you need help! Showing all manner of emotional outbursts may not solve your problems. You must not let their emotions take control of you. If you get mad or they get angry and furious at the situation, and yet you don’t seek heaven’s help, you will soon realize that your emotional explosion is useless.
Like the biblical Jehoshaphat, take your problems to the Lord. “Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.”2 Prayer ought to be the first weapon we use whenever we face the battles of life, not the last. But sadly, the last thing we try is prayer – maybe because we want things to work out on our own. You must humble yourself and admit that you need help, and the surest help is from above and not from abroad.
God won’t fight for a man who has made up his mind to fight for himself. So, be still and let God fight for you. He knows your needs, and His plans are far greater than what you plan for yourself. “He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”3
C.S Lewis said, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.” Dear friend, cease striving and let God vindicate you. Fight to finish the battle against your well-being for with God victory is certain! Be still. You’re winning! Yes, we are winning!
Reference: George Allen.1. 2 Chron. 20:3.2. Psalm 46: 9-112
by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Jun 1, 2017 | Uncategorized |
How to take fresh Courage in the face of challenges:
If others experiences breakthroughs why not you? If some had recorded success in the past five months, why couldn’t you? And in the same way that some felt hopeless and gave up trying, so did some took courage and remained resolute even in the face of challenges. They renew their faith every day and they take courage in the face of uncertainties. So, why won’t you?
In the account of apostle Luke, it was said that, “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married…” Luke 1:26. God simply turned his attention on Mary at the appointed time, and she was highly favored. Like Mary, God is mindful of you, and in this month of June. He’s sending an angel to deliver what He has promised you. But like Mary, you have to obey His instructions if you must be favored!
Having toiled all nights with no success, Simon Peter and his fellow fishermen were at the brink of giving in to desperation and hopelessness when Christ appeared. Knowing their unfruitful exploits he advised them to cast the net to the deep (Luke 5:4). Peter, knowing it was useless to go fishing in the morning if you had not caught anything all night, responded saying, ‘We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.’
And so out of faith, devotion and love for the Master, Peter retorted, ” …nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.” Luke 5:5. Self-pity gets you nowhere. Self pity will keep you immobile so that your future is no different than your past. Therefore, you must have the adventurous daring to accept yourself as a bundle of possibilities and make the most of your best. Yes, with fresh courage you can overcome your challenges.
God’s mind is full of you:
God has a plan to differentiate you. So, be full of expectations and be ready to obey His instructions. To surmount your challenges, you have got to take fresh courage, and believe that with absolute faith in God, there is nothing difficult for you. Face your fears with untiring faith because the clouds which you so much dread shall break in blessings on you if you take courage. Prepare to be celebrated! You’re winning! Yes, we are winning! Welcome to the month of June. Happy new month.
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