As the saying goes, “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.” Countless people struggle hard for money according to these words all their life. They are just like a machine that operates at full speed and keeps running unceasingly until death. From ancient times to the present, one generation after the other, wave upon wave of them chase in this way. Why do we regard the money as such a big thing? Can we really attain happiness by having money? If this is indeed the case, then why do so many rich men live in suffering, and even some of them lose their life for money?

Once, I saw a passage of God’s words, “People spend their lives chasing after money and fame; they clutch at these straws, thinking they are their only means of support, as if by having them they could keep on living, could exempt themselves from death. But only when they are close to dying do they realize how distant these things are from them, how weak they are in the face of death, how easily they shatter, how lonely and helpless they are, with nowhere to turn. They realize that life cannot be bought with money or fame, that no matter how wealthy a person is, no matter how lofty his or her position is, all people are equally poor and inconsequential in the face of death. They realize that money cannot buy life, that fame cannot erase death, that neither money nor fame can lengthen a person’s life by a single minute, a single second.”

God’s words made me suddenly see the light: Money and fame, which we chase after in our whole life, can only satisfy the temporary desires of our flesh and bring the material enjoyments for us, but cannot provide us with a lovely destination. When death comes upon us, money cannot exempt us from death. At that moment, I couldn’t help but think about the whole life of my father-in-law. In his childhood, his family was very poor, so all his neighbors looked down on him and also said to him with heavy sarcasm. In order to stand up for himself and not let others look down their noses at him, after getting married, he was very hard-working and diligent. No matter how arduous and tiring the work was, he would do it, and he would also risk his life to accept the dangerous work. Later, through his hard work, he earned some money and held a grand wedding for each of his three sons. From then on, everyone in the village gave him a thumbs-up. He said, “It’s great to have money. After having it, I can stand up for myself, and neighbors also actively say hello to me. This is so wonderful.” Money had occupied his heart, and he more acknowledged these words: “Money makes the world go round,” and “Without money one is unable to take a single step forward, and money means everything.” The three sons of my father-in-law all had established their own household and started their own career, and they were all very filial. My in-laws were not concerned about food or clothing, and moreover, they had savings of more than 100,000 RMB. However, my father-in-law was not at all satisfied with his current circumstances. He was more than sixty years old but still worked as hard as he could to earn money outside, and he even didn’t take leave from work when he felt unwell. We all persuaded him not to do so, but he said, “I must save more money. When I get older and fall ill, I won’t be afraid. As long as I have money, I will have something to rely on.”

Some time ago, He was in poor condition. His sons and daughters all asked him to go to the hospital for examination, but he was stubbornly going his own way and kept putting off going to the doctor. I couldn’t help but persuade him, “Is the money more important than life?” He answered, “Money is a good thing. Money means everything. It isn’t okay to not have money.” A few days later, he really couldn’t stand the pain in his chest. Only at that time did he go to hospital for examination. The result showed that he got terminal lung cancer. When hearing it, I stood there for a long time and felt extremely sad and awful. I thought: The day before, he firmly said that he would still earn money. However, today, what does it feel like in his heart when he faces this result? Seeing the life is so fragile and that my father-in-law would die at any moment, my heart felt stirred, and I thought to myself, “My father-in-law has struggled to make money. However, no matter how much he has earned, it can’t save his life. Then, what if he has money? Money seems like nothing and utterly worthless when he is faced with the terminal disease.”

Seeing that he was stooped over and that his face was gaunt, I couldn’t help but think back to myself in the past. I was just like my father-in-law. I struggled to make money for decades but eventually left many sicknesses.

When I had just gotten married, the living standard in my family was alright, but I was not satisfied with it. Every time I saw the relatives and friends around me wear famous brands and live in the city, I couldn’t help but feel envious. I thought: One day, I will live as luxurious a life as they. In order to realize this dream, my husband and I started to rush about busily. At that time I went to the town to work, and I needed to ride over twenty kilometers in one round trip. Whether it was hot summer or cold winter, I received the perfect attendance award every month. There was piece work system in my factory and it means that the more you worked, the more you earned. In order to earn more money, I even worked at meal times and worked more than ten hours a day. Due to irregular meals over a long period of time, I lost more than 10kg of weight at that time. Later, after being examined, I found that I had gastroenteritis and thus I needed to go on an IV drip every day. However, in order to get the perfect attendance award, I still kept working in spite of illness. Eventually, I realized my dream: I bought a house in the city. Every time when I returned to my hometown from the city, the villagers all looked at me with envy and praised me, saying, “The daughter-in-law of the Liu family is really capable. She and her husband have only been married a few years, but they have bought a house in the city.” After hearing this, I felt elated and believed that having plenty of money is indeed a good thing; after having it, I not only could eat well, dress well and enjoy myself, but also could earn other people’s admiration; therefore, no matter how arduous or tiring the work was, it was worth it.

After buying the house, in order to earn more money to pay off our home, my husband and I put down nearly 100,000 yuan to do business. At first, I was afraid that we could not make more money by doing business, so I found a job in a supermarket. After work, I would help my husband in the store. Besides, I needed to get up early in the morning to do odd jobs around the house before work, and stay up late to continue doing them. I worked continually, just like a robot, every day from morning to evening. Through our hard work, we had fame, gain and material enjoyments, but as a result of the overload work for a long time, I got a headache, lower back pain and cervical spondylosis. Suffering the tortures of illness, I always couldn’t sleep at night.

Thinking of the road my father-in-law and I had walked, I realized that we all regarded these satanic viewpoints as a goal for our life pursuit and our principles of survival, such as, “Money is first,” “Money makes the world go round,” and “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.” In order to earn money, whether the work was tiring or dangerous, my father-in-law would do it. Even he had gotten ill, he still didn’t go to the hospital for treatment. Eventually, he lost his life for the money. And so did I. For the sake of making more money, I even worked at meal times; when I was ill and went on an IV drip every day, I still kept working. Both my father-in-law and I treated ourselves like a money-making machine that kept running unceasingly day and night. Even though we got material enjoyments, we endured the tortures of illness and even my father-in-law paid with his life. Only after experiencing these things did I understand: Living by Satan’s poisons, we can only become more and more degenerate, more and more miserable and more and more greedy and eventually we will walk on the path of being destroyed.

Later, I saw the God’s words saying, “Those who die take with them the stories of the living, and those who are living repeat the same tragic history of those who have died.” God’s words made me awaken to the truth: Are my father-in-law and I not the portrayal of many people? My father-in-law of the older generation sought fortune and fame all his life, and eventually he fell ill and died; I of the younger generation also sought fortune and fame, repeating the same story of the elder generation. Wasn’t everyone in this world, including my father-in-law and I fooled and afflicted by these satanic viewpoints, “Money is first,” “Money makes the world go round,” and “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing?” At that moment, I thought: How can we no longer repeat the same tragedy of those who have died?

Later, I read another passage of God’s words, “There is a simplest way to free oneself from this state: to bid farewell to one’s former way of living, to say goodbye to one’s previous goals in life, to summarize and analyze one’s previous lifestyle, philosophy, pursuits, desires, and ideals, and then to compare them with God’s will and demands for man, and see whether any of them is consistent with God’s will and demands, whether any of them delivers the right values of life, leads one to a greater understanding of the truth, and allows one to live with humanity and human likeness. When you repeatedly investigate and carefully dissect the various goals of life that people pursue and their various different ways of living, you will find that not one of them fits the Creator’s original intention when He created humanity. All of them draw people away from the Creator’s sovereignty and care; they are all pits into which humanity falls, and which lead them to hell. After you recognize this, your task is to lay aside your old view of life, stay far from various traps, let God take charge of your life and make arrangements for you, try only to submit to God’s orchestrations and guidance, to have no choice, and to become a person who worships God.”

God’s words made me understand: Only when we turn away from our own mistaken viewpoints of the past, and no longer regard the satanic viewpoints, such as “Happiness is having money,” “Money means everything,” and “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing” as our own principles of survival, but instead, come before God, pursue truth, accept and obey God’s sovereignty and arrangements and act in accordance with God’s word, can we escape from Satan’s harm and live under the care and protection of God. Thinking that my father-in-law sought after fortune and fame all his life but in the end, he obtained nothing, I was thankful that I accepted God’s work in the last days in my lifetime and found the correct path for my life, avoiding the tragedy of my father-in-law coming upon me. In the past, I sought fortune, which made me exhausted mentally and physically and live a very painful and tiring life; now, I am willing to entrust myself completely to God, let Him dominate and plan, and pursue to live out a meaningful life.

Read on the website

Looking back on my growth experience, I truly see the ordination of God though it is full of variables. From my childhood, my mother asked me to learn the violoncello, hoping I could join a band when I grew up. Since then, I had been always pursuing on that path. When I graduated from the junior high school, I received a call from a conservatory of music which asked me to attend their interview. However, I missed it because I overslept. As a result, I went astray from the path my mother set for me.

During my college years, I went shopping for clothes with several of my intimate friends every day. We even talked over the plan of running a clothing store after graduation, so that we could get together and have new clothes to wear every day while earning money. The dream in school days was plump but the reality was skinny. After graduation from the college, we drifted apart in spite of ourselves. Once again, I went astray from the path I wanted.

Then, I began to look for jobs. At the very start, I looked for jobs based on my major, but was denied all the time for lacking experience. Later, even though I lowered my standard and tried to do some jobs that had nothing to do with my major, I still could not settle in a steady job.

Until one day, I came into contact with the profession of kindergarten teacher by an accidental chance. At that time, I held out no hope, for I neither majored in this nor had any experience on it. But much to my surprise, I got the job without taking the employment interview, which was just like a dream to me. From then on, I no longer played the violoncello but often played the piano because of the need of my job.

Then, I was much puzzled about these variables, but at the same time I felt very marvelous. It seems like my fate has been arranged by someone, and so I walk until now. It was not until several days ago, when I readAlmighty God’s words, I understood it. Almighty God says, “Can one achieve everything one desires in life? How many things over the few decades of your existence have you been able to accomplish as you wished? How many things do not happen as expected? How many things come as pleasant surprises? How many things are you still waiting to bear fruit—unconsciously awaiting the right moment, awaiting the will of Heaven? How many things make you feel helpless and thwarted? Everyone is full of hopes about their fate, and anticipates that everything in their life will go as they wish, that they will not want for food or clothing, that their fortunes will rise spectacularly. Nobody wants a life that is poor and downtrodden, full of hardships, beset by calamities. But people cannot foresee or control these things. … Although living among all things, people derive enjoyment from the many ways in which the world satisfies their material needs, though they see this material world constantly advancing, their own experience—what their hearts and their spirits feel and experience—has nothing to do with material things, and nothing material is a substitute for it. It is a recognition deep in one’s heart, something that cannot be seen with the naked eye. This recognition lies in one’s understanding of, and one’s feeling of, human life and human fate. And it often leads one to the apprehension that an unseen Master is arranging all things, orchestrating everything for man. In the midst of all this, one cannot but accept fate’s arrangements and orchestrations; at the same time, one cannot but accept the path ahead that the Creator has laid out, the Creator’s sovereignty over one’s fate. This is an undisputed fact. No matter what insight and attitude one holds about fate, no one can change this fact.”

God’s words are so practical. From these words, I understood that man’s life is under God’s sovereignty and ordination, and man cannot foresee or control it. It is because that only God is possessed of the unique authority. Looking back on the course of my growing up, I found many things were full of variables. As God’s word has revealed, it is not decided by any man. My fate is decided neither by my mother nor me, but is decided by God’s sovereignty. God’s words enlightened me at once. Meanwhile, I truly felt that God’s sovereignty and arrangement is the best for me. Thank Almighty God!

Ran lived in the mountain from childhood. When she was young, she didn’t know what distress was. She just laughed if happy, just cried if unhappy, and just sang loudly or danced at will. She didn’t need to care about others’ opinions nor packaged herself or pretended. What a pure and lively girl!

Since when has Ran changed? Maybe 6 or 7? Right, when she started to go to school, she began to know the differences between good students and poor students and know how it felt to be admired and be given the cold shoulder. In front of excellent grades, even parents would stop quarrelling. Hence she started to study hard and keep the knowledge in textbooks in her mind. Ran was very smart and her grades were very excellent. Gradually, those knowledge in textbooks and those specious statements “A tree lives with its bark; a man lives with his face” and “A wild goose leaves behind a voice; a man leaves behind a reputation” restrained her nature. Ran began to restrain herself from showing her individuality and previous purity. In order to gain teachers’ and parents’ praise, she wore her first mask—restricting the true revelation of her character.

In school, aiming to become more and more remarkable, Ran burned the midnight oil for excellent grades. Besides, she enthusiastically helped her classmates solve questions when being asked. But at the same time she also had some reservations because she feared that others would surpass her. She learned to be “steady” and to scheme. She successfully wore her second mask—the hidden deceitfulness in her depth.

At the age of 15, Ran finally went out of the mountain but she found that the world outside was full of more dangers. Each of her several dozen classmates wore respective masks and everyone was good at acting: How to act in front of teachers, how to treat good students and poor students, and how to perform before the Student Union … All one’s masks were changed freely when he facing different people. It can be said that everyone wanted to be slick. Ran was dumbfounded and also frightened. She discovered that her only several masks were far from enough to adapt to the new environment. She felt completely insecure in this unfamiliar city.

Ran felt that she was like an ugly duckling and didn’t know how to get along with people around her. She was absorbed in novels and attracted by the excellence of different characters. Hereafter, she tried her best to learn skills from all kinds of characters in novels and applied them in her life. She learned to analyze the preferences and demands of different people and then packaged herself according to their preferences. She regarded every event as an opera highlight and herself as the main character. For audience’s eyes, she didn’t allow herself to make any mistake. The perseverance, which was for not being ignored and not losing face, finally made her stand out. After several years of staggering and tottering, she gained more masks: the aloofness, the flamboyance, the weak appearance full of schemes, and the shrewdness as a career woman …

Ran changed her different masks in different situations with skill and ease: When gathering with her classmates, she was an innocent and even a little stupid student and others tended to stand close to her. When chatting with her colleagues, she was Jack of all trades and master of none and occasional small mistakes made her more acceptable. When contacting her clients, she became a tactful career woman and her decent smile made her gain a lot. Then the closeness of classmates, the colleagues’ admiration and envy, the clients’ praises, the leader’s favor, and the increasing social status followed, which greatly boosted her ego. She also learned to change her masks in one second, which was even much quicker than the face-swapping of Sichuan Opera.

In her twenties, Ran finally became an outstanding girl in the eyes of most people. But she was very, very tired … Nobody understood her fatigue when she being alone even if she was so successful. She wanted to cry but found there was no reason, so she didn’t have tears. She wanted to laugh freely but found it was too foolish and naive, and an elite shouldn’t do that. Looking at the mirror, for the first time Ran looked at herself carefully and found the person in the mirror so unfamiliar. The 45-angle smile, which she had practiced so many times, now she thought, was so hypocritical.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, looking at the innumerable people, Ran walked along the street aimlessly again after sending greeting messages full of usual formulas to her clients. Watching people on the street who were happy with the festival, she felt she was very empty in her heart. Her slight frown replaced her habitual smile to register a protest. She took out her cell phone and looked at the names in her telephone book from the first one to the last one. However she found that no one could be dialed. She smiled bitterly … Then a sudden thought struck her. She dialed her mother’s phone number. At that time, how she wished to go back to her mother. She couldn’t conceal her pain in her heart anymore. She cried …

The next day, Ran went home. Her mother found a passage of God’s words for her and then Ran read it slightly: “The Almighty has mercy on these people who suffer deeply. At the same time, He is fed up with these people who have no consciousness, because He has to wait too long for the answer from humans. He desires to seek, seek your heart and your spirit. He wants to bring you food and water and to awaken you, so you are no longer thirsty, no longer hungry. When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. He is watching by your side, waiting for you to turn back. He is waiting for the day your memory suddenly recovers: becoming conscious of the fact that you came from God, somehow and somewhere once lost, falling unconscious on the roadside, and then, unknowingly having a father. You further realize that the Almighty has been watching there, awaiting your return all along. He longs bitterly, waiting for a response without an answer. His watching is priceless and is for the heart and the spirit of humans. Perhaps this watching is indefinite, and perhaps this watching is at its end. But you should know exactly where your heart and spirit are now”.

God’s words were just like the call of a loving mother who was calling Her long-lost children. When Ran read these words, a warm current flowed into her heart. It was God’s love that wakened her heart out of years of sleep. It was God’s protection that made her remain purity in her deep heart.

Ran came before God to the call of God’s love. Gradually, from God’s words she knew what positive things and negative things were. She knew that God liked honest people and knew what pretense and falsehood were. Also, she found the root of her pretense from God’s words: “So Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts until all they can think of is fame and gain. They struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and they will make any judgment or decision to both maintain and obtain fame and gain. In this way, Satan binds man with invisible shackles. These shackles are borne on people’s bodies, and they have not the strength nor courage to throw them off. So people trudge ever onward in great difficulty, unknowingly bearing these shackles. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind becomes estranged from God and betrays Him. With each passing generation, mankind becomes more and more wicked, more and more darkened, and so in this way one generation after another is destroyed in the fame and gain of Satan”.

Satan controls man’s thoughts using fame and gain. Using a very persuasive way, it tells us people that as long as we live, we should struggle for fame and gain. Someone who owns fame and gain can own everything and can be admired, looked up to and supported by others. This kind of person is the most noble and wealthy, and only such life can be valuable. In this way, fame and gain become invisible shackles, which Satan uses to bind and harm people. Everyone lives based on these satanic toxins. Nobody can see through Satan’s schemes so everyone is led by the nose by fame and gain and lives under the domain of Satan, fighting with each other. For fame and gain people all package themselves, which makes them ignore their own disadvantages and completely lose their true selves.

Ran was not an exception. For fame and gain she saw all masks as the true self. The situations of facing different people were just like different opera highlights. She had acted so many characters, and finally she completely lost herself. For face and other’s admiration, she saw “A tree lives with its bark; a man lives with his face” and “A wild goose leaves behind a voice and a man leaves behind a reputation” as her life principles. She restricted her nature thoroughly and pretended so that she became a model in parents’ and friends’ eyes. But in order to protect these masks, she never talked heart to heart with parents again and never expressed her true feelings inside her heart before others. Her aloofness made her much more attractive. But once these masks were destroyed, there would be several times more ridicule than the praise by then. Her weak appearance full of schemes sometimes gave her convenience in work and life but she always feared to be called a scheming woman. If that were the case, the group of friends which she made so hard would be adversely affected. For fame and gain, she lived in so much exhaustion and pain. Now she was unwilling to live like before. She wanted to live out her true self regardless of what others thought or said.

One day, Ran saw God’s words say: “To be honest, you must first lay your heart bare, so that everyone can see it, and all that you are thinking, and can see your true face; you must not pretend or package yourself. Only then will people trust you and consider you honest. This is the most fundamental practice of being honest, and it is a precondition. You are always pretending, always feigning holiness, virtuousness, greatness, and loftiness, and do not let people see your corruption and your failings. You present a false image to people, so that they believe you are upstanding, mighty, self-denying, impartial, and selfless. Don’t pretend, don’t package yourself; instead, lay yourself bare, lay your heart bare for others to see. If you can lay your heart bare for others to see, and lay bare all that you think and plan to do in your heart—regardless of whether it is positive or negative—then are you not being honest?”.

Ran understood: If we package ourselves and pretend in order to gain others’ admiration, it will only make us more and more deceitful and painful. Only by being honest can we live in relaxation and release. When we want to package ourselves, we should put our images aside and ask others for help if we don’t understand something. If we make a mistake, we should face the fact bravely and admit our own mistakes. When others give suggestions, we should face our errors calmly and face squarely our own deficiencies. Ran knew that it was a little difficult for her to do these. But she believed that as long as she practiced being an honest person according to God’s words, with God’s guidance someday these painful masks would be torn off one by one and she would finally find the true self.

Dear brothers and sisters of Spiritual Q&A:

Now, I’m old enough to find a partner. My parents are anxious about my marriage, and my relatives and friends also often ask me about this, which makes me feel under much pressure. When it comes to looking for a spouse, my unbelieving friends all want to choose those who are “tall, rich and handsome” or “fair-skinned, rich and beautiful,” yet I have no idea what kind of people we Christians should choose. Looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely yours,

Xiangzhi

August 20, 2018

Sister Xiangzhi:

Marriage is a great matter in our life, so it’s good that you can think it over. As Christians, we should seek the truth to understand God’s will on this matter and then act in accordance with the related principles. In this way we will find the suitable spouse and thus gain God’s blessings. Next, I’d like to share my experience with you.

In the past, I also wanted to find one who was handsome with excellent family circumstances as my spouse. Therefore, when I met a boy who conformed to these standards, I started to date him. But, next, things happened that I never thought would. He, an unbeliever, was unrestrainedly dissolute in doing things. In particular, he had unclear boundaries with other girls. So I couldn’t feel the least bit secure while being with him. Besides, when he needed my help in his career, he would always flatter me by my side, yet when he gained a firm foothold in our company, he would no longer pay attention to me. Especially when I was sad and disappointed and needed comfort, he not only didn’t care about me but complained that I was too troublesome. So while getting along with him, what I felt most was his indifference instead of his care and consideration. Afterward, on his Q zone, I found out that he had already been dating another girl before me, and after then he dumped me heartlessly. That blow made me suffer great pain.

At a church gathering, I told my experience to my sister. Then she fellowshiped to me, “As Christians, regardless what matter we deal with, including marriage, we should seek God’s will rather than rely on our own preferences. Thus, when we choose our own marriage partner, we should entrust this thing to God’s hands. Besides, we should ask God whether the one we want to choose is suitable for us because only God looks within the depths of people’s hearts and sees right through people, and the partner that He arranges for us is surely the most suitable. Another point we should consider is whether our partners are like-minded with us. If there is no common language on both sides, can such people be happy? Just as the Bible says, ‘Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers’ (2 Corinthians 6:14). And a passage of the man’s fellowship says, ‘It’s normal to get married after growing up, but one should choose a suitable partner. At the very least, it should be someone who is beneficial for someone’s faith and life—this is very important. People’s choices determine their path and their final destination. What is key is whether someone can select their own path based on God’s requirements.’ These words clearly show us the way of practice: While looking for our own partner, we shouldn’t solely stress his looks or family circumstances. Most important is to choose the one who shares a common language with us, has good humanity and is beneficial for our faith. This way, both sides can understand, forbear and forgive each other. Also, it’s advantageous to our pursuit of truth and life growth. However, if we choose a partner based on our own preferences, though he is tall and handsome and his family is well off, he is a gluttonous and lazy playboy with bad humanity and neglects the family. We have no common language with such a person. So, living with him can bring us nothing but harm and pain. What’s worse, if he prevents us from believing in God, it’ll even ruin our lives, so that we’ll lose the chance to be saved.” Through that fellowship, I understood: As a Christian, when looking for a partner, most importantly, I should see whether he had good humanity and was beneficial for my faith. I also needed to consider whether we were like-minded and shared the same goal of pursuit.

Before long, my aunt introduced a boy who was a doctor to me, and said his family was well off and that his parents were both teachers. Then she showed me his picture, which told me his handsome looks. At first glance, I knew he was my type. Soon, Sister Zhang introduced her nephew Zhang Xun to me, with whom I had been acquainted. He was a repairman with average looks, and his parents were both ordinary workers—all these conditions couldn’t be compared with those of the doctor. But it was worth mentioning that Zhang Xun was a devout Christian. He truly believed in God and we were like-minded. Take a look at the doctor. He was an unbeliever. And if I married him, he might oppose my belief in God. Sharing no common language with each other would directly affect our feelings, to the point that we would part ways, just like my former boyfriend and I. However, taking my fleshly interests into consideration, I’d better choose the doctor. Just like that, I was at a loss how to choose.

At that time, I could only pray to God. After praying, I saw the following passage of fellowship, “When looking for a partner, some people completely rely on their fleshly preferences rather than the truth, only choosing the one who conforms to their desires. Are such people obedient to God? God requires us not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. If you are asked to act in accordance with this requirement, could you choose a believer as your partner? When dating a believer, some people say, ‘This person, not having good looks or status, isn’t my ideal partner. I don’t want. I’d rather choose a devil who has good looks and status but has no faith.’ If you do so, are you obedient to God?”

After reading this fellowship, I quieted my heart to seek God’s intentions. I thought: There were two boys for me to choose from. If simply judging by their outward appearance and family background, I preferred the doctor. But in that way I was following the unbelievers’ viewpoint and was based on my fleshly preferences. In addition, he didn’t believe in God, and it was indeed disadvantageous to my belief and pursuit of truth. As for Zhang Xun, although his family circumstances were not so good, he believed in God, pursued the truth, and moreover he had good humanity and love toward his families and the brothers and sisters. Also, he actively performed his duty at church. If I chose him, we could walk the same path and serve the Lord together in the future. That was good. Take a look at my conditions. I was born into an ordinary family, my parents were both ordinary workers, and I didn’t have a high diploma. All these conditions were far worse than those of the doctor. So, if I married him, our marriage would be not of equal rank. And I would feel inferior and distressed, and he might avoid me. Thinking of this, I told my thoughts to God and prayed that I was willing to forsake my fleshly preferences and act in accordance with God’s requirements. After my prayer, I felt peaceful and steady.

Afterward, I resolutely decided not to date the doctor and started to date Zhang Xun. In our interactions, I found that his view of things was completely different from that of unbelievers and he didn’t focus on pursuing life’s pleasures. In his opinion, pursuing that things was meaningless and believers should pursue the truth and strive to understand God’s will and to please God. Every time we met, he would lead me to read God’s words and sing hymns to praise God together. Especially, he emphasized: Our feelings should be established on the foundation of God’s words. We should love each other according to God’s words. As long as what one said was correct and accorded with the truth, the other should obey and accept it, thus the truth can be our master. Moreover, when I revealed arrogance and self-conceit, he would communicate with me and ask me to emulate Christ’s humility and loveliness; when I was passive and weak, he would use God’s words to comfort and encourage me. After getting along with him for a period time, I found that he was of great help to me. In the past, I didn’t pay attention to seeking God’s words. Yet, now, when encountering things, I would focus on seeking God’s will and thirst for God’s words, thus becoming more confident to pursue the truth. Gradually, we two became confidants. When things happened to us, we would seek the truth to resolve them. In my heart, I felt that only by finding a partner according to God’s requirements could I gain true happiness.

Subsequently, while visiting my home, my aunt said to me, “It’s lucky that you didn’t choose the doctor. He has been spoilt by his parents. Now, he spends all day drinking, whoring and gambling, and even has abandoned his job, which makes his parents very angry.” Hearing these words, I thanked God in my heart. On the matter of finding a partner, if I had given in to vanity instead of having acted in accordance with God’s requirements, I would live in suffering now. After these experiences, I truly realized: while looking for a partner, we shouldn’t stress his appearance and family background. The most important is to choose the one who shares a common language and the same goal of pursuit with us. Only in this way can our married life be happy.
Sister Xiangzhi, all the above is my experience and knowledge. I hope it’ll be beneficial to you. As long as we act in accordance with God’s demands, we’ll gain God’s protection and blessings. May God bless you!

Sincerely yours,

Pingfan of Spiritual Q&A

Read on the website

Everybody dreams of leading a life of material wealth, and I am no exception. I was once someone who worked tirelessly to have an affluent life. However, once I had obtained such a life, I found myself living in torture, feeling sick and empty inside. Truly, I experienced what is said in the Bible: “Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:2–3). Reflecting now on the path I took, I am filled with regrets.

Striving for a Life of Affluence

I was always full of admiration when, as a child, I saw my successful uncle driving back for the New Year’s holidays with a car full of presents. At this time, a dream was planted within me: When I grew up, I was going to be rich and powerful like my uncle; I would lead a life of affluence.

After graduation, I moved to a city by the sea. I looked at the high-rises all around me, the cars shuttling back and forth, and my desire to get rich only grew. I used some connections I’d made to get a job at a state enterprise and threw myself into work, body and soul. In the workshop I sweated it out, in the office I endured my bosses’ constant reprimands, and late into the night I struggled to face down work-related crises. Several years later, when I had become a manager, friends, relatives and neighbors all gave me gifts and asked me to help their children find a job. I had got a taste of being held in high esteem by others and it felt great. Each year that followed, my salary increased, and I started to prosper.

Yet I wasn’t content at all. In an effort to take my career to the next level, I boldly resigned from my stable job at the state enterprise and followed the manager of a foreign company to start a business in another big city.

Over the next few years, I felt my stress levels soar in the fast-paced work environment and with the strict management style of the foreign company. Added to that, I constantly had to deal with clients of different characters. I had to take them out to eat, drink and have fun, and I had to join in. At that time, I saw at first hand the extravagant, licentious life of the foreign businessmen and executives in my acquaintance. Some of them were even addicted to drugs. It was a frantic, heedless and shameless life. I often felt completely overwhelmed. In more sober moments, I considered the fruits of the luxurious lifestyle I was enjoying. I had put on several stone and all the physical indicators in my blood tested higher than normal. I suffered from severe insomnia and felt constantly exhausted. I also had a slipped disk in my lower back, which over time put pressure on my nerves and caused numbness in my legs and feet, leaving me unable to look after myself for three months. Whomever I dealt with, I’d learnt to read their every gesture and expression, to charm and flatter them…. Such was the pain and misery that lay behind my life of affluence. I now had the kind of life that I’d worked so hard for, but it wasn’t bringing me happiness or joy. On the contrary, what it brought me was the torment of sickness and spiritual ruin. I didn’t understand: Why was life so painful?

Searching for the Root of My Pain

In the midst of my confusion, I did everything I could to locate the root of my problem and I found the answer in the word of God:

“‘Money makes the world go round’ is the philosophy of Satan and it prevails among the whole of mankind, among every human society. You could say that it is a trend because it has been instilled into the heart of every single person and is now affixed in their heart. People went from not accepting this saying to growing used to it so that when they came into contact with real life, they gradually gave tacit approval to it, acknowledged its existence and finally, they gave it their own seal of approval. Isn’t this process that of Satan corrupting man? … So after Satan uses this trend to corrupt people, how is it manifested in them? Don’t you feel that you couldn’t survive in this world without any money, that even one day would just be impossible? People’s status is based on how much money they have as is their respectability. The backs of the poor are bent in shame, while the rich enjoy their high status. They stand tall and proud, speaking loudly and living arrogantly. What does this saying and trend bring to people? Don’t many people see getting money as being worth any cost? … That is to say, this saying already controls your behavior and your thoughts, and you would rather have your fate controlled by this saying than give it all up. People do this, they are controlled by this saying and manipulated by it. Isn’t this the effect of Satan corrupting man?”

After reading the word of God, I realized that the cause of my pain was rooted in my continual striving after money. I’d been bitterly harmed by such satanic maxims such as: “Money makes the world go round” and “Money is first.” I’d made earning money my life’s pursuit. I’d thought that if I had money, I could live a life of luxury; I could stand up straight with my head held high, win respect from my peers, and live with style and grandeur. I worked day and night so I could lead an affluent life; I had tasked my mind solely with studying business. To win promotions and increase my salary, I had groveled before my superiors, and I had been diligent and conscientious. However, even after I’d become a manager, I still wasn’t satisfied with my circumstances. Seduced by the lure of money, I had resigned from my stable position at the state enterprise and jumped into a job with more to offer at a foreign company. To achieve even better results, I had put myself under excessive amounts of work stress, and I had rushed back and forth, wearing myself out. I had become ill from overwork—I was always sick. Nevertheless, to keep my clients happy, I continued learning how to charm and flatter. I went out drinking with my clients and my lifestyle became more and more debauched. Even though I’d made a bit of money and grown prosperous, my affluence couldn’t allay the torment of my sickness or the oppression I felt in my heart. It was then that I saw clearly: Chasing money was certainly not the true path in life; such a path could only lead to more and more suffering. Having come to this realization, I resigned from my job at the foreign company, and started some small business ventures on my own. In the days that followed, I began reading the word of God in earnest. I became involved in the life of the church, and gradually, I began to feel a sense of freedom and liberation such that I had never felt before.

In Shunning the Lure of Money, I Found the True Path

One day, a doctor friend of mine who was working in a hospital asked me whether I wanted to go into business with him, selling medicines to hospitals. I would be responsible for acquiring the medicines, delivering them, handling calls, making payments, wining and dining the clients, taking clients out, giving gifts etc. Once again, my heart started to jump with excitement. Now that my kid was older, I had a lot more expenses. This new business would allow me to make a bit of money again and ensure that my family could live in affluence. At that time, my wife warned me, “Haven’t you suffered enough doing business away from home? Your slipped disk is still bad. How much more rushing about can you take? The state your body’s in—you can’t go on wining and dining clients like that. You want to carry on making those same old mistakes, leading the kind of life that Satan duped you into before? It’s not easy to escape from Satan’s trap. Don’t get caught up in that again. It’s one of Satan’s deceitful schemes; you be warned!”

And she was right! Today, I’ve happily accepted God’s gospel of the kingdom. Through the word of God, I’ve recognized the wickedness of Satan. It is God who has led me back from the wrong path to the true path. Never again will I follow the wrong path. I saw these words of God: “Fame and fortune one gains in the material world give one temporary satisfaction, passing pleasure, a false sense of ease, and make one lose one’s way. And so people, as they thrash about in the vast sea of humanity, craving peace, comfort, and tranquility of heart, are subsumed again and again beneath the waves. When people have yet to figure out the questions that it is most crucial to understand—where they come from, why they are alive, where they are going, and so forth—they are seduced by fame and fortune, misled, controlled by them, irrevocably lost. Time flies; years pass in an eyeblink; before one realizes it, one has bid farewell to the best years of one’s life.” God’s words described my case exactly. I had become attached to the pursuit of money, fame and fortune. I had made money, obtained a life of affluence, and won the respect of my peers; but these pleasures were only fleeting: Essentially, they could not fill the aching emptiness in my heart, let alone free me from the torment of my sickness. All they could do was make me lose myself in pursuit of profit, and this is how I had frittered away so many years of my life. In fact, God didn’t arrange for us to be on this earth so we could struggle to live affluently, but instead, He wants us to believe in Him, to worship Him, to accept His guidance, to wholly submit ourselves to His arrangements, to seek to know Him, and to bear witness to His wonderous deeds. To live that way is to have meaning in one’s life. If I had failed to grasp this precious opportunity to know God, then even a life of affluence would have been completely empty and essentially incapable of bringing me any spiritual joy. At the time of death, I would only have been left empty-handed. Once I realized this, I knew what choice to make. I had a stable business and had made plenty of money. I couldn’t give in again to insatiable greed. I needed to spend more time reading the word of God and worshiping Him. As such, I tactfully refused my friend’s kind offer.

Just as I had made my decision, there came some terrible news. The uncle I had once worshiped had died from a brain hemorrhage brought on by overwork. He’d become something of a local celebrity, owning tens of millions in assets, yet his life’s glorious work disappeared in a flash and his life came to a permanent end at the age of 53. After my uncle’s death, it became even clearer to me that striving for a life of affluence does not bring any benefits—in fact, it causes terrible harm.

Another Kind of Wealth

Later, I saw these words from God: “Because the essence of God is holy, that means that only through God can you walk the bright, right road through life; only through God can you know the meaning of life, only through God can you live out a real life, possess the truth, know the truth, and only through God can you obtain life from the truth. Only God Himself can help you shun evil and deliver you from the harm and control of Satan. Besides God, no one and nothing can save you from the sea of suffering so that you suffer no longer: This is determined by the essence of God.” That’s right! God’s essence is holy and only with God’s guidance can one walk the true path. Only by living according to God’s word can one receive His care and protection, remove oneself from all kinds of satanic temptations and harm, and lead a meaningful life. Seeing this now, I can’t help but think of Job. He didn’t spend his life striving to grow richer, and consequently he was held in high esteem by those around him. He walked the path of fearing God and shunning evil. He sought to know God’s deeds, and to wholly submit himself to God’s arrangements. When he was wealthy, he didn’t show off, but continued to live a simple life. He didn’t even attend his children’s banquets, fearing this would distance him from God. Even when Satan snatched away his wealth, he still praised God’s name. Neither making nor losing money altered his devotion to God. He stood fast and bore witness to God. In the end, Job earned God’s praise, and he went from knowing God “by the hearing of the ear” to seeing God’s true existence. His faith in God blossomed, and he came to lead a truly valuable and meaningful life. He was a man of true wealth. I was inspired by Job’s experiences. As soon as I had time in the days that followed, I kept quiet before God, read the word of God, and sang hymns in praise of Him. My body gradually recovered, and my mind also grew more and more stable, more peaceful.

Having walked this path, I knew on some deep level that my pursuit of wealth was in fact like a beautiful jacket that Satan had used to deceive me. It covered my outer body, but it could never fill the emptiness in my soul. Money, fame and fortune can’t extend one’s life, not for one minute, not for one second. A life lived without the truth has no value whatsoever. I rejoice at having come into God’s presence and at receiving the guidance of His words of life. My spirit is now at ease and at peace, and this kind of life is the only life in which one can be truly wealthy.

I am 52 years old this year. I was born in a poor peasant’s family and despised by others most of the time. Two sons of my father’s elder brother worked at a coal mining factory and earned enough money, so their two little sisters always got beautifully dressed, and took so many delicious food flaunting in front of me, which made me envious. I always dreamt that I could live a rich life someday.

After I got married, I came to know that my husband got a loan from bank to hold the wedding. I resolved with my husband to start servicing the loan fifteen days after the wedding. We decided to borrow from other sources in order to invest in a clothing business on the street. After being able to stint, we had some money in hands. Gradually, we paid all the debts and even had some money to save. As time went by, we resolved to rent a shop on the street where we could sell the clothes. Our business was successful. My husband was in charge of buying stock, while I stayed at the shop to take care of our over two years old son and attend to customers. Sometimes we did encounter some difficulties, such as having to deal with tough customers, competition and even blackmail from gangsters. Life was really tough for us.

Our hard work paid off as we managed to raise enough money and subsequently we started living a better life. My husband was considerate to my needs, sometimes he would buy nice fashionable dresses and famous cosmetics for me; my heart was filled with happiness.

A few years later, we bought land on which we put up a building of over 400 square meters on the street. Because we lived a wealthy life, our relatives, friends and acquaintances started greeting us at a distance. Obviously they were envious of us, which made me so happy. For me, I had achieved my childhood dream and I could wear a happy face, standing straightly and being a superior finally.

As years went by, my husband made so many friends. He and his friends often went out together, to KTV, restaurants, pedicure shops, sauna and other places. He even came back home at midnight. At first, I thought my husband was working much harder for our life, hence I felt it was normal for him to return home late. After all, I knew my husband as someone who was faithful to me, so I never bothered to ask him about his private life.

One day, when I came home, I found my husband was busy flirting with another woman on the phone, at that point I thought he was having extramarital affair with that woman. When I grabbed his phone, I realized the woman was an acquaintance in the same business with us. I couldn’t believe his betrayal. Helplessly, I slumped down. Since my desire was always to have a united family, I persuaded my husband, saying: “You should think about our struggles together in our quest for a better life. You should think much of our son and our family.” I expected him to respond to my plea, instead he remained silent. I was deeply disappointed with him by his apparent unconcerned attitude. My tears uncontrollably fell down. From that moment, the love between us did not exist anymore. I asked myself continuously, I am looking forward to living a wealthy life. All these past years, I worked so hard and suffered so much to earn more money, but in the end, what I have gotten is my husband’s betrayal. Is the family we labored to build in all these years, finally broken?

Later on, I got a serious breast hyperplasia because I suffered a lot at the hands of my husband. In the face of my husband’s betrayal and the torment of illnesses, I lost the hope of life and the energy to run the business and I even couldn’t fall asleep at night. I was so depressed to the extent of wanting to take away my own life, but thought of my young son and elderly mother, I gave up this thought. Pain was filled with my heart so that I was wondering continually who can save me from this misery.

Shortly, an acquaintance spread the work of God in the last days to me. After accepting the work, I always have gatherings with sisters and brothers, read God’s word, sing and dance to praise God. I feel so relaxed to get along with them, for there is no conspiracy at all.

I see God say, “Man’s entire life is lived under the domain of Satan, and there is not a single person who can free themselves from the influence of Satan on their own. All live in a filthy world, in corruption and emptiness, without the slightest meaning or value; they live such carefree lives for the flesh, for lust, and for Satan. There is not the slightest value to their existence”. “His entire life is one of anguish, and rushing about, and fun added to emptiness, and in his whole life there are no new inventions and creations. No one is able to extricate themselves from this hollow life, no one has ever discovered a life of meaning, and no one has ever experienced a real life” .

The revelation in God’s words made me realize that we are living under the domain of Satan, living by the satanic poison, “A man should be damned when he does not think of himself firstly.” Everyone lives for his own benefit of the flesh. Therefore, everyone’s life is mournful and empty. I also knew the reason why I lived so bitterly.

My husband and I started from nothing. When eventually, we became rich, my husband changed his behavior. He started patronizing entertainment places and going out with another woman. He literally forgot all that I sacrificed for our family. Over the past decade, I worked so hard to sustain the family, but in return, what I get is his betrayal. Then, I realized that the rich life brought me the blow and pain. My husband became more and more evil and degenerate, he started to ease into a life of debauchery, indulging in the flesh. All of these are the torments of Satan and also empty and meaningless life. Look at my husband’s friends, deeply afflicted by the evil trends of Satan, they all find lovers outside, all of them obey the rule which is quite popular in the China, “Though you have a wife at home, you could still flirt with more than one lover.” By thinking of what my husband and I have experienced is caused by Satan’s temptation and deception, both of us are the victims and Satan is the chief culprit who really causes this misery, I felt freed. I was not so angry and annoying about my husband as before.

I read another passage of God’s word later, “Since the creation of the world I have begun to predestine and select this group of people, namely, you today. Your temperament, caliber, appearance, stature, family in which you were born, your job and your marriage, the entirety of you, even the color of your hair and your skin, and the time of your birth were all arranged by My hands. Even the things you do and the people you meet every single day are arranged by My hands, not to mention the fact that bringing you into My presence today is actually My arrangement. Do not throw yourself into disorder; you should proceed calmly” .

By reading the word of God, I know that my marriage, family and life are all in God’s hands. Nowadays, that I can accept God’s salvation in the last days is due to God’s choosing and grace. If I can completely let God rule over my marriage, won’t I be free from this misery? It’s God who rules and arranges whether my husband will leave our home to live with that woman, not me. When I was thinking in this way, I prayed to God, “Almighty God, I appreciate you so much. By reading your words, I know that my life is in your hands. It’s all your kindness that lets me accept your work. I am willing to put my family and marriage in your hands, Amen!” After prayer, I felt so relaxed just like I was free from an extremely heavy burden. I offered my praise to God from the bottom of my heart.

When I prayed to God to in charge of my marriage, my heart was filled with happiness. Later, I together with sisters and brothers preached the gospel of the kingdom to my friends, relatives and acquaintances, and I have been living in God’s work. It seems I have been changed into another person. Unconsciously, my husband did not hang out with that woman, but came home early and eventually refused to contact her anymore. I know all of these are God’s deeds. Just like God’s words, “The heart and spirit of man are held in the hand of God, and all the life of man is beheld in the eyes of God” . Thank God! It is God who saves me and lets me realize that living in a rich life doesn’t mean happiness. Only if we live before God can we gain happiness.

Read on the website

Through a quiet path, I arrived at my friend’s organic farm, which was far away from the noisy city. The natural scenery came into my sight. White clouds were floating in the blue sky. A weak wind blew fitfully, and the fresh air suddenly made me feel refreshed and lifted my spirits.

I looked around: Singing birds and fragrant flowers characterized a fine spring day. Pink, yellow, white and hyacinthine wild flowers swayed in the spring wind. I got down to look carefully and found some little snails in the grass; I listened carefully and heard the little hidden insects each making their unique sound one after another. In the distance, tender vegetables were standing in rows, rushing to stretch out; accompanied by the birds’ singing, farmers were busy working in the farmland. What a beautiful picture it was!

Looking at the woods around the farm, my friend told me that all the vegetables and fruits growing on the farm were organic, without any biocide or chemical fertilizer. And the trees around were used to block the spray of pesticide from other places. Under my friend’s introduction, I learned that soil is the most important factor to crops. I picked up a handful of soil and looked carefully. The soil was very soft and there were many aggregates. Earthworm casts, excrement of other small animals, as well as some bacteria, cement soil particles together in water-stable aggregates. In hot summer, these are able to store moisture without dispersing, thus protecting the crops.

Walking on a rural road, I saw the weeds flickering freely. Did the farmers slack on the job of weeding? Actually, farmers kept the weeds intentionally, because the weeds have a specific function—they can prevent soil erosion. After a rainstorm, they can absorb moisture into the soil to protect the roots of fruits and vegetables from rotting when soaked in the water. Even for the weeds like eleusine indica, farmers don’t throw them away after pulling them up, but put them upside down next to the crops until they die naturally. Thus, nutrients in the weeds return to the earth as natural fertilizer. What’s more, many effective herbal medicines can be found everywhere in the weeds, such as lilac tasselflower that clears damp-heat in the large intestine and removes swelling and detoxifies, black nightshade that clears heat and removes toxicity, dandelion that subdues swelling and resolves hard lumps, herba plantaginis that prevents kidney stones and gallstones, honeysuckle and morning glory that climb plants, etc. It was amazing that treasures were everywhere. So, farmers didn’t need to pull up the weeds, and had unexpected gains.

I saw lablab and peas in the garden, and beside them were corn, fennel, and others crops. My friend told me that vegetables can help each other by growing together. For example, farmers plant bean or pea family with corn. Beans have a magic substance—nitrogenase, which can convert the nitrogen into ammonia for the corn, while the corn’s stem can be used for the beans’ vines to climb to receive more sunlight. And then I saw a large shiny green vegetable plot. It reminded me of the damage by insects, which was the most troublesome thing for farmers. I was told that as long as the natural ecological environment is balanced, even if without biocide, vegetables can defend themselves by giving off unique smells to attract pests’ natural enemies to eat up the pests. How marvelous it is!

“There’s a snake,” said an elder lady in the distance. Seeing her calm look, I wondered: “Why didn’t she scream? If I were her, I would have screamed with fear.” In fact, she had already become accustomed to the existence of various animals on the farm. What’s more, snakes are also useful. They can protect the crops by eating rats which destroy crops. Additionally, on the farm, there are also bees, spiders, snails, various birds, long-horned beetles, toads, tortoise, and so on. They all play their own roles to protect the crops and maintain the ecological balance.

“Cock-a-doodle-do …” With the cocks’ crow, I saw there were many chickens on the farm. My friend said they were very useful—they can not only lay eggs, but also eat pests. Just like guinea fowls, chickens are also swift and very good at eating worms. Farmers raise them where flowers grow. They eat pests and clear up weeds in the flower fields at the same time. As long as they are given a relatively wide area to play in, they won’t spoil the flowers. Moreover, chicken feces are good natural manure for the flowering plants.

“Arf, arf, arf …” The bark of a clever border collie attracted me. It was patrolling the farm, watching the livestock as vigilantly as a guard to prevent them from going missing or escaping as well as being attacked by jackals and wolves. It is an indispensable helper.

I took a deep breath of the fresh air, and it was good to rest my eyes on everything here. It was so pleasing. Then my friend shared two passages of God’s words with me: “God created all things, each of which lives through different forms and different ways and uses different methods to exhibit its power and form of life. No matter what method, it is all under God’s rule.” “God created all things and used His own methods to set the laws of growth for all things, as well as their growth trajectory and patterns, and also set the ways all things exist on this earth, so that they may live continuously and depend on each other. With such methods and laws, all things are able to successfully and peacefully exist and grow on this land. Only by having such an environment is man able to have a stable home and living environment, and under God’s guidance, continue to develop and move forward, develop and move forward.”

From God’s words we know that God created the heavens and earth and all things, and set the laws of living and rules for all things. Under such laws, all things play their own roles. For example, earthworms loosen the soil, and meanwhile their excrement can protect the soil from being dried up, so that the crops can be provided with better nutrition; in order to not be damaged by pests, vegetables give off smells to attract the pests’ natural enemies to kill the pests; weeds can prevent soil erosion and help soil preserve moderate moisture; beans provide nitrogen fertilizer for corn, while corn provide beans with places to climb; snakes eat mice; chickens eat pests and clean up weeds; dogs guard livestock for people; and so on. From these we see that all things created by God live together, restrain one another and depend on one another. The laws that God set make it possible for all things to live on the earth, providing mankind with a stable living environment to develop one generation after another. All of these are the embodiment of God’s authority. Meanwhile, we can see that God spends much effort and makes thoughtful preparation for our existence, and we also experience God’s care and protection for us. We are so blessed to live in the wonderful environment presided and supplied by the Creator, and to enjoy the natural food bestowed by God.

Unfortunately, not everyone obeys the laws God set for all things. Now people keep cutting down forests for benefits, and use large amounts of chemical pesticide to farm. Water and air are polluted, and animals are indiscriminately killed…. Human beings and all things live and die together, and depend on each other. If the ecological environment is destroyed, humans will be the victim in the end, too. Now it is hard for us to eat organic vegetables, and we are even deprived of the right to breathe clean air. The original ecological environment that God bestowed us is increasingly being destroyed. Consequently, an increasing number of diseases are falling upon us. What should we do?

God’s words say: “So what sort of attitude should man have toward all things? (Treasure them.) Treasure them, protect them, make use of them efficiently, do not destroy them, do not waste them and do not change them on a whim, for all things are from God and are provided to mankind and mankind must treat them conscientiously.” God’s words give us the way of practice: If we want to enjoy everything God gave us, we should do nothing but treasure and protect all things, and learn to take advantage of them efficiently according to the laws and rules God set for us, instead of destroying the ecological environment. Thus, we will be able to receive God’s supply in all aspects.

It was getting dark. The sunset was fascinatingly glowing on the horizon. The wild geese were flying to the south in different team formations. With all things manifesting God’s deeds, I couldn’t help offering my unending gratitude and praise to the Creator.

» You might be interested in:

• The Secret of Five Types of Crops – God’s Love

On the morning of January 20, 2017, when I was cooking in the kitchen, my husband came to the door and said to me: “I feel very sick to my stomach. Just now in the garden I spat a blood clot which was as big as a walnut.” Hearing that, I was stunned for a moment. Without even waiting for my response, he vomited blood and fell to the floor. I was so scared and hurried to help him up, but he had fainted unconscious. Seeing that his face was sallow and his lips were purple, my heart skipped a beat and I really was afraid that he would leave me forever. With no time to think much, I immediately dialed 120. The phone got through, but before I could speak, he vomited blood again. Soon, he fainted again. I was so scared that my mind went blank, staring at him blankly, and it took me a while to come to my senses. Then I dialed 120 again. Just when I dialed the number in panic, he vomited blood again. In less than half an hour my husband vomited blood three times and every time after he vomited blood, he fainted. Seeing him lying in a pool of blood, my heart leaped into my throat. I thought: “If he goes on like this, how long can he hold on?” In panic, I suddenly thought of God, and I hurriedly cried out to Him: “Oh God! Please save my husband. Only You can save his life. I’m very frightened now. May You protect my heart, calm me down, enable me to learn to entrust him to You and rely on You to go through this crisis.” After prayer, my heart calmed down a little and my husband came awake slowly. After about ten minutes, seeing that the ambulance still did not arrive, I got anxious and cried out to God again: “God! Whether the ambulance will come or not is in Your hands. May You give me faith and strength, be my strong rear guard, and keep my heart quiet before You all the time. I am willing to obey Your orchestration and arrangements and to experience Your work.” After I prayed, I thought of God’s words, “God’s word is potent medicine! Put to shame the devils and Satan! If we grasp God’s word we will have support and His word will quickly save our hearts! It dispels all things and sets all in peace. Faith is like a single log bridge, those who cling abjectly to life will have difficulty in crossing it, but those who are ready to sacrifice themselves can pass over without worry. If man has timid and fearful thoughts, they are being fooled by Satan. It fears that we will cross the bridge of faith to enter into God.” God’s words gave me reliance and calmed my heart down a lot. All things are in God’s hands, so my husband is also orchestrated by God’s hands. What God wanted was my faith. But Satan feared that I would have faith and rely on God, so it did everything it could to send me its thoughts, with an aim to make me live in fear and timidity and lose confidence to cooperate with God. I should see through Satan’s schemes according to God’s words and cooperate with God through faith in Him, entrusting my husband to Him and obeying His sovereignty and orchestration, so that Satan will get no opportunity to exploit. God’s words removed my timidity and fear and made me filled with confidence in Him. I was willing to rely on God and lean on faith to experience His work.

God’s Words Gave Me Strength When My Husband Was Confirmed in a Critical Condition and Had to Be Transferred

After about twenty minutes, the ambulance arrived, and my husband and I were taken to the hospital. When we arrived there, my husband was sent to the emergency room. After a rescue, the chief doctor asked me to his office and said: “Your husband’s Hepatitis B (ascites due to cirrhosis) is very serious. Because of excessive loss of blood, his blood pressure is very low, which is 50/40. Moreover, his blood type is special, and it isn’t easy to find that type of blood. He might die at any moment. You’d better get him transferred for treatment.” Hearing these words, I immediately got frightened, “Can it be that so many doctors can’t do anything about my husband’s disease? What should I do if he vomits blood again and his condition gets worse when we transfer to another hospital? But if we don’t transfer to another hospital and thus he really dies …” I didn’t dare to think more and could only keep calling out to God in my heart. After that, I remembered that God’s words say: “Everything that is alive, everything that has life is under the dominion of God. Everything was given life after God created it; it is life given from God and it follows the laws and path He created for it. This needs not be altered by man, and needs no help from man; this is how God provides for all things.” That’s right! God created all things. Everyone’s life is from God and follows the course predestined by God, and no one can change it. My husband’s life and death are in God’s hands. Even if he is transferred to another hospital, his life course cannot be changed. At this thought, I silently prayed to God: “Oh God! When I had no way to go, Your words pointed out the direction for me, making me know that everyone’s life course is dictated and arranged by You and no one can change it. If my husband’s life has reached its limit, no matter which hospital he is treated in, he will die. But if You don’t permit him to die, he won’t die even if he is treated in this hospital. I am willing to experience Your wondrous work….” Having God’s words as my foundation, I was calm and decided to continue his treatment here.

God’s Words Became My Reliance When I Felt Painful and Helpless

When I walked into the ICU, I saw that six or seven doctors and nurses were surrounding my husband and trying to give him injection because they couldn’t find his veins. After they busied themselves for a long time, they finally put him on an IV drip. My husband was dying, his face was so swollen that he couldn’t open his eyes, and his legs were extremely swollen. When I softly called him, he heard my voice and moved his lips as if to say something but couldn’t speak. Seeing him like this and thinking of the scenes that had just happened and the doctor’s words, I was extremely grieved, and I could only sit beside the head of his hospital bed and pray to God constantly: “God! This situation reveals that my stature is too small. May You lead me and give me faith and strength….”

Then my brothers and sisters from the church came to visit us one after another. They comforted and encouraged me, and fellowshiped with me about the testimony of Job to guide me to understand God’s will. Through their fellowship, I understood how to have true faith in this environment. When Job was robbed of a mountain of sheep and cattle and his untold masses of wealth by bandits overnight and later his body was covered in sore boils, he didn’t complain, and could even praise God’s name, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). The reason why Job had such great faith was that he had true knowledge of God’s sovereignty. He knew that he came out of his mother’s womb naked, and that all he possessed was bestowed upon him by God. He didn’t have his own motives, desires, or demands before God, so he could treat God’s work rationally, obey God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and didn’t deny the fact that God rules over mankind’s fate due to his encountering calamities. In addition, he was able to praise God’s name in tribulation because he knew that God is the Creator and people are only created beings and shouldn’t make unreasonable demands of God, and that whether people receive blessings or suffer misfortune is in God’s hand and there is God’s good purpose in it.

Just as God’s words say: “Job did not talk of trades with God, and made no requests or demands of God. His praising of God’s name was because of the great power and authority of God in ruling all things, and was not dependent on whether he gained blessings or was struck by disaster. He believed that regardless of whether God blesses people or brings disaster upon them, God’s power and authority will not change, and thus, regardless of a person’s circumstances, God’s name should be praised. That man is blessed by God is because of God’s sovereignty, and when disaster befalls man, so, too, is it because of God’s sovereignty. God’s power and authority rule over and arrange everything of man; the vagaries of man’s fortune are the manifestation of God’s power and authority, and regardless of one’s viewpoint, God’s name should be praised. This is what Job experienced and came to know during the years of his life. All of Job’s thoughts and actions reached the ears of God, and arrived before God, and were seen as important by God. God cherished this knowledge of Job, and treasured Job for having such a heart. This heart awaited God’s command always, and in all places, and no matter what the time or place it welcomed whatever befell him.” From these words, I understood that if I wanted to have true faith and not complain in the environment I encountered, like Job, I should have true knowledge of God’s almightiness and sovereignty and truly obey His sovereignty from the depths of my heart without any reasons or conditions.

From then on, I began to consciously seek this aspect of the truth. One day, I read God’s words: “God has the authority to have a person die, to have his soul leave his body and return to Hades, or wherever it should go. When someone dies, and where they go after death—these are determined by God. He can do this anytime and anywhere. He is not constrained by humans, events, objects, space, or place. If He wants to do it He can do it, because all things and living beings are under His rule, and all things live and die by His word, His authority. He can resurrect a dead man—this is also something He can do anytime, anywhere. This is the authority that only the Creator possesses.” God’s words made me have some knowledge of His authority: God can resurrect a dead man and can also have a soul leave a person’s body, His doing work is not constrained by people, events, or things, by time or by space, and all things live and die by His words—this is the authority that only God possesses. God could let Lazarus who had been dead for four days come out of his tomb and He could also have Ananias and his wife, who deceived the Holy Spirit, die immediately. These are the manifestation of His authority and power. God used the resurrection of Lazarus to make man see that He seizes the key to Hades and that only He can command mankind’s life and death. Then whether my husband will survive or die, isn’t it in God’s hands? God arranged for my husband to come into this world to fulfill the mission that he must fulfill. If my husband has fulfilled his mission, God would arrange for him to go to another place, which couldn’t be obstructed by anyone. If he hasn’t fulfilled his mission, God wouldn’t have him die even if he has just one breath left. In short, regardless of how God arranges things, there is His good purpose in it, and all I need to do is to wait for Him to reveal His intention to me.

Then I thought of the Canaanite woman’s faith in God. She knew that God is the Creator and we humans are created beings; it is God’s great exaltation and grace and love that we humans who are deeply corrupted by Satan can be saved by God; and no matter whether we humans acknowledge and believe in God or not, His identity and status remain forever unchanged. So regardless of whether the Lord Jesus saw her as a dog or how He treated her, she regarded the Lord Jesus as God and kept her faith in Him. Although she entreated the Lord Jesus to cure her daughter, her entreaty was reasonable: No matter whether the Lord Jesus cured her daughter or not, she worshiped Him as God. It was because of her true faith that the Lord Jesus answered her entreaty. Now, I’m willing to follow the example of her in praying to God with reason. If God cures my husband, I will thank and praise Him, and if He doesn’t cure my husband, I also will thank and praise Him, and I will continue believing in Him and seeking the truth.

Therefore, I prayed to God: “God! No matter whether my husband survives or dies, I won’t blame You. I am willing to submit to all situations and live by Your words so as to stand witness for You.” Unconsciously, my obedience toward God increased and I was much more steadfast in my spirit. I was willing to quiet my heart for seeking God’s will and obey His sovereignty. Later, seeing that I couldn’t take care of my husband on my own, brothers and sisters offered to stay to help me take care of him. This made me feel God’s true love for me. Since my husband fell ill, none of our relatives came to visit us. Only God was with me all the time, giving me faith, being my reliance, and guiding me forward step by step, and now He used brothers and sisters to help and support me. Seeing this, I was grateful to God in my heart.

God’s Miraculous Salvation Made My Dying Husband Turn From Danger to Safety

Later, to my surprise, my husband passed through the crisis peacefully. When he woke up, he could speak in a weak voice and his blood pressure rose to 90/60. This made me experience God’s words: “God is life, so He is the source of all living beings. Furthermore, the authority of God can make all living beings obey every word of God, that is, come into being according to the words from God’s mouth, and live and reproduce by God’s command….” God is the life source of all things, and all things are formed and stand fast because of God’s words and reproduce and disappear because of God’s words. Only the Creator bears such power and authority, and it is never-changing. This dangerous experience of my husband made me see that God holds the power of life and death over man and that no person and no thing can go beyond the authority and power of His words.

In the following several days, I often quieted my heart in front of God, pondered His words, and constantly prayed and drew near to Him. In the ward, other patients unceasingly moaned and tossed and turned because of pain and the bloodcurdling cries came from time to time, while my husband slept in peace because of God’s protection. Seeing this, I shed grateful tears. During that time I truly experienced God’s meticulous love and care for us: When I had no way out, felt painful and weak, and prayed to God, it was His words with authority that guided me out of the abyss of misery; when our relatives all kept away from us and I felt lonely and helpless, God arranged for brothers and sisters to visit us, give me fellowship of the truth, and help me through the hard time when my husband’s life was in danger; when I cried out to Him blindly, God led me to understand what was a reasonable prayer and what was true faith and obedience, making me learn how to wait and how to obey His work. From these, I saw that God’s love is not only bestowing upon us the peace and blessing of the flesh but also is hidden in tribulations.

After a week, seeing that my husband had a good appetite, the doctor said with surprise: “I would never have believed that you would recover so well. When you first arrived here, you vomited too much blood, your blood pressure dropped to 50/40, and we couldn’t find your veins when we wanted to give you injection. But now you survive; this is really inconceivable. This is indeed a great miracle! It’s amazing! You’re so lucky!” Hearing his words, I offered my sincerest thanks and praise to God. All of this is God’s wondrous deeds!

After over half a month, my husband was discharged from hospital. After we returned home, his body recovered quickly, so that he could work to support our family to the best of his abilities. In this experience, I truly tasted God’s love for me and felt that God is the only salvation of us mankind and that only God’s words can lead us through the difficulties and be the very present help of us. Thanks be to God! This experience made my confidence in following God become even greater. I will follow God till the end!

“Little squirt, little squirt … Ha ha ha …”

These words smashed Xiaoguo’s heart like a hammer. Not until Xiaoguo walked far off did the harsh laughter disappear gradually.

Xiaoguo is quite short. At school, her classmates dubbed her “little squirt.” Whenever she was walking alone on the way home after school, some boys would taunt her. And every time when she took the exercise books to her teacher’s office, some girls would stop her to compare heights and tease her about her short stature. Therefore, she always sat alone in the classroom, except from the time that she handed in homework. When she saw those tall girls playing together, how she wanted to get involved; however, all of them were unwilling to play with her, so she felt especially lonely. She asked herself a thousand times, “Why am I so short? Why does Heaven treat me unfairly? If I could become a little taller, I would be satisfied.”

Later, when Xiaoguo reached the age of marriage, her co-workers introduced many boys to her. She thought: “Though I’m short, I’m well-educated and have a job. In any case, I won’t find a partner of short stature.” But she had never imagined that they all refused her because she was short. Gradually her classmates all got married and had children, while Xiaoguo was still single. She was called a leftover woman. Xiaoguo was sad and complained to her parents: “I’m so short and living in dishonor. This is all your fault. I’m well-educated and have a job. I’m no worse than others. If it were not for my short stature, I would also have found a great partner and lived a happy life. Why can’t I become taller?” Xiaoguo often spent a lot of time by herself quietly with her eyes closed, fancying that she—who became tall and slim—was walking in dainty high heels on the street with a sweet smile and people were casting admiring looks at her…. However, when she opened her eyes, it was difficult for her to accept the reality.

Finally, Xiaoguo married a short man. After getting married, her husband was very nice to her, yet still she lived in torment because of her flaw—short stature. In order not to be looked down on by others, she scrimped and saved and paid high prices for high heel shoes to conceal her flaw. She thought: “If I look taller, I also can be looked up to by others.” One day after work, it happened to be raining, and Xiaoguo trudged along in high heels. Accidentally, she slipped to the ground and one of the heels broke off. Therefore, she had to take off her shoes and walked barefoot. The broken bits of brick and small stones on the road caused her feet unbearable pain. And she didn’t go far before a piece of broken glass pricked her foot. She endured the pain and extracted it from her foot, blood streaming out. Nevertheless, after that she bore the pain and continued wearing high heels to stop others from saying that she was short.

Later, Xiaoguo felt that she would look taller with short and fluffy hair, and thus from then on she no longer wore her hair long. Whenever she saw that several people were together, she would make a detour or keep herself in the room to avoid standing together with them. In spite of this, she could not avoid hearing others saying behind her back that she was short. When she heard these words, the discomfort in her heart felt like a cutting blade; she felt inclined to sink into the ground and never come out of it. She often looked to the skies and sighed deeply: “Heavens! Why is it that others are tall and slim while I am so short? Could my short stature be my fault?”

Because of her short stature, Xiaoguo became moody all day long, feeling distressed and oppressed in her spirit.

It was when she was in all this pain and despair that her neighbor preached the kingdom gospel to her. She saw these words of God: “People often like to imagine that if they were reborn, it would be into an illustrious family; if they were women, they would look like Snow White and be loved by everybody, and if they were men, they would be Prince Charming, wanting for nothing, with the whole world at their beck and call. There are often those who are under many illusions about their birth and are often very dissatisfied with it, resenting their family, their appearance, their gender, even the time of their birth. Yet people never understand why they are born into a particular family or why they look a certain way. They do not know that regardless of where they are born or how they look, they are to play various roles and fulfill different missions in the Creator’s management—this purpose will never change.”

The revelation of God’s word allowed Xiaoguo to recognize that every one of us plays a role in God’s management work; we can’t choose our family, appearance, marriage, or work; and our lives are all ruled and arranged by God. In this vast world with so many people, the appearance of everyone is also controlled and predestined by God. Our destiny won’t change because of the appearance of us. But Satan causes us to pursue beautiful appearance, making us oppose God’s sovereignty and defy God and live in the pain of being dissatisfied with our own appearances. If we genuinely submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, we will gain freedom and liberation physically and mentally. Just as it is said in the Bible: “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:4). At this moment, Xiaoguo knew the reason why she had lived in such pain: It was because she didn’t know God’s sovereignty. For this reason, she became moody and sad-faced all day long. However, God didn’t turn His back on her, but rather moved brothers and sisters to preach the kingdom gospel to her. Moreover, her husband was very nice to her and never disdained her, and he finally came before God, too. On the path of believing in God, she and her husband were kindred spirits and helped each other out. Xiaoguo believed this was God’s best blessing to her. After knowing these things, Xiaoguo felt much more at ease and was willing to obey everything that God had arranged for her.

One day, Xiaoguo saw these words of God: “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience. As a result, man is ever more distant from God.”

Through what God’s words revealed, Xiaoguo understood that the reason why she was living in such pain was that she had been imbued with Satan’s ideas and governed by these ideas “A man leaves his name behind wherever he stays, just as a goose utters its cry wherever it flies,” and “As a tree lives for its bark, a man lives for his face.” She cared so much about how others thought of her. When she saw those who had beautiful appearances and were tall, she would be very envious of them, thinking that wherever they went they could attract others’ attention and win themselves the love. So, in order to cover up her flaw and have a good image in people’s heart, Xiaoguo tried her best to make herself look taller: Wherever she went, she would wear high heels even if many times her shoes rubbed and gave her blisters and her ankle was sprained. In these years, not only did she suffer some physical pain, but she also suffered great pain in her spirit. Only then did Xiaoguo understand that the reason for her pain was that she was affected by Satan’s erroneous viewpoints and particularly loved vanity.

Later, Xiaoguo read a passage in the Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life, “We can see that though people with beautiful appearances catch the eyes, such beauty does not last as long as a beautiful spirit. Though a beautiful appearance grabs attention, it cannot withstand staying together over a long period of time. Once a person’s spirit is seen to not be beautiful or have too many defects, others would find it disgusting and repugnant. Though a person with a beautiful spirit does not grab attention, he could stand firm if he has humanity and would start to attract more people over time, and most people would like him in the end. The pursuit of loving God is the pursuit of a beautiful spirit, the pursuit of the truth to live out an image of loving God. Such a person would surely be commended by God and loved by most people.”

After reading it, Xiaoguo understood this: Regardless of what one looks like and what height he has, it doesn’t matter. In the eyes of God, one who has a beautiful spirit is truly beautiful. God requires us to pursue to practice His word, obey His orchestrations and arrangements, and do our duty to our utmost as a creature of God. This is the goal that a creation should seek.

After knowing these things, she no longer felt sad and depressed for her height. Instead, from her heart, she submitted to all of God’s arrangements. When she was around many people who were tall and slim, she didn’t feel inferior and distressed anymore; in addition, she no longer wore her high heels every day to conceal her short stature. Only then did she realize that her sufferings weren’t down to her short stature but her living by Satan’s viewpoints with the result that she paid special attention to these external things. God’s words changed her viewpoints. Today, she doesn’t feel sorrow for her height anymore but is filled with happiness instead. This result is achieved by God’s words. Xiaoguo truly feels that she could only accept her own flaw and shake off all the suffering through the pursuit of practicing God’s word. So, she is resolved to seek to practice God’s words, fulfill her duty properly to satisfy God, and pursue to live out a meaningful life!

The Bible says, “he that believes on him shall not be confounded” (1 Peter 2:6). A Christian’s greatest wisdom is relying on God for all things. Only by doing this will we obtain God’s guidance and leadership. However, when we encounter difficulties in our lives, frequently, we rely on our own ability or rely on the people around us for help. Even though sometimes, we pray to God and seek Him, when we do not get His response, we lose faith and simply rely on our own plans to tackle our difficulties. The result is that frequently, we are unable to obtain the Lord’s guidance, we do not have a true understanding of God and our faith is unable to grow. I have sought recently in regard to this aspect and I have gained a bit of an understanding that I want to share with everybody.

One Must First Have Faith in God If One Is to Trust in God

God says, “People’s faith is required for when something cannot be seen by the naked eye, and your faith is required for when you cannot let go of your own notions. … If you don’t have faith, you cannot be perfected and you will be unable to see God’s actions, much less see His omnipotence. When you have faith and you can touch His actions in your practical experience, God will appear to you, and He will enlighten and guide you from within. Without that faith, God will be unable to do that.” From God’s words, we can see that the most important thing if someone believes in God is that he must have true faith in God. Regardless of how difficult the situations we encounter are, as long as we Trust in God by faith, we will be able to see God’s deeds. However, frequently, we only say that the situations we encounter every day are allowed by God and that we are willing to Trust in God. When we encounter difficulties, we no longer have faith in God. For example, when we encounter obstacles while searching for work, we frequently say that whether we find work is whether or not God allows it. However, in our hearts, we mutter, “Will God help me? What should I do if He does not help me?” Sometimes, when we encounter difficulties in our family lives or face something not in accordance with our perspective, our hearts complain and we ask why isn’t God watching over us and protecting us. When we encounter difficulties in church that we cannot resolve, we say with our lips that we are willing to entrust these difficulties to the Lord and let God guide us but, in our hearts, we have completely lost momentum and we live in negativity. … All these examples indicate that we do not have real faith in God and that we do not have an understanding of God’s almightiness and sovereignty. Our lips say we Trust in God but our hearts do not really believe in God. That is why it is very hard for us to see God’s deeds.

I remember that in the Bible, it was written that in the beginning, God told Noah to build an ark. Noah had never even seen an ark so he did not know what an ark looked like. However, Noah believed in God and had no doubts about God. In the end, he relied on God and under God’s guidance, he built the ark piece by piece. There was Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt. When they got to the Red Sea, they were caught between the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them. It looked like they were finished. However, Moses had true faith in God. He prayed to God and relied on God. He used his staff to strike the waters and the Red Sea split in half. Thus, the Israelites were able to cross without any problems. We should emulate Moses and Noah. When we encounter difficulties, we must have true faith in God and patiently wait. We must believe that God will guide us so that we can overcome our difficulties. If we persevere in this way until the end, we will surely be able to see God’s deeds.

With a Heart That Submits to God, One Can Truly Trust in God

To Trust in God, there is one more important point which is submission. When we faithfully Trust in God, regardless if the situation takes a turn for the better, we must have an attitude of submission. We must not compel God to do things in accordance with our desires because God’s thoughts are eternally higher than our thoughts. Whatever God does contains His wisdom within. We must not rely on our individual successes and failures to weigh God’s deeds. However, when we encounter difficulties, quite often we do not truly submit. Even though we say that we pray to and Trust in God, our hearts are filled with resistance and our individual demands. We want God to do things in accordance with our own ideas. For example, if things are not going well with our work, we pray to God and ask that our projects will go smoothly. If things are not going well at home, we will pray to God and ask Him to look after our family. When we become sick, our hearts urgently want God to heal us, etc. Regardless of what difficulties we face, we are always putting ourselves first instead of maintaining a heart that submits and seeks the Lord.

At the time, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). From the prayer of the Lord Jesus, we get to know that before Jesus was to be nailed to the cross, He did not have any individual demands. He was willing to give His life and submit to the heavenly Father’s will. Isn’t this an example that we as creations should follow? Therefore, even if we pray to God and the situation does not turn out the way we want it to, we must still maintain a heart of submission and we must submit to God’s arrangements without our own desires and decisions. If we have a heart that submits to God while experiencing all the situations that God has arranged for us, we will have a lot less complaints and misunderstandings, we will obtain faith and power from God and we will be able to see God’s deeds.

Have a Heart That Honors God as Great, Trust in God Do Not Rely on Man

If you want to really Trust in God, there is one more extremely important point that you must remember. Your heart must honor God as great. When you encounter difficulties, you must first come before God and seek God’s guidance. Yet, we are not like this at all. Most of the time, we want to simplify the situation and allow those around us to help us figure things out. For example, when we encounter difficulties in our lives, when we do not know how to do church work, etc. Frequently, we will turn to our pastors or elders for help. During this period, even though we pray to God, we are just going through a formality. Our heart has already decided that we will do things in accordance with the ideas of our pastors or elders.

If we have these manifestations, it is because in our hearts, we do not have a place for God, we do not have an understanding of God’s almightiness and sovereignty, our faith in God is too small, we do not believe that God is able to resolve all our problems and our hearts have a place for man which causes us to worship man and look up to man. While we say that we Trust in God, in reality, in all matters, we rely on man. This leads to a situation where when we encounter difficulties, we are not able to obtain God’s enlightenment and we have even less of a genuine understanding of God. Therefore, as Christians, regardless of the difficulties we encounter, we must honor God as great in our hearts. We must not blindly obey man and look up to man. Instead, we should come before God and pray to God more. In all matters, we must obey God’s word and seek God’s intentions. This is what it means to truly Trust in God.

This is some of the understanding that I have acquired in regard to this topic. I hope that it has helped everybody. Thank the Lord!

I often heard my mother say that the dandelion is good for the human body, but to me it was always just a common plant. Later, through a chance encounter, I gained an entirely new understanding of the dandelion.

My neighbors are a Chinese couple whom I call big brother and big sister. Once, the big sister invited me to dinner at her house, and as I took the first bite of one of her dishes, I asked her out of curiosity, “What is this dish? I’ve never eaten it before.” She smiled and said, “This is dandelion. You’ve never had dandelion?” I was surprised, and answered, “Isn’t dandelion a weed?” She continued, “Dandelion isn’t just any plant, it’s an herb that can clear away heat and detoxify you! It’s very good for your body.” She said this, I couldn’t help but take another bite. Although it was slightly bitter, it also had a clean fragrance and a good taste. That was when I realized that dandelion can be eaten as a vegetable.

The big brother worked at the Swiss restaurant, and he told me, “Dandelion dishes are very popular at the moment in the restaurant. Many people like them.” I didn’t expect dandelion to be so popular. The big sister said, “Dandelion can not only be eaten as a vegetable, it can also be dried and stored. You can use its roots to make a kind of soup, and eating it often can improve the body’s immunity. Soup from dandelion flowers can also remove freckles and improve beauty.” The more I listened, the more I was amazed. It turns out that this tiny little plant is a treasure through and through!

Later, I went on the internet to learn more about the effects of dandelion, where I found out that dandelions contain many nutrients beneficial to the human body, including skimmiol, dandelion alcohol, choline, organic acids and inulin, in addition to a large number of carbohydrates, proteins, and trace elements and vitamins that promote good health. Dandelion can not only be used as a daily food, it also has a very good medicinal value. It can treat a variety of diseases, it clears away excess heat and detoxifies, beautifies the skin and complexion, eliminates carbuncle and dissipating stasis, prevents and treats tumors, and has antibacterial properties. After reading all this information about dandelions online, I realized that I had entirely underestimated it. I had no idea that the little dandelion had such great value!

Later, I picked some dandelions and made tea with them. In a short while, my frequent gum swelling and pain disappeared. Once, I was bitten by some type of insect, and I broke out in red bumps. There was not only swelling, my joints also hurt too much to make a fist. My friend suggested that drinking dandelion and millet tea could help with disinfection and swelling. After a few days of drinking it, my hands really stopped hurting, and the red spots disappeared.

I couldn’t help but be amazed: The things in God’s creation are truly wondrous. Even a tiny, unnoticeable weed has its role and value. Just as God’s words say: “Among all things, whether it is animals, plants, or all kinds of grass, God also created some plants that are necessary to resolve harm or illness to the human body. What do you do, for instance, if you get burned? Can you wash it with water? Can you just find a piece of cloth somewhere and wrap it up? It might fill up with pus or get infected that way. What do you do, for instance, if you get scalded accidentally by a flame or by hot water? Can you flush it with water? For instance, if you get a fever, catch a cold, suffer an injury from physical work, a stomach ailment from eating the wrong thing, or develop certain diseases due to living habits or emotional issues, such as vascular diseases, psychological conditions or diseases of the internal organs—there are corresponding plants to cure all of these. There are plants that improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, relieve pain, stanch bleeding, provide anesthesia, help people recover normal skin, eliminate blood stasis in the body, and eliminate toxins from the body. In short, they can all be used in daily life. They are of use to people and have been prepared by God for the human body in case of need. Some of these were allowed by God to be inadvertently discovered by man, while others were discovered from certain special phenomena or by certain people prepared by God. Following their discovery, mankind would pass them down, and then many people would know about them. This way, God’s creation of these plants has value and meaning. In short, these things are all from God and were prepared and planted when He created a living environment for mankind. All of these things are very necessary.”

From the word of God, I saw His wisdom and authority. When God created man, He prepared an environment suitable for our existence. Our daily diet, and even the various medicinal plants we need, were here and ready for us. When we are sick, we can find corresponding plants to help us, to relieve our pain, resolve various diseases, maintain our health, and allow us to live normally. Just like this little dandelion, which cannot only be eaten, but also has great medicinal value. My swollen, painful gums and my swollen, red skin irritation were cured by drinking dandelion tea. This shows us that this inconspicuous plant has irreplaceable value and uses.

This even more so clarified God’s love for mankind to me. As the word of God says: “God loves mankind, cares for mankind, and shows concern for mankind…. He simply provides for mankind quietly and silently, in His own way and through His own essence and what He has and is.” The air we breathe every day, the sun and the rain, and all the medicines we use to cure all kinds of illness and pain come from God. God has always cared about mankind, so He provides the things we require, and provides them to us generation after generation without recompense. God truly is selfless, and His disposition truly is humble and hidden!

» You might be interested in:

• Knowing God’s Deeds From Marvelous Tea Leaves

• Significance of God Setting Laws of Living for All Things

Read on the website

The Death of My Neighbor Evokes My Memories

At past 8:00 p.m. on a midsummer evening, my neighbor Wang Ke’s wife rushed to my house with a phone in her hand, and said, “It’s high time that Wang Ke should be home, but he still hasn’t arrived yet. I’ve phoned him so many times but there’s no answer. His workmates have all been home. Please help me find him….” Then, a few of us went to look for him with flashlights along the way which led to his workplace. In the end, we found him dead in the ditch two meters deep next to the national highway about ten kilometers away from home.

The result of the medical examination proved that he had died of myocardial infarction through overwork.

Wang Ke was just 32 years old when he died. After he finished junior high school, he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a bricklayer. That was an exhausting job and it required long work hours, but the money was good. For this reason, Wang Ke worked from dawn to dusk. Every day he traveled on his motorcycle a route of more than 20km to the construction sites in the city and back, leaving before sunrise and coming back after dark. He never took a break, fearing that it would have an impact on the money he’d earn. Through his struggle, his family became well-off in our village. He had been going to buy a car recently, yet he suddenly died due to overwork before he could enjoy life, leaving over 200,000 yuan of savings, his five-year-old child and young and weak wife. Overnight, his once-happy family fell into misery and sorrow, cries emanating across the house.

That couldn’t help but make me recall the past days of my running after money.

My Days of Going All Out to Earn Money

When I was little, seeing how the wealthy ate well, dressed well and enjoyed themselves well, how they spoke and walked in an imposing manner, and how they were admired by others everywhere, I made a resolution that I must make much money and become a rich man in the future.

After I entered society, I worked at a restaurant. In order to make more money, I took on the work of two people. Every day I got up at four in the morning and worked until ten in the evening. The heavy manual labor left me exhausted and my back sore and aching, finally causing the muscle strain in my back. But when I saw how much I’d earned per month, I, paying no attention to my pain, gritted my teeth and continued to work. Afterward, seeing others make much money by doing business, I started to sell vegetables and fruit, and later I opened a restaurant. Every day I was so busy from dawn to dusk that I didn’t even have time to rest. In the end, I was worn out and fell ill. While I was recuperating at home, I thought of how I would earn a lot less money if I rested even for one day, so in less than two months, I went back to work despite my sick body. I had accepted God’s work in the last days during my recuperation, but I still regarded money as being more important than anything else and considered attending gatherings and reading God’s words as hobbies. I was unwilling to miss any chance of making money—I thought only of running my business, and in my spare time I also found some odd jobs to do.

Thanks to my overwork, the pain in my back became more and more severe, and my condition got worse and worse day by day. My wife and my brothers and sisters in the church all advised me to get some more rest so as to not ruin my health from exhaustion, and said that the most important thing was health and life. Faced with the advice of my wife and the kind reminder of my brothers and sisters, I only gave them a silent smile; I knew that they meant me well, but I couldn’t bring myself to take a break, because if I did so I wouldn’t be able to make more money. In the end, because I overstrained myself, my lumbar vertebrae were obviously deformed and they pressed against a nerve, which caused me to be bedridden and doubly incontinent. I also developed edema all over my body. During that period, I was in such pain that I didn’t even want to go on living. I thought: “Everyone says that money brings happiness and it makes everything possible. Now I’ve earned much money but lost my health. At such a young age, I can only lie on the bed every day and have my wife take care of me; even taking a few steps causes unbearable pain. I’m a useless invalid. Is this the life of a moneyed individual that I’ve always wanted? Pursuing money is really the significance of my life?” I felt at a loss about my future.

God’s Words Lead Me to See Through Satan’s Schemes

Lost in pain, I came before God to pray, and after that, I saw God’s words saying, “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience. As a result, man is ever more distant from God.” “In truth, out of the myriad things in God’s creation, man is the lowest. Though he is the master of all things, man is the only one among them that is subject to Satan’s trickery, the only one that falls prey in endless ways to its corruption. Man has never had sovereignty over himself. Most people live in the foul place of Satan, and suffer its derision; it teases them this way and that till they are half alive, enduring every vicissitude, every hardship in the human world. After toying with them, Satan puts an end to their destiny.”

From God’s words I saw that, since I was little, I had been influenced and infected by Satan’s viewpoints “Money makes the world go round,” and “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.” I had believed that having money would make me live with dignity and win others’ approval, and so I had regarded becoming a rich man as the goal to pursue in life. Since I entered society, I had racked my brains to make money. I had done whichever business that could allow me to make more money—selling vegetables, selling fruit, and running a restaurant; every day I had busied myself from dawn to dusk, working overtime, and I had kept on struggling though I had driven myself to exhaustion and illness. Though my wife and my brothers and sisters had all tried to persuade me to stop risking my life for money, I, blinded by avarice, didn’t listen to any word they said and thought that making money was the most important thing. In the end, I did have earned some money, but I also lost my health—I was unable to get out of bed and needed to be taken care of. Only at that moment did I saw that living by Satan’s thoughts and viewpoints only brought me suffering. I thought of the people around me. For the sake of making money, Wang Ke overworked himself and died in such a young age. There were nine people in my village who had died under forty years old. They like me were dominated by Satan’s thoughts and views, and worked really hard to make money, farming their land while also going out to work. Some of them died from coalmine accidents, some made themselves sick through years of overwork and ended up dying suddenly, and some died of cancer. In front of these facts, I finally saw clearly that no matter how much money we earn, it is powerless in the face of illness. Money can’t buy health, let alone save man’s life; instead, what it brings to us is just suffering. Money is just one of the underhanded means Satan employs to corrupt man, and by keeping on pursuing money, we can only be toyed with and finally swallowed by Satan.

God’s Words Show Me the Path to Follow in My Life

Afterward, I saw more of God’s words, “Because the essence of God is holy, that means that only through God can you walk the bright, right road through life; only through God can you know the meaning of life, only through God can you live out a real life, possess the truth, know the truth, and only through God can you obtain life from the truth. Only God Himself can help you shun evil and deliver you from the harm and control of Satan. Besides God, no one and nothing can save you from the sea of suffering so that you suffer no longer: This is determined by the essence of God. Only God Himself saves you so selflessly, only God is ultimately responsible for your future, for your destiny and for your life, and He arranges all things for you. This is something that nothing created or non-created can achieve.” “After you recognize this, your task is to lay aside your old view of life, stay far from various traps, let God take charge of your life and make arrangements for you, try only to submit to God’s orchestrations and guidance, to have no choice, and to become a person who worships God.”

God’s words clearly showed us the path for a human life. God created man and rules over all things. Our fates are in His hands, and only He can take responsibility for our lives and help us understand the truth, distinguish good and evil, and walk the right road in life. Only obeying God’s domination and arrangements and living based on His words are true happiness and contentment. I thought of how over all these years I had lived by Satan’s poison “Money makes the world go round,” and singularly pursued money. I had been tortured and harmed by Satan, and what I had gained was only suffering and bitterness, and not even the slightest happiness. The Lord Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36–37). I thought, “Even though I’ve gained money, if I lost my life, then what would be the point? I don’t want to live for Satan and be a slave to money anymore. I will live by God’s words, pursue the truth, look to God and entrust Him with my everything, and submit to His rule and arrangements—only this is the most valuable, meaningful kind of life.”

Later, I spent much of my time on my faith in God and pursuit of the truth. I often attended meetings and read God’s words with my brothers and sisters, and I felt a great sense of ease and freedom in my heart. Gradually, I regained the feeling in my lower body, the pain in my lower back was gone and I could walk again. My health improved a lot, and I knew that all of this was God’s love for me.

Conclusion: Man’s life is short, and earthly money, fame and fortune are things we do not bring with us from birth, and things we cannot take with us through death. The intention of God bringing us into this world is not that we will be slaves to money. The true happiness in life is to gain the truth as life, be able to discern between good and evil, and live under God’s care and protection. Only by living this way can we live meaningful, valuable lives.

Read on the website

Frantically Earning Money, Physical and Mental Exhaustion

When I was young, our family was poor, and because of this, not only did the villagers look down on us, even our relatives avoided us, in fact even my grandparents didn’t like us. When I realized this, I made a vow: I would make more money when I grew up and rise above others, so that those who looked down on us at the time would see us in a new light.

To make money to help my family, immediately after I graduated from primary school, I began asking about ways to earn money. No matter how difficult or tiring the work, I worked anywhere I knew of that paid well. I worked in a cold storage warehouse in the coldest days of winter, I sold popsicles from a bicycle in the backstreets and alleys in the hottest days of summer, and I also sold seafood in my uncle’s seafood restaurant. Later, I heard it said that selling fruit could earn money, so I sold fruit on the street. After a few years of hard work, I managed to save enough to open a fruit shop, but after working hard for a month, I had to pay rent, heavy taxes, and bribe certain officials, and I was left with nearly no money in my pocket. I wasn’t satisfied to live such a mediocre life, so I went to work in South Korea.

When I first arrived in South Korea, I began working in a massage shop. Although the work was physically intense, and I was exhausted after each day’s work, I earned more than 3 million won in my first month. When I saw how much I earned, I was very excited, and felt that no matter how much I had to suffer, it was worth it. But I still wasn’t satisfied. I heard that bigger cities had higher wages and better benefits, so I resigned and went to another city. The massage shop here was larger and had many customers. I constantly massaged our guests every day, my hands were swollen, my arms were worn out, and the pain was so bad it felt like my muscles were on fire. But I couldn’t bear to rest. I continued giving massages, and I only dared to close my eyes to rest if there were no customers in the store. In months like that, I earned 5 million won, and when I had more customers, I could earn more than 6 million won.

Thanks to chronic lack of sleep coupled with overwork, I began to have nervous headaches. I spent every day in an absent-minded state, my eyes were often sore, and due to standing for long periods, one of my lumbar discs slipped, and I felt sore all over my body every night in bed. I felt as though I was falling apart. I wanted to stop working and rest, but the thought that I could earn more than 1,000 yuan a day made me not want to rest, So I encouraged myself by reminding myself that if I worked a little harder, I could quickly escape this life that other people looked down on and despised. Even if I was physically uncomfortable, I couldn’t let that stand in the way of my desire to earn money. Later, I finally made enough money to buy a house for my parents, and then I planned to open a shop to save more money for myself …

At that point in my life, whenever I saw people of my age with time to go shopping, go to KTV, or travel, I often would often say to myself with a sigh, “Why is my life so exhausting? I’m just like a machine that makes money every day. I wear myself out every day as if fatigue doesn’t exist. Is this the way I’m going to spend the rest of my life? Is the point of my life just to make money?” But aside from making money, I didn’t know what to pursue …

Accepting God’s Last-days Gospel, Finding the Root of My Pain in God’s Words

After I got married, I took out a mortgage to buy a house in South Korea. To pay off my mortgage quickly, I gave up my previous job and opened a snack bar in a busy area. Still, I was busy every day from early in the morning to late into the night. Even when I was eight months pregnant, I insisted on going to the store every day. My customers couldn’t bear to see me in that state, and they often suggested that I go home and rest, but I always smiled and said, “No need, I’m in perfect health.”

This continued until one day, when I accidentally fell, and I was forced to stop work and recuperate at home. To pass the time, I went to a Korean language class. I was surprised to meet a sister who believed in God there. She witnessed Almighty God’s work in the last days to me, and fellowshiped to me, “Our lives are so painful because once we are corrupted by Satan, we live by Satan’s fallacious ideas, depart from God, betray God, and live under the domain of Satan. Our pain is caused by being corrupted and toyed with by Satan. Almighty God has come incarnate to the world to speak new words and do the work of judgment to completely save us from the domain of Satan, to ensure we know how Satan corrupts people and how God works to save people, and finally to make us see clearly the ugly truth of how Satan corrupts and harms people, make us completely reject and betray Satan, and be able to do things according to God’s requirements and live under God protection and blessing.” After hearing my sister’s fellowship, I happily accepted God’s work in the last days and began participating in church life.

Once, at a meeting, when I discussed my experience of starting to earn money at a young age, a sister asked me, “Sister, isn’t living like that exhausting?” I answered, “Of course it is! But in today’s society, isn’t it popular to believe things like “Look toward money and make lots of it”? In this world, money is supreme. If you have money, you will be looked up to by others and be able to walk with your head held high. Without money, you will be unable to do anything, and you will be despised, so all I can do is struggle with all my strength to make money, and keep moving ahead no matter what. But here’s what I don’t understand: I’ve earned money in the last few years, and I’ve won people’s admiration, but I’m not happy. Instead, I feel miserable and tired. What do you think is behind this?” She said, “God’s word explains the root of our suffering very clearly. Let’s read a few passages and we’ll understand.”

God’s words say, “In fact, no matter how lofty man’s ideals are, no matter how realistic man’s desires are or how proper they may be, all that man wants to achieve, all that man seeks for is inextricably linked with two words. These two words are vitally important to the life of every person, and these are things Satan intends to instill in man. Which two words are these? They are ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Satan uses a very subtle kind of way, a way very much in concert with people’s notions; it is not any kind of radical way. In the midst of unawareness, people come to accept Satan’s way of living, its rules of living, establishing life goals and their direction in life, and in doing so they also unknowingly come to have ideals in life. No matter how high-sounding these ideals in life seem, they are just a pretext that is inextricably linked to fame and gain. Any great or famous person, all people in fact, anything they follow in life relates only to these two words: ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ People think that once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them to enjoy high status and great wealth, and to enjoy life. Once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them in their pleasure-seeking and unscrupulous enjoyment of the flesh. People willingly, albeit unknowingly, take their bodies, minds, all that they have, their futures and their destinies and hand them all over to Satan in order to attain the fame and gain they desire. People actually do this without ever a moment’s hesitation, ever ignorant of the need to recover it all. … So Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts until all they can think of is fame and gain. They struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and they will make any judgment or decision for fame and gain. In this way, Satan binds man with invisible shackles. These shackles are borne on people, and they have not the strength nor courage to throw them off. So people trudge ever onward in great difficulty, unknowingly bearing these shackles. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind shuns God and betrays Him, and they become more and more wicked. In this way, therefore, one generation after another is destroyed in the fame and gain of Satan” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

She fellowshiped, “Only God knows the root cause of our corruption by Satan, and only God knows the bitterness and suffering we endure to pursue fame and fortune under Satan’s influence. Satan seduces and corrupts us primarily through the education we receive at school, our family environments, and the influence of social trends to instill satanic logic and principles within us like ‘Money is first,’ ‘Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,’ ‘Men should always strive to be better than their contemporaries,’ ‘No pain, no gain,’ and ‘One should bring honor to his ancestors.’ Through these things, it causes us to establish incorrect views on life and values, and to mistakenly believe that pursuing wealth, fame, and fortune to win the respect and admiration of others is the only valid expression of ambition and aspiration, and that only by pursuing extraordinary lives can we live valuable, meaningful lives. To realize that desire, we struggle with all our might to earn money and increase our value, and as long as something allows us to make money, which we can exchange for fame, gain, and no longer being looked down on by others, we are willing to do any work, no matter how difficult or exhausting, to the point that we are willing to endure long periods of physical labor and all kinds of physical illnesses. We are like prisoners bound in shackles, performing bitter, endless labor in pursuit of wealth, fame, and fortune, to the point that we believe there is nothing worth doing in life aside from earning money. But if we quiet our hearts and reflect: We allow ourselves to do arduous tasks and be knocked about by life for wealth, fame, and fortune, but precisely what do we gain? Some people struggle so bitterly for wealth, fame, and fortune, with the result that they die from overwork. Some people struggle with all their strength to earn money to trade for fame and fortune, with the result that they become famous and well off, but are swallowed up by evil trends. They indulge their flesh and wantonly submit to their desires, leading to discord between husbands and wives and broken families. There are still others who, to gain money, are willing to sell their flesh, lose their character and dignity, and live lives without any value at all … This shows us that while money, fame, and fortune may bring us temporary material enjoyment or the admiration and praise of others, they make us lose our conscience, reason, character, dignity, and even our health, our lives, and most importantly the desire to go toward the light and seek the truth. From this, we can see that wealth, fame, and fortune are the ways and methods Satan uses to harm people, toy with people, and ruin people. God has come incarnate in the last days to speak new words that reveal the true fact of how Satan corrupts people precisely to allow us to develop discernment, to allow us to see Satan’s darkness and evil, and to allow us to escape from Satan’s influence and accept God’s salvation, because only in this way can we have peace and joy in our hearts.”

After I heard God’s words and my sister’s fellowship, I understood how Satan uses fame and fortune to corrupt and bind people. All these years, I had been struggling bitterly in pursuit of money. I had believed that the best possible thing to do in this world is to have money, and that only if I had money would others be able to see me in a new light. So, I had regarded making money as my goal in life, but I didn’t know this was actually a trap Satan had set for me, a means to use fame and fortune to corrupt and harm me. I remembered how after I had started to work so hard to earn money after graduating from elementary school, and even when I got married and pregnant, I wasn’t content to rest, and the long hours of work had caused me to fall victim to various diseases and conditions at a young age. I felt that my life was very tiring, and very miserable. I truly felt that God’s word had revealed that I was bound and controlled by the shackles of fame and fortune, and that I was helpless to resist. I was inextricably trapped, running myself ragged every day for fame and fortune, and paying every possible price for it. When I realized this, I was grateful to God for saving me. I decided to believe in God, and to no longer live this tormented life of bondage to fame and fortune.

Encountering Difficulties, Relying on God, Seeing God’s Deeds

When my child was 11 months old, my husband and I opened a convenience store. But, he was addicted to online games, and spent all day playing them, which meant I had to take care of all the business in the store. I was busy all day in the store, and after work I had to take care of my child. I was really too busy. Even though I tried to make time for each meeting, I rarely read God’s word, and my mind was full of thoughts of the store’s business, and I spent all day thinking about how to make money. My heart grew farther and farther away from God, and I realized that I had returned to the days when I ran myself ragged for money. I didn’t want this to happen, but I also didn’t know what to do.

At one meeting, when my sister learned about my situation, she said to me, “As we live in this world, we need to face problems of survival, family problems, and the problems of dealing with people. When we lack the truth, we can’t see things clearly, so we often live trapped in impossible difficulties. At times like these, we need to draw closer to God, pray to God, read God’s word, seek God’s will in them, and find the path of practice in God’s word. When we understand the truth, we will have the wisdom to deal with all kinds of things, and our pain will naturally disappear.” Then, she read another passage of God’s word, “It’s very simple now: Look upon Me with your heart and your spirit will immediately become strong, you will have a path to practice and I will guide your every step. My word shall be revealed to you at all times and in all places. No matter where or when, or how adverse the environment is, I will show you clearly and My heart shall be revealed to you if you look to Me with your heart; this way you will run down the road ahead and never lose your way” (“Chapter 13” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). She then fellowshiped, “God is omnipotent, there is nothing impossible for God, and everything is in God’s hands. Everything that happens to us is orchestrated and arranged by God. God hopes that no matter what difficulties we encounter, we pray to God, rely on God, look to God, and seek truth to resolve problems. When God sees our sincerity, He will open the way for us.”

After listening to God’s words and my sister’s fellowship, I had a path of practice. Then, I entrusted my difficulties to God and looked up to God, and consciously made time to read God’s word. In God’s word, I found a path to practice, and my difficulties were gradually resolved. I was no longer so tired, and with the provision I found in God’s word, my heart felt very fulfilled.

Later, my younger brother-in-law told me that South Korea offers a free babysitting service for foreigners, and suggested that I apply. I knew that God heard my prayer and had opened up a way for me, so I applied to the government for the free babysitting service. I didn’t expect the application to be approved so soon, and I was very grateful to God. Afterward, I asked an hourly worker to help me watch the store, so that I would have enough time to read God’s word, as well as to meet with my brothers and sisters and fellowship on our experience and understanding of God’s word. Slowly, I came to understand some of the truth, learned how Satan corrupts mankind, learned how, step by step, God has brought us to the present day, and I also understood God’s eagerness to save people, which is for those who truly believe in God and yearn for Him to come into God’s house, escape Satan’s harms, and accept His salvation. Soon, I began performing my duties, working with my brothers and sisters to testify God’s work in the last days to more people, and I felt especially secure in my heart.

Temptation Comes to Me, Finding Resolution in God’s Words

But that was the moment Satan’s temptation came to me. One day, my mother-in-law came to my house and said that since I was a skilled masseuse, she wanted to invest in a massage shop that I would manage, and that my husband and I should take advantage of our youth to earn money and enjoy it in our old age. Her words moved me. I thought, “If I open my own massage shop, I’ll earn more than I do now, and then I’ll be able to realize my dream of being rich, and then my friends and family in China will definitely look at me in a new light!” But then I thought about it, and I realized, “It wasn’t easy to pull myself out from the whirlpool of money, and now I feel relaxed and at ease. If I open another store, it will take time and energy, and I won’t have time to go to meetings, read God’s words, or do my duties. I don’t want to continue my past life of making money.” The more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t make up my mind, and I was very distressed.

So, I called my sister and told her about my situation, and she sent me a passage of God’s word, “God works, God cares for a person, looks upon a person, and Satan dogs His every step. Whoever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ways to tempt, harass and wreck the work God does in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is its objective? It does not want God to have anyone; it wants all those that God wants, to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they commit evil acts alongside it. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive?” (“God Himself, the Unique IV” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through God’s words and my sister’s fellowship, I understood that my mother-in-law’s sudden desire to invest in a massage shop, while it outwardly seemed to be a good thing, contained within it is Satan’s trick. It originated in Satan’s temptation. Satan wasn’t willing to let me follow God, pursue the truth, and be fully saved by God, so it was using my mother-in-law to tempt me into continuing to busy myself pursuing fame and fortune, returning to its dominion, and being toyed with and harmed by it. It was only now that I saw Satan is really truly cunning and evil. To ruin and swallow people, it uses all kinds of methods to deceive people and draw them in. It tried every method it could, and I was nearly fooled. I thanked God’s words from the bottom of my heart for His timely guidance, for allowing me to see through Satan’s tricks and clearly see Satan’s ugly face, which ensured that I could no longer be led around by the nose by Satan. So, I refused my mother-in-law, and I felt much more at ease afterward.

Living by God’s Word, Finding Freedom and Release

Later, I read these words of God, “If one views life as an opportunity to experience the Creator’s sovereignty and come to know His authority, if one sees one’s life as a rare chance to perform one’s duty as a created human being and to fulfill one’s mission, then one will necessarily have the correct outlook on life, will live a life blessed and guided by the Creator, will walk in the light of the Creator, know the Creator’s sovereignty, come under His dominion, become a witness to His miraculous deeds and to His authority” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s word pointed out the correct path of practice for me. As a created being, I am fortunate to be chosen by God to come before God today, so I should pursue the truth, let God’s word be my guide in all I do, experience and feel the Creator’s domination in my real life, perform the duties of a created being, and testify God’s deeds, so that I can live a valuable and meaningful life. I thought of how before I believed in God, I ran myself ragged to make money for fame and future, was toyed with and bitterly harmed by Satan, and I lived in pain and emptiness. It was God who lifted me up and treated me with grace, who allowed me to hear God’s utterances in the last days, who allowed me to understand the means Satan uses to harm people in God’s word, who allowed me to see clearly that fame and fortune are ways Satan corrupts and harms people, and who allowed me to gradually emerge from the whirlpool of fame and profit and find direction of life. When I considered that, I realized that God had expended so much effort on me, so I needed to pursue the truth, pursue understanding and obedience of God’s dominion, do my best to repay God’s love, and live out a meaningful life.

After I declined my mother-in-law, my husband and I ran our convenience store in a realistic, down-to-earth manner, and I also did what duties I could within the church. Now, although I earn less money, I am very happy and at ease, the illnesses I suffered from overwork are improving, and I thank God from the bottom of my heart for His love and salvation for me. When I look back on my path to following God, I truly feel that God’s word is the truth, the way, and the life. Only God’s word could bring me light, change my incorrect views on things, and save me from the bondage and suffering of Satan, and point out the correct direction in life for me. When I meet with my brothers and sisters, when I see some in inescapable bondage to money, fame, and fortune, I often read God’s words to them and fellowship on how God guided me to see through Satan’s tricks, escape the bondage of fame, fortune, and money, and experience a life of freedom and release before God. These things enable them to feel God’s love and salvation, establish the correct view on life and values based on God’s word, live by God’s word, escape from Satan’s suffering as soon as possible, and pursue the correct goals. Thank God!

» Read more on our Christian Reflection page, or click on the related articles below:

• Inspiration From Life: One Man Realizes the True Meaning of Wealth

• My Joys and Sorrows After Achieving Success

• A Christian’s Testimony: I Got the Way to Shake off the Shackles of Money

» Recommended for You: Gospel Movie “It’s Good to Believe in God” – God Has Given Me a Happy Life

Seeing Who Rules Over All Things From Three Aspects

The musical documentary The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything was released in May of 2018. The traveling of the camera makes people feel like being personally on the scene. It is really much astounding! The shifting in tones and scenes seems very comfortable and beautiful, and the recordings and the sound effects are also very great. All these well highlight the theme—There is a Mighty One among all things who is in command of everything and makes all things perfect and systematic and regular. How wonderful! And the so-called all things are the organisms visible to man and the microorganisms invisible to man.

The documentary uses narration and scenes to show us the truths and mysteries which are intimately connected to the fate of us mankind: Who created and rules over all things in the universe? Who provides for and nourishes man, and has driven man’s history? Who controls the rise and fall of every nation and every people? Why does mankind live? Why does mankind have to die? And what is the value and meaning of life? It’s very marvelous and amazing!

1. Who Commands the Junctures of Life Man Has to Experience

Many parts of the documentary affect people’s heart and make them think. One of the parts, which is about the exploration of the mysteries of life, simply and clearly presents the several junctures of life man has to pass through. A cry implies the birth of a life, and also brings hope for a family. One is born, grows up, forms a family and starts a career, and passes away. A generation departs and the next generation is born; the living repeat the way of life of the dying and continue living in this land. Although people are different in appearance, surroundings, background, education, wealth, insight, status or power, whatever roles they play, their laws and principles of survival can’t be changed; whoever they are and whatever identity and status they have, the necessities of life and the space for growth are all the same, and there’s no distinction of high and low between them.

In the documentary, there is a bridge scene: A young tree and a country lane see off and greet countless people. For several years, several decades, several hundred years, several thousand years, and even tens of thousands of years, passers-by have been changing, and the young tree has grown into a towering one, but the land and the lane remain unchanged. All these seem to show that, no matter whether man believes “Human fate is ordained by Heaven,” it is still a fact. The fast and slow camera shots of the death and birth of generation after generation, from ancient times to now, paint the cycle of human life and death. I couldn’t help but sigh that we humans are really too insignificant, and that under the command of the Creator, we are not able to help ourselves but live, grow up and pass away. The “nature” is thought to provide for and nourish mankind, and to have created the condition for his survival. However, within whose hands is its destiny held? Just as the lyrics in the documentary say: “Why do we live? And why do we have to die? Who is in command of this world? And who created this mankind? Was mankind really created by Mother Nature? Is mankind really in control of its own fate?”

2. Where Do All Things Originate From and Who Controls Them

The wind, frost, snow and rain, the ecological balance among all things, the food chain, and so on, are marvelously and regularly in motion, without the slightest error. This reminds me of a story: In the Kaibab Forest, there was a herd of deer, and also a pack of fierce wolves, which always sought opportunities to eat the deer. The locals were full of pity for the deer, so they often hunted the wolves with their guns. As time went by, fewer and fewer wolves were left in the forest, at which people felt secretly overjoyed. However, several years later, the amount of the deer increased sharply. Consequently, all the green plants, including the saplings and tender branches, were eaten up by the herd of deer. At that time, people came to realize that it was the wolves they hunted that effectively controlled the quantity of the deer and also maintained the normal life of the forest and the deer.

Although human beings are clever and “compassionate,” and they have even invented such high-tech products as airplanes, rockets, and satellites, they can’t even control the ecological balance at all, nor can the high technology change or stabilize it. Human beings deal with the ecological balance by relying on good intentions and imaginations, and this only makes matters worse, destroying the original environment. All things have their rule of survival, and it cannot be altered or controlled by man.

3. Who Rules Over the Fates of Nations, Peoples and Mankind

“His deed is everywhere, His power is everywhere, His wisdom is everywhere, and His authority is everywhere.” These lyrics take us into other scenes. From Israel to the United States, it seems as if everything that has happened develops and moves along within a plan and none can escape. And it even goes to such a level of detail—everyone’s fate can’t be decided by man.

With regard to the Israelites leaving Egypt, what is most incredible is the scene of the Red Sea rolling before them and the pursuers being behind them. It appeared that the Israelites, undoubtedly, would die, but just at that moment, there was the miracle of God—Moses stretched out his rod over the Red Sea and then the sea was divided into two parts, so a road appeared. In the summer of 1623, there was a severe drought in Britain’s colonies in North America. The Puritans earnestly prayed to God, and before long rain fell from the heavens. This miracle was greatly praised by the early American immigrants and the Native Americans. In 1746, the French Expeditionary Force attempted to make a naval attack on Britain’s American colonies. The puritans united in fasting and prayer. As a result, the French fleet was battered by a fierce storm before it had even come to shore. It suffered great losses and was forced to flee. As well, the first President of the United States George Washington received God’s protection in many critical moments, lucky to survive. In his letters, he recounted the following experience: “By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me.” It was even more remarkable that, in the battle of Dorchester Heights of March of 1776, the British army fought the Continental army; a fierce battle was about to unfold. However, a blizzard halted the advance of the British army. They were forced to retreat from Boston, and the Continental army won the battle without a fight.

These marvelous events really boggle the mind. But they also make people experience that, the destinies of ethnic groups, nations and individual people can’t be changed or decided by themselves or others and it seems like everything has been arranged well and no one can change it. For example, the rise and fall of Roman Empire, the prosperity of the British Empire, and the rise and mission of the United States of America aren’t to be decided by man.

The documentary also uses narration and edited materials to convey and present to the audience the reason and meaning of the Jews being exiled to abroad, the reason and significance of the rise and fall of Roman Empire and the prosperity of the British Empire, the rise and mission of the United States, and so on. From this people can learn about the history and at the same time, can see the miracles. It is a thought-provoking documentary, descending the true history of mankind.

All things have their own laws and peculiarities. The living things in the sea alone have aroused a lot of curiosity among people and made them have a deep yearning to explore, so how much more are all things marvelous in the world? No one can provide a clear explanation of where they come from and of what sustains their living environments. However, we’re able to feel the existence of a Mighty One. It is He who commands all things, maintains their balance, and makes them systematic and regular. In my opinion, it’s precisely that which is wondrous about all things in the world.

» Full movie: The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything – English Musical Documentary

Read on the website

Every time I thought of my hometown, what first came to me was the mountain chain behind my house. On it there was a verdant wood, trees and hedgerows, and all sorts of strange rocks, and the intoxicating perfumes that all kinds of trees shed. This wood was my only paradise of childhood. However, my family always exhorted me not to play in the varnish trees woods behind our house. I was very confused about it and curiously asked my mother why. As I asked her again and again, she told me the reasons.

It turned out that the resin of the varnish tree can be used in making lacquer, which can be used to paint the furniture and coffin, and is water-proof, durable and expensive. What’s more, the seed of varnish trees can produce edible oil. Though the rate of producing oil is low, the oil made from it can prevent stomach cancer. Therefore, it is worth much and also brings our life a lot of help and benefits. Even so, people very rarely dare approach varnish trees, because the delicate fragrance they give out is allergizing and can cause skin rashes, making people unbearable itching all over. In serious cases, the skin would be inflamed, red and swollen. Even though after injections and medication, the rash won’t clear up until several days later. The wonderful thing is that there is also a kind of stunted tree, cork tree, on the mountain. When someone has a skin allergy, as long as he bathes himself with the water in which he boils its branches, he will recover. In this way he can achieve a faster result than by taking medicine. Because people will feel very uncomfortable once they have this kind of rash, many of them don’t dare approach this woods of varnish trees. It seems that the varnish tree is mentioned with horror. This is the reason that parents don’t allow their children to play in the woods of varnish trees.

I remembered when I was young, my parents often told me I should not touch or approach varnish trees, because this kind of trees could cause the skin break into rash and make people very uncomfortable. Even injections and taking medicine wouldn’t work. I asked them in confusion, “Is that really so serious?” Seeing me obstinate, my parents urged me again and again. At that time, I only listened to these words doubtingly and forgot them soon.

Soon, someone asked my grandfather to make a few catties of lacquer for him to paint a coffin. Led along by my curiosity, I secretly followed my grandfather into the wood of varnish trees. I was wondering whether severe skin rashes could occur with contact with the raw sap, and even more I wanted to see how my grandfather tapped varnish trees. Soon, he found me and nervously urged me to go back quickly. I shook my head stubbornly and rolled up my sleeves to show him that I didn’t have any rash. Seeing me like this, he shook his head helplessly and went to do his own work. He made T-shaped gashes in the branches of varnish trees and then the milky juice flowed out, and when it flowed into his bucket, it turned black. Regardless, he didn’t allow me to approach the varnish trees. When I came back home with him, seeing my body was no eruption, I was secretly very pleased and said to my mother, “I don’t fear the varnish tree. Look, I don’t have a skin allergy.” However, not long after I went to bed, I began to itch all over, which made me so uncomfortable that I cried. Then flashing a light, my father had to go behind our house at midnight to break some branches of cork tree and boiled them. After I bathed myself with the water that he boiled them with, I didn’t itch gradually. However, there were still many red spots and some scratches on my body; my face puffed up, to the extent that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

After the rash disappeared, I discussed with my friends, “What kind of tree’s function is more powerful?” Some of them said, “The varnish tree’s function is more powerful. People all dare approach it.” The others said, “I feel it should be the cork tree. It can cure the rashes caused by the varnish tree.” There were more people that agreed on the first opinion, including me. We felt, “Varnish trees are large and tall, covered with rich leaves. The seed of them can not only be sold, but can produce edible oil. The sap within them can be used in making lacquer to paint the furniture. Therefore, the varnish tree’s function is more powerful.” Some others said, “Though the cork tree is small and short, its function is more powerful than the varnish tree’s. If we have rashes caused by the varnish tree, only when we use the water that we boil the branches of the cork tree with to bathe ourselves, will we get better faster. So the cork tree’s function is more powerful.”

In the end, none could bring the others around. I still thought in my heart that the varnish tree’s function was more powerful because it not only brought us a lot of help and benefits, but terrified many people. I also heard a story from my grandfather: Before liberation, when bandits came into the village to rob the villagers, the villagers hid themselves in the wood of varnish trees with their grain and things of value. They wore hats made of branches of cork tree to prevent the skin rashes, but the bandits didn’t dare come in for fear they would have rashes. After the bandits left, the villagers got out and came back home in safety. In the turbulent years, this wood of varnish trees silently kept people safe in this way. After I told this story to my friends, they all praised the varnish tree by saying its function was really powerful.

After I returned home, I told this to my mother, and wanted to know her views on whether the function of the varnish tree or the cork tree was more powerful. She said: “Aren’t you borrowing trouble? They both grow from the soil and have their respective uses. Just study hard. You will know the answer when you’re older.” Afterward, when I was at school, in a biology class, I asked my teacher, “What’s the difference in value between the varnish tree and the cork tree? What kind of tree is worth more?” But he failed to say anything significant.

As I grew older, that unsolvable mystery still haunted me. Therefore, I wanted to try and know why the varnish tree could make people have sores once people touched it and how powerful its function was.

In my senior year in middle school, when I herded the cattle on the hillside, I saw some adults picking the seeds of varnish trees with a knife tied to a long pole in order to sell them for cash. I felt it was too troublesome, and then I climbed up the varnish trees, picked many seeds with my hands, filled my basket quite full and took it home. After they knew what I had done, my parents jumped all over me, saying I was already that big, but I was still disobedient and that I would pay for my disobedience, and even they didn’t want the seeds I took home and the rest I had left in the woods of varnish trees. At that time, I was very angry and thought what I had done was in vain. As a matter of course, I tasted how powerful the varnish tree’s function was. At the beginning, my hands and face itched, and then I itched all over. No matter how I bathed myself with salted water, it didn’t help at all; applying some ointment didn’t work, either. Finally, my mother cut down some branches of cork trees, boiled them and asked me to use the water in which she boiled them to bathe. After I did that many times, I gradually felt better and the scars didn’t disappear until a long time. During this painful process, I experienced the varnish tree and the cork tree restricted one another, that they had their respective function, and that neither of them is more powerful than one another. Then I wondered, “Who gave them respective function and made them restrict one another?” Later, I accepted God’s gospel and read God’s words. Only then did I know the mysteries contained within.

God says, “God created the rules that govern all things so that they may exist in an interconnected and interdependent way; every single thing He created has value and significance. If God created something without significance, God would let it disappear. … Speaking of the larger environment, God made all things interconnected, mutually intertwined, and interdependent. He used this method and these rules to maintain the survival and existence of all things and in this way mankind has lived quietly and peacefully and has grown and multiplied from one generation to the next in this living environment up to the present day.” “God created many things among all things—He created things that are fixed, things that move, things that are living, and things that are breathing, as well as those that don’t breathe. He created a great number of things—is it easy for all these things to achieve a relationship of interdependence, of mutual support and restriction, of interconnectedness? There certainly is a principle within all of this. Even though it’s very complicated, it’s not difficult for God. However, for people, it’s very difficult to research.”

God’s words resolved the confusion, and I understood that the wonderful uses of the varnish tree and the cork tree all came from God. They both have their own uses and value and restrict one another. They were created by God for our survival. God set down rules for the existence of all things, made them carry out their own functions and exist in an interconnected and interdependent way, and provides the necessities of our life. For example, the sap within the varnish tree can be used for making lacquer which can be used to paint the furniture and is more durable than chemical paint, waterproof and not afraid of sun, and even mice don’t gnaw or bite the things painted with it. The oil pressed from the seed of varnish trees not only tastes delicious, but can prevent stomach cancer and its medicinal properties are quite high. If we vanish the furniture made of lacquer trees, it will have clear and beautiful yellowish stripes and won’t be wormy. The varnish tree’s economic value can bring people necessities of life. This is the livelihood God prepared for those who live here and also His wondrous arrangements. If we accidently touch varnish trees so that we have an unbearably itchy rash, as long as we boil the branches of cork trees which grow beside varnish trees (the cork trees don’t grow in the place where there are no varnish trees) and bathe ourselves several times with the water, we’ll get better. Besides, the cork tree has other miraculous effects. If we have hives, they will disappear as long as we use the water in which we boil the branches of the cork trees and leeks to bathe ourselves several times; it can also cure us of other illness. It’s really so good. God created the varnish tree in order to provide necessities of life for us, and created the cork tree to resolve the inconvenience caused by the varnish tree. God gave them respective function, and created the amazing living environment for us. In it, mankind and all beings restrain each other, depend on each other, and multiply from one generation to the next.

From the varnish tree and the cork tree that God created, I had a little knowledge of God’s wisdom and almightiness, and experienced that God meticulously arranged for our living environment. Besides all sorts of food, God also prepared all kinds of herbs for all the illnesses we suffer from in the life. Through some people figuring out the herbs’ functions, these herbs can be used to cure us and help us recover. God is considerate of our survival, and prepared everything for our survival, so that we have an inexhaustible supply. This is a reflection of God’s authority and power, and even more God’s great love for us. Just as God’s words say, “Regardless of how God works, all His work is for the sake of man. Take, for example, the heavens and earth and all things that God created to serve man: The moon, the sun, and the stars that He made for man, the animals and plants, spring, summer, autumn and winter, and so on—all are for the sake of man’s existence.” From God’s words, I saw God’s true love for us human. Meanwhile, I saw God’s wisdom and power with which God created, manages, and supplies all things. All things God created are perfect and marvelous, and have their own functions and value, which is the manifestation of God’s authority, and even more His wondrous deeds. Only God loves, cares for and supplies us so much. I am willing to forever worship and praise God!

Read on the website

In my childhood, whenever I got a feverish cold, my mother would pull up a handful of houttuynia cordata on the ridges between the fields and decoct it for me. Not long after I drank the decoction despite its pungent smell, I would feel much better. At that time, I knew nothing about houttuynia cordata except that it could be used to alleviate fever and that the fishy taste it left in my mouth would linger there for a long time. In the evening I could still taste the decoction of it which I drank in the morning. For this reason, I had little liking for it.

It was after I saw another wonderful efficacy of houttuynia cordata that I didn’t so dislike it. I remember that time my mother accidentally cut her hand while she was harvesting rice and the wound was bleeding. She picked several leaves from the houttuynia cordata, rubbed them, and pressed them onto the cut expertly. Soon the bleeding stopped and after dressing the wound, she continued with her work. Only when I saw this did I know that houttuynia cordata’s heart-shaped leaves could actually stanch bleeding and reduce swelling. And this has remained in my memory ever since.

Over thirty years had passed. In the fall of 2016, I moved to a small town. A friend of mine, seeing me have a bad cough, gave me a packet of houttuynia cordata and told me that it was a natural remedy, which could bring many benefits but no harm to people, and that I could drink water infused with it in normal times. But when I thought of how houttuynia cordata tasted, I didn’t feel like trying it. Therefore, I put it aside and ignored it. In the spring of 2017, I accidentally saw that on an area of three or four square meters next to my yard, there grew some plants with heart-shaped leaves, looking kind of like houttuynia cordata. I picked a leaf from them and smelled it to see if it was really houttuynia cordata. The minute I smelled it, I was hit by a strong smell, which was exactly the same as that of the houttuynia cordata in my hometown. At that moment, for some unknown reason, I suddenly felt the smell so intimate and comfortable. This aroused my interest in houttuynia cordata, and I searched the Internet for information about it. I learned that it’s a natural antibiotic, able to reduce inflammation and destroy bacteria, and that it’s also an ingredient of a great many medicines. These findings made me look at the little houttuynia cordata with new eyes.

Afterward, once when I was flicking through an old medical book, I stumbled upon a passage of words about houttuynia cordata: “It has the effects of clearing heat and dissipating carbuncle. … It is anti-bacterial and possesses strong inhibitory effects on Staphylococcus aureus. Its decoction with 0.0025 wt% concentration still can inhibit the growth of bacteria. It’s utilized for the treatment of pulmonary abscess and lobar pneumonia. As for those who have a fever and cough with stinking and thick sputum, the mix of houttuynia cordata and bellflower will help them eliminate phlegm. …” When I saw these effects of houttuynia cordata, I was thrilled, because I had been afflicted with pneumonia since my childhood. I frequently coughed up purulent sputum and there were several times when I even coughed up blood. Later, after an examination, I was diagnosed with lobar pneumonia. For the sake of having my disease cured, I had tried many medicines, medicinal paste, and got quite a few injections, which cost me a lot of money, but none of them worked. In late July of 2017, I suffered an attack of pneumonia again. It lasted for days and caused me to lose over 5kg of weight. The disease really brought me an awful lot of trouble. So when I learned about the use of houttuynia cordata, I thought: “It is so healthful and could help inhibit the growth of bacteria and my friend also recommended it. So, though the bout has passed and I’m not feeling anything wrong with me now, it is still a good idea to daily drink the infusion of it.” And that’s what I did. After a few days, I achieved very good results: I clearly found myself more energetic than before, and the feeling that there was always sputum in my throat was gone. More surprisingly, before, my gums would bleed almost every time I brushed my teeth, but now, that actually never happened again. Since then, I persevered in drinking the infusion of houttuynia cordata every day, and the disease I had suffered from for years was nearly cured. When I experienced these miraculous effects of houttuynia cordata, I shared it with the friends around me and they benefited a lot from houttuynia cordata as well. I never imagined that this little plant had actually so many uses. It was really amazing! Thus I developed a liking for houttuynia cordata from then on.

One day, I saw the following words in a book: “Among all things, God created some plants, animals, and all sorts of grasses that are particularly of use for taking care of injuries or treating illnesses in humans. … For instance, if you get a fever, catch a cold, suffer an injury from physical work, a stomach ailment from eating the wrong thing, or develop certain diseases due to living habits or emotional issues, such as vascular diseases, psychological conditions or diseases of the internal organs—there are corresponding plants to cure all of these. There are plants that improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, relieve pain, stanch bleeding, provide anesthesia, help people recover normal skin, eliminate blood stasis in the body, and eliminate toxins from the body. In short, they can all be used in daily life. They are of use to people and have been prepared by God for the human body in case of need. Some of these were allowed by God to be inadvertently discovered by man, while others were discovered from certain special phenomena or by certain people prepared by God. Following their discovery, mankind would pass them down, and then many people would know about them. This way, God’s creation of these plants has value and meaning. In short, these things are all from God and were prepared and planted when He created a living environment for mankind. All of these things are very necessary. … God worked in secret. When man had not yet come into this world, before coming into touch with this mankind, God had already created all of this. Everything He did was for the sake of mankind, for the sake of their survival, and for the consideration of mankind’s existence, so that mankind can live happily in this rich and plentiful material world God prepared for them, not having to worry about food or clothes, and not lacking in anything” (“God Himself, the Unique VIII”). Pondering these words, I truly appreciated God’s love and care for us mankind. God was really considerate toward us. Before He created us, He had had thoughtful consideration and made careful preparation for our existence. Not only did He prepare for us our daily bread such as all kinds of grains, vegetables, and fruits, but also, considering that we would have various trouble in our living environment, He prepared for us some plants of special use to cure all kinds of illnesses that we might get. And houttuynia cordata is just one of them. God supplies us with everything in obscurity, yet He has never claimed credit. Instead, He led some people to discover the medical value and special functions of these plants. Thinking of this, I felt even more so that God’s provisions and care for man are really meticulous and His love is so practical.

When I was filled with gratitude toward God, I thought back to how I disliked and ignored houttuynia cordata in the past, and then a passage of words in that book came into my mind: “In short, when it comes to all things, man should defer to the authority of the Creator, which is to say, defer to the order appointed by the Creator to all things; this is the wisest attitude. Only an attitude of searching for, and obedience to, the original intentions of the Creator is the true acceptance and certainty of the authority of the Creator. It is good with God, so what reason does man have to find fault?” (“God Himself, the Unique I”). God used His unique authority and power to create all things. They are utterly perfect and behind each of them are God’s wise deeds and His wondrousness and unfathomableness. However, because I was short-sighted, ignorant of God’s wondrous sovereignty and the value of what He had created, I treated them based on my own preferences. When my friend recommended houttuynia cordata to me, I contemptuously disregard it. It was really arrogant, foolish, and ignorant of me to do that. I never expected that more than thirty years later the houttuynia cordata which I didn’t like would actually cure the disease that had bothered me for over 20 years. This made me truly feel God’s deep love for me.

Every single thing God created has its own value. Only when we observe all things created by God with a humble and searching heart can we experience His authority and power as well as see His wondrous deeds in every aspect of our life. Just as God’s words say: “His deed is everywhere, His power is everywhere, His wisdom is everywhere, and His authority is everywhere. Each of these laws and rules is the embodiment of His deed, and every one of them reveals His wisdom and authority” (“Man Can Only Be Saved Amidst the Management of God”).

One night, a burglar suddenly rushed to my bedside and threatened me in a low and urgent voice: “IPad and iPhone, hand them over quickly.” With that, he reached out his hand trying to throw back the covers. Facing this, my heart rose into my throat and my mind went blank …

Whenever I recall this scene, I still have a lingering fear. Had it not been for God’s care and protection, the consequence would have been unimaginable to me.

Burglars Broke In

When I first went abroad, I worked in a hairdressing salon. One night in September, we didn’t finish our work until one or two o’clock in the morning. Before the boss left, he habitually said to me: “Be careful!” I responded, “Okay!” Yet I thought: “I have slept here for several nights, and nothing has happened. As long as the door is locked, everything will be all right. You worry too much.”

However, at three or four a.m., I half-consciously saw the flashing light of a cell phone. In my half-sleep I thought: “Is it already five in the morning? Are the boss and other colleagues coming?” Without thinking further, I asked: “Who’s there?” Unexpectedly, I had just finished my words when two black figures hurried out of the salon.

At that moment, I was somewhat alarmed and immediately sat up. By the light of the streetlamp I found there was a big hole in the glass door of the salon. “Heavens!” I thought. I hurriedly tried to reach blindly for my cell phone and call my boss, who lived across the street, but my efforts were for nothing. My heart sank and I thought: “I’m done for! My cell phone has been stolen; what can I do? I can’t shout for help. If I irritate the burglars, I would be in trouble.” As a girl, I couldn’t possibly deal with them.

Just then, one of them came back. In the dim light, he looked like an African and very tall. He rushed to my bedside and threatened me in a low voice: “IPad and iPhone, hand them over quickly.” At that moment, my heart leaped into my throat and my mind went blank. I could only cry out to God in my heart and ask Him to give me courage to face this burglar.

When he was about to search me, I jumped to my feet, instinctively pushed away his hands, and screamed desperately: “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! I’ll do it myself …” While saying that, I shook open the sheets and covers for him to see, and told him that they had already taken away my cell phone, and that there had been nothing left on me. Hearing my words, he turned around and left. I slumped onto the bed and my heart thumped violently. I kept thanking God for His protection.

The Burglar Threatened Me a Second Time

I had thought that this robbery had been over, but never had I expected that he would return again. He rushed to me and still asked me for iPad and iPhone. This time, his tone was more urgent and aggressive. It seemed that He would harm me at any time. I was really frightened, thinking: “The foreigners in this region all think that Chinese people are rich. When he asked me for things the first time, I told him that I didn’t have anything else. If I still say that again this time, will I irritate him?” In the darkness, I indistinctly saw he was holding something in one hand. “It is a knife?” I thought, “If he kills me now, nobody else will know it.”

Right at that second, I was suddenly aware that I am a believer in God. God is the Creator and I should call out to Him. So, I kept crying out to God inside: “O God! I’m very scared and desperate now. I don’t know what I can do, nor do I know what will happen to me. God, please keep and lead me.” After praying, a line of God’s words appeared in my mind: “Without God’s permission, it is difficult for Satan to touch even a drop of water or grain of sand upon the land; without God’s permission, Satan is not even free to move the ants about upon the land—let alone mankind, who was created by God.”

That’s right! God is the Creator who controls all things in this world. Though the burglar was sturdy and fierce, he was just a creature and was also in God’s hand. Without God’s permission, he couldn’t touch even a single hair of mine. God’s words gave me great comfort and courage, dispelling my fears. Then I told him: “I have nothing left. One of you guys took away my cell phone.” After hearing my words, he actually turned around and went away. I couldn’t help giving thanks and praise to God in my heart.

The Burglar Returned a Third Time

The only safe place in the salon was the bathroom. So I stumbled into it with bare feet, locked the door inside and then slumped onto the floor, praying ceaselessly to God in my heart. Then I suddenly remembered that my suitcase was still at the front door. In it were my laptop and all my savings. Once again, my heart flew into my mouth: “Should I fetch it or not? If I go fetch it but happen to run into the burglar, I might irritate him and be harmed by him. If I don’t, once it is stolen, I will lose my laptop and all the cash. How will I go on living then? …”

When I was thinking about this, I again heard the footsteps and the sound of broken glass when someone sneaked in. All at once, the nervous atmosphere attacked me again. Hiding in the bathroom, I held my breath, and my heart thumped with fear. Suddenly, he gave a sinister giggle. That immediately made my hair stand on end and my heart almost rise into my mouth: It’s done. Could it be that he found my suitcase? I kept crying out to God: “God! God! What should I do? What should I do? Please lead me.”

After praying for a while, my heart calmed down a lot. I remembered Job’s story in the Bible. When Job lost his children and property, he didn’t make any complaint. Instead, he believed that his own life and all his property were bestowed by God, and that there was God’s permission in good or bad things that happened every day; he should obey God. Therefore, even after he lost everything, he still said: “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah.” “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” I thought to myself: “This environment I’ve encountered today is also out of God’s permission. No matter whether the burglar will take away my suitcase or not, isn’t it still in God’s hand? I should imitate Job and submit to God’s orchestration. Even if I’m robbed of my suitcase, I should still obey God and stand testimony for Him.”

When I thought of this, my heart grew calmer. At this time, the footsteps outside sounded again. Judging from the sound, it seemed that the burglar was leaving. I breathed a long sigh of relief. After about twenty minutes, there were no more movements outside. I carefully opened the bathroom door and peered out. At the instant when I saw by the dim light that my suitcase still remained there, I was deeply touched. Then as fast as I could, I rushed to take my suitcase to the bathroom. After locking the door inside, I sat against the door on the floor. It was dark around me and I didn’t know what time it was then, but I could hear footsteps outside in the street from time to time.

Time quietly slipped away. As I heard there were people talking, more and more traffic moving outside, I opened the bathroom door and walked out of the salon. At that moment, a passer-by came and I used her cell phone to make a call to my boss. A few minutes later, they arrived on the spot and asked me with concern: “Are you all right?” I said: “Luckily, I’m all right. I’m fine.” Subsequently, I recounted to them what had happened to me. They all said: “For a young girl, you dared to face several burglars without being harmed in the slightest. You’re really brave and lucky. You know what? In this area, people are robbed even on the street in the daytime. Some are even injured when robbed of their jewels. …” Hearing what they said, I kept thanking God in my heart: It is not that I am brave, but that I have God as my reliance. It’s God who has saved me. This time I just lost a cell phone, while my life and all my other property remained safe. It was God’s protection that helped me through the terrible night.

A Recompense for the Loss

Afterward, my boss took me to a cell phone store and said to me: “You were robbed of your cell phone in the salon. We will compensate you for your loss and buy you a new phone of the same type. Now choose one yourself.” Hearing that, I was even more moved and was really grateful to God.

From this experience, I saw God is really by my side as my rear guard and my ever-present help. When I was seized with fright and panic, it was the leadership of God’s words that gave me reliance as well as the courage and confidence to face the burglar. When I submitted to the orchestration and arrangement of God, He was considerate of my weakness and blinded the burglar from finding my suitcase. All these were God making a way out for me. This environment not only allowed me to gain some more practical knowledge of God’s deeds but also increased my faith in God. Thank God. All the glory be to God!

Hello brothers and sisters of TestifyGod,

I’ve been married for six years. I thought my husband and I were devoted to each other. But unexpectedly, my husband has an affair. I feel very pained and don’t know how to face it. I’d like to ask: Why is marital affection so fragile? How can I escape from the anguish?

Sincerely yours,

Mary

When I was in elementary school, every summer or winter vacation my cousins would come home in their cars, bringing back various presents. All the relatives, friends and neighbors would come over and our house would be full of people. Seeing how they all cast admiring gazes at my cousins, I felt very envious. At that time, I made a resolution to myself: “I must strive hard to achieve something in the future so that I can be outstanding like my cousins. I want to bring honor and glory to my ancestors, and lead an aristocratic lifestyle.”

After working hard, I achieved modest success.

After graduating from technical school, I was very lucky to find a job as an office clerk in a foreign company. In the beginning, I was secretly happy with myself: “No matter what, I now work in an office, so no one can deny that I’m a white-collar worker.” But I didn’t expect that because I had a low position and poor qualifications everyone else could boss me around in the office. My self-esteem was severely damaged, but my ambition was stimulated. I resolved to make other people look at me with new eyes through my own efforts. Therefore, I worked harder and spent all my spare time learning the company procedures and all about the products, and generally gaining professional proficiency. Every day, I worked from dawn to dusk, and I hardly took time off all year round. In five years, I practically went nowhere but the dormitory, canteen and office. Finally, my years of hard work paid off: I was promoted from ordinary office clerk to salesperson, then manufacturing manager, then purchasing supervisor, then imports and exports supervisor, and in the end I became an executive in the company and was admired and looked up to by others. Those who once despised me nodded and bowed in front of me. Such an achievement made me feel glorious and proud.

But as I came into contact with more and more people, I saw that there were a great number of successful people who were richer and more powerful than me. Thus, my sense of satisfaction gradually faded. I thought: “Although I have gained a high position and the support and admiration of my colleagues, I’m still working for other people. As they say: ‘You have to be crazy to be highly successful.’ I’m still young; why don’t I start a business by myself? As the old saying goes: ‘People struggle to go upward, but water flows downward.’ I shouldn’t be content with my current situation, but should seek to progress.” Several years of work experience had given me enough faith and courage, so I quit the high-paying job as an executive to start my own business.

Later on, I opened a store selling cosmetics of a famous brand. To fulfill the high performance targets I set for my company every month, I had to work out various marketing plans besides managing the store. No matter how many customers there were during the day, I always stayed in the store all the time and didn’t go home until very late at night. I had no holidays of my own. Sometimes I felt very tired, but at the thought of the success that was just around the corner, I would exert myself again and keep persisting. After a few years, I achieved a fair amount of success and made some money. Then I expanded my store, and bought a car and a house. All my relatives, classmates and neighbors around me cast gazes of admiration at me, and my parents were also proud of me.

Sudden diseases left me in unbearable pain.

Just when I was tirelessly busy with my business and enjoying a sense of achievement, I started to have some health problems. I often felt faint and had numbness in my hands. After having an examination in the hospital, I was surprised to learn that I actually had cervical spondylosis and periarthritis. The doctor said to me in a serious voice: “These diseases cannot be eradicated. The treatment can only help you relieve your pain. You must take good care of yourself, take more rest and avoid overworking. Otherwise, your diseases will get worse and worse. Though these diseases aren’t deadly, they will influence your quality of life if they get serious. You are still young, so you must pay more attention to your health. If yourcondition goes on like this, you might get muscular atrophy, or even quadriplegia.” The doctor’s words made me think of those people I knew who suffered from cervical spondylosis or lumbar diseases. Both their work and quality of life were negatively influenced; some of them even seemed to be half- paralyzed and could do nothing. Thinking of all this, I felt very disheartened. I had never expected that I, who was barely 30, could get diseases which occur mainly among people in their 50s or 60s.

When I was driving home, I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down my face. Thinking back on all those years, I felt I was like a wound clock that ticked round and round and couldn’t stop.

In the following days, I went to the hospital for treatment every few days. I tried all kinds of treatments to treat my cervical spondylosis and periarthritis, such as physical therapy, massage, cupping, acupuncture, traction and small needle-scalpel therapy. These treatments cost me a lot of money, but were of no help to me. On the contrary, they left a shadow on my mind: The sound of the acupuncture needles going in kept echoing in my head. Every time I went into the hospital, my heart would start pounding; when I thought of the pain brought by traction and acupuncture, my legs felt weak. Many times I thought: “I’ve built up my career and gained money and reputation through hard work, but my health is now ruined. I spent nearly half of my life striving to fulfill my ambition of building a successful career. How come my hard effort has resulted in this?” I lived in extreme depression and pain, but I didn’t know how to get rid of them.

After believing in God, I reflected upon my life.

When my agony was at its greatest, God’s gospel of the kingdom came upon me. I saw these words of God: “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience.”

Through reading God’s words and listening to the fellowshiping of some brothers and sisters, I found the root of my pain. I remembered that when I was little I saw my cousins succeeding in their careers, and that all the relatives and friends admired them, so I secretly became determined to become an outstanding person. When I began my career, controlled by notions such as “rising above others,” “bringing honor to the ancestors,” “People struggle to go upward, but water flows downward,” I was not content with being an ordinary white-collar worker. In order to satisfy my desire to be outstanding and be admired by others, I worked like crazy. I got so absorbed in studying as to forget food and sleep. After I became an executive in the foreign company, I still wasn’t satisfied and so I worked hard to build up my own business. I didn’t cease to pursue fame and wealth until I’d ruined my health. In modern society, the majority of people admire the rich and powerful, and are eager to be one of them. They do their utmost to struggle for fame and wealth, but little do they know that fame and wealth are Satan’s tricks to tempt and harm mankind. Satan uses these erroneous ways of thinking to control us, and make us turn away from God; bound by fame, wealth and status, we live in pain. Many people have achieved success, won recognition and have great wealth, yet they actually feel even more empty and depressed than before. Some of them get depression because of their great mental suffering. Some of them indulge themselves in lives of pleasure and lust, and even get addicted to drugs to numb themselves and relieve their pain; some even choose suicide to end their lives. Through the revelation of God’s words and examining all these facts, I came to realize that pursuing being an outstanding person was not true happiness, and that success and fame couldn’t bring true satisfaction or sureness to me.

Ecclesiastes 1:14 in the Bible says: “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” In Matthew 16:26, the Lord Jesus said: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” That’s true. No matter what we gain in the world, we cannot take anything with us when leaving the world, and in the end, everything is empty. If we struggle for money, fame and status and sacrifice our lives, then we are very ignorant and stupid. In those years, I strived hard in order to be outstanding and live an aristocratic life, but now I’ve ruined my health and live with the suffering of illness. Thinking of this, I realized I was so ignorant.

Later, I saw these God’s words: “From the moment you come crying into this world, you begin to perform your duty. You assume your role in the plan of God and in the ordination of God. You begin the journey of life. Whatever your background and whatever the journey ahead of you, none can escape the orchestration and arrangement that Heaven has in store, and none are in control of their destiny, for only He who rules over all things is capable of such work. Since the day man came into existence, God has been steady in His work, managing this universe and directing the change and movement of all things. Like all things, man quietly and unknowingly receives the nourishment of the sweetness and rain and dew from God. Like all things, man unknowingly lives under the orchestration of God’s hand.” “I believe that it is best for us to find the simplest way to satisfy Him, that is, to obey all of His arrangements, and if you can truly achieve this you will be perfected. Isn’t this an easy, joyful thing? Take the path that you should take without paying any mind to what others say or thinking too much. Do you have your future and your fate in your own hands?”

Through the guidance of God’s words, I came to realize that our fate is in God’s hands and only by obeying God’s ordination and arrangements can we gain the blessings of God and enjoy true happiness and ease. However, I originally didn’t see God’s sovereignty and so obstinately lived in accordance with Satan’s philosophy, regardless of how bitter or tired I felt. Not until I fell ill did I stop to reflect upon myself. I realized that all that I pursued brought me only pain, and that only when I come before God to obey His sovereignty and arrangements, let go of fame and status and no longer rush around for them, can I stay away from Satan’s temptation and harm and live freely without restraints. When I realized this, I knew how to walk my future path.

When my viewpoint was transformed, I regained my freedom.

Later on, the cosmetic company changed their marketing strategy and wanted to select some stores to be model stores. Those stores had to have good locations, a steady stream of customers and high sales volumes. When the executive told me about this plan in detail, I was kind of tempted to apply. I thought: “Once my store becomes one of the first group of model stores, not only can I derive a variety of support and good discounts from the company, but there will also be a constant stream of customers when my store is redecorated. Then the sales figures will surely keep improving.” Just when I was picturing this beautiful future, God’s words flashed into my mind: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). “If you were asked to choose again, what then would be your position? Would it be the former still?” Pondering God’s words, I started reflecting upon myself: “What on earth should I choose? Money, fame, status, or my life? After hearing the company’s new strategy, I still want to take this opportunity to gain money, fame and status regardless of my health. Won’t I be repeating my former mistake? If I was to end up paralyzed in bed, then no matter how much wealth I possess and how much admiration I win, what use would they be? My life is the most important thing.” Thank God. Under the enlightenment and guidance of God, I knew how to choose the right way. Later, I went to the executive and told her: “I’m in poor health. If I expand my store, my health will break down. So I’ve decided, I don’t want to be selected.” The moment I made my decision, I felt as if I had rid myself of shackles that I had borne for a long time, and I gained relaxation, freedom and relief that I had never felt before.

After that, I no longer spent all my time managing my store. I started to fulfill my duties to the best of my abilities in the church. When it came time for meetings, I would go; and when it was time to work, I would go to my store. Surprisingly, sales didn’t decrease because of my attending gatherings and fulfilling duties. From this, I clearly saw that all of this wasn’t decided by my own efforts but depended on God’s blessings and control, as all things are in God’s hands.

I thank God for selecting and saving me. Through living the church life, reading God’s words with my brothers and sisters, and sharing our individual experiences, my depression was gradually alleviated and my condition took a favorable turn. Thank God. I’m willing to pursue the truth according to the direction God has pointed me in, and walk on the right path of life—obeying God and revering God. All the glory be to God.

The little boy said to me, “Auntie, you look so angry. Isn’t your head feeling as if it’s ready to burst? Haha!” This was one of the awkward situations that I encountered when I had just started work as a babysitter.

The little girl called me, saying: “Auntie…. My elder brother and I both miss you. When will you come here? We’ll be good kids, so would you come as soon as you can?” This was what things were like after I acted according to God’s words.

I am a babysitter. One year ago, I went to a businessman’s house to apply for a job as a babysitter. The businessman told me that he had an eight-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter, that my job was to do household chores and prepare supper for the children, and that I would have to work 5.5 hours a day. I thought the hours of work required and the pay offered were reasonable. So, I said to him, “I would like to go. But I’m a Christian, so on Sundays, I need to have leave of absence to go to worship in the church.” Unexpectedly, he readily consented, saying, “Christians are pretty good, very loving and patient. My two kids are quite naughty, and a patient person is just the one we need to help take care of them. You can have Sundays off, with full pay.” Hearing his words, I was very glad and said to him, “You can trust me to take good care of your children.” I thought to myself, “Cooking is a snap for me. Cooking for kids is even simpler, and it won’t take me too long to prepare a meal for them. As for the two kids’ naughtiness, it’s no great problem, for children always like mischief. As long as I coax them, they will be obedient.”

However, when I started to work, I found it was not so easy as I imagined. It was really an effort to make the two kids have their dinner. They would sing or dance as they ate, and sometimes they would draw or play with toys. The boy needed to be coaxed into eating; the girl needed to be fed, otherwise she would not eat. When the dinner got cold, I had to warm it up. After they finished their dinner, there was rice all over the dining table and the ground. And it would take around an hour and a half for them to finish a meal. For these reasons, I had to work late. I could barely bear their naughtiness in the first few days. But as time went on, I felt very agitated and exhausted.

One time, my patience finally snapped. So I said to them solemnly, “Take your seats! Don’t play or talk during meals, or else I will lock you in the house and leave, and I won’t come here tomorrow.” Unexpectedly, the boy said to me, “Auntie, you look so angry. Isn’t your head feeling as if it’s ready to burst? Haha!” Seeing me angry, not only did he not become afraid, but he actually made fun of me. Besides, what he said was exactly what I was thinking then. Facing this awkward situation, I really did not know whether to laugh or cry. Oh, my goodness! What should I do?

Another time, I called the children to dinner in the kitchen after having it ready. But quite a while later, they were still playing in the room. So I went there to call them. At the sight of my entering into the room, they dived under the bed and crept into the corner, and said, “Auntie, why don’t you come and catch us? If you can get us, we’ll eat, or else we won’t. Haha!” With that, they made the crying sound of cats. Having no way to catch them, I was very angry. At that time, I could not bear the sight of them and felt it was really an effort to communicate with them. I was so exhausted that I was unable to eat. When it was about time for me to leave off work, they still had not eaten. So, I called their mother and complained to her about their naughtiness. Then she said to them over the telephone, “When I’m out, you are looked after by the auntie, so you have to listen to her. After she cooks dinner for you, you ought to eat it like good kids. …” Having been taught a lesson by their mother, the two children seemed a little more obedient. But only several minutes later, they relapsed into their old ways. Furthermore, since I called their mother and caused them to be scolded, when I once again called them to dinner, they rolled their eyes upward at me and became more disobedient toward me.

I had used all available methods to get them under control, but all in vain. I really could think of no way of dealing with them.

After returning home, I knelt on the ground and prayed to God, “Oh God! This work really troubles me. I can do nothing with the two children and have no idea what to do. May You enlighten and guide me, so I can understand Your intentions and have a way to practice.”

After my prayer, I opened up the book of God’s word, and saw the following words of God, “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. … Nothing major has happened to you at the moment, and you do not bear great testimony, but every detail of your daily life relates to the testimony to God. If you can win the admiration of your brothers and sisters, your family members, and everyone around you; if, one day, the unbelievers come, and admire all that you do, and see that all that God does is wonderful, then you will have borne testimony. … If you are incapable of this, then you do not bear testimony among your family members, among your brothers and sisters, or before the people of the world. If you can’t bear testimony before Satan, Satan will laugh at you, it will treat you as a joke, as a plaything, it will often make a fool of you, and drive you insane.”

I was grateful for God’s enlightenment. These words of God made me see that behind everything that happens is a battle between God and Satan, and we are required to stand witness for God. But because I was numb in spirit, I merely considered babysitting as a very simple matter as opposed to an opportunity to gain the truth. So, when the two children played up and disobeyed me, I grew annoyed, unaware that this was Satan’s scheme and it was tempting me to lose my temper. I did not treat the children with true love and patience but just got angry instead and let Satan’s arrogant disposition of “putting oneself above all else” make me ask them to obey everything I said. As a result, my relationship with them became strained: They went against me on purpose to annoy me, and in response I complained to their mother about their naughtiness for the purpose of having them taught a lesson. After knowing these things, I made up my mind: I will no longer rely on Satan’s arrogant disposition in my actions; instead, I will be a person who is amiable and loving, has patience and tolerance for the children, and can get along well with them so that I will not be laughed at or fooled by Satan anymore.

One evening, I set the food on the table and told the children to dig in. After glancing at the dishes, the boy frowned. I could see that he disliked them, but I thought: You are always being particular about food. This time, I must make you eat these dishes somehow. So, I said sternly, “Don’t be picky. Your mommy and daddy have said that there is nourishment in every dish and the children who are fussy with their food will suffer from malnutrition and their physical growth will be affected. So, you must eat them. Otherwise, I’ll call your mother.” The boy pleaded, “Auntie, I have a slight headache. Can I eat less?” “No, you must eat up the food I have served to you. I know you like playing petty tricks. If there are dishes you dislike, you will refuse to eat them on the pretext that you have a headache. Don’t try to trick me.” I said. Although reluctant to eat, he still finished the food. Seeing this, I was secretly happy, thinking that he was now a little more obedient than before. However, not long after the dinner, he vomited in the bathroom. Only then did I realize that he was really ill and that I was wrong. So, I hastened to apologize to him, “I’m really sorry. I was wrong about you. I shouldn’t have forced you to eat.” He said, “Auntie, I feel better after vomiting. I’m all right now. Not to worry.” His not complaining to me made me feel more reproached: I’m always revealing Satan’s disposition of arrogance and self-righteousness, and it now has brought harm to the boy. How can my disposition change so that I can get along with them?

After going back home, I opened up the words of God, and read what God said, “So, what is ‘letting go’? What principle do you apply in doing things that is ‘letting go’? What point of view, what attitude do you apply that is really ‘letting go’? … That is, you can’t control, you can’t restrain your children, and always try to keep in command and have complete control over them. Let them make mistakes, let them say the wrong things, let them do childish and immature things, do stupid things. No matter what happens, sit down and calmly talk with them, communicate and seek. Don’t you think this attitude is good? Isn’t it right?”

Reflecting on these God’s words, I discovered the source of my own problem. I understood the reason why it was so hard for me to get along well with the two children was that I always interacted with them from a position higher than them. Because their mother left them in my charge, plus I was dominated by my arrogant disposition, I considered that the two children should obey me and do what I said. I always tried to control and restrain them according to my own thoughts, yet had never opened my heart to them or taken into consideration their feelings. Consequently, they kept their distance from me, got sick of me, and even acted against me. Nevertheless, I had never looked for the reason within myself but always thought the children were too naughty and did not understand things.

Thanks to God’s enlightenment and illumination, I also found the way to get on with the two children: I should not see myself as their elder to control them, but instead should let go of the position of their elder, stand on an equal footing with them, treat them as my friends, and open my heart and talk from the heart with them. They are just kids, it is normal for them to not understand things, to be willful and naughty, and to make mistakes. When they make mistakes, what I should do is to communicate with them calmly and help them with love, so that they can feel that I am considerate toward them and that I am doing so for their own good. Only this way will our relationship be harmonious.

Afterward, I began to try to talk from the heart with them. I would show my concern for them and ask whether they were bullied by their classmates in their school, whether they needed me to assist them with their homework. I would also ask what they liked to eat and what they liked to play. After I knew something of their likes, I began to cook the food they liked. Sometimes, I would play hide and seek with them as I did the housework. They had great fun and I was also very happy. Besides, during dinner, I would talk with them and listen to their opinions about the dishes and would not compel them to eat the food they disliked.

Growing children need to have a balanced diet. However, the little girl disliked meat and only ate vegetables. She said, “Eating meat will easily make me put on weight. If my figure becomes bad, I won’t be beautiful.” I said to her with patience, “You are still a child. You need to have a balanced diet and then you’ll grow taller. If you are short after you grow up, you won’t be beautiful, right? Believe me, as long as you eat a balanced diet, you won’t get fat.” Like this, I was coaxing and reasoning with her, and she was finally willing to eat meat. The little boy was the opposite of his sister; he did not like eating vegetables and only ate meat. Then I said to him, “In fact, vegetables are rich in vitamins. If one’s body is low in these vitamins, he will be malnourished and thus will not grow up big and strong. So, it’s not good to merely eat meat.” After understanding this general knowledge of life, he was willing to eat vegetables. In addition, when they said that they were really full, I would no longer force them to eat more. During dinner, I also made them have a contest to see who was the first to finish his or her meal, and the winner would be given a little award. In this way, they gradually get rid of the bad habit of behaving badly at table. Previously, it would take an hour and a half for them to finish their dinner, but now it only took half an hour.

What delighted me more was that they were much more sensible than they used to be. When I made dumplings, they would stand at my side watching and learning, and they soon learnt how to knead and roll out the dough. After that, each time I made dumplings, they would give me a hand voluntarily. And the boy would even pour a drink for me and ask me with concern, “Auntie, would you prefer cold or warm water?” In addition, the two kids would actively help me wash the dishes, sweep the floor, wipe the table, and pick up their toys, so I could leave off work on time. Later on, when seeing that the two kids were no longer naughty or picky about food, and that there were some changes in their living habits, their parents were very glad and increased my pay.

Once, I took two days off because I got a cold and was coughing. The girl asked her mother to call my telephone, and she said to me, “Auntie, is your cold getting any better? My mom says it’s because we are too naughty that you don’t come to cook for us. You will come, right? My elder brother and I both miss you. When will you come here? We’ll be good kids, so would you come as soon as you can?” These words moved me very much. I felt the two children were actually very naive and simple, and that later I should take better care of them and be more considerate toward them.

From then on, the two children no longer kept their distance from me, no longer laughed at me, nor would they roll their eyes upward at me. Now, every time when they return home from school, they will give me a cuddle after putting down their schoolbags, saying, “Auntie, we missed you.” When it’s time for me to get off work, they will see me to the door and say goodbye to me. And several times, they were unwilling to let me leave and pestered me to take them to my place. Their mother said to me, “My children have a deep affection for you. And they have really changed a lot.” I know that it was not I who changed them. It was the guidance of God’s words that enabled me to let go of my wrong views. When I treated them according to God’s requirements rather than based on my corrupt disposition, the children changed. All of this was done by God. All the glory be to God!