One day, I read these words of God, “These are the things people envy. If people had no work of the Holy Spirit, had no oppressive environment, no one to lead them, no one to coerce them, then everyone would follow the trends of the world and no one would believe in God. … Through dissecting these things within people we will discover that the things they yearn for are not righteous, are not of the light, not of the truth and do not conform to facts. Instead, they yearn for those things that are worldly, for things that belong to Satan, and for things that people consider to be good. … Within these things that people worship, which of them brings God joy? None of them! Knowledge, status, fame and gain, wealth, power — which of these does God like? Which of them are positive things? Which of them conform to the truth? None of them! … Why has it been said previously that everything that exists in the heart of man is evil, and is not in conformity with the will of God? Man’s heart is filled with the eating of food, the wearing of clothes, enjoyment and fun. But to what do these things belong? They belong to the world; they belong to the devil” (“The Elements of Faithlessness Within Man and Man’s Nature That Betrays God” in Records of Christ’s Talks). God’s words thoroughly revealed what existed deep in my heart. What I pursued before was money, power, and a life towering above all as well as to be looked up to and admired by others. I got rich indeed, and had won admiration from my relatives and friends at last, but what these empty fame and gain had brought was the torment of troublesome illness. I was severely afflicted by these satanic toxins such as “The wages of avarice is death,” and “One can have anything but illness, and one can be without anything but money.” Thinking back, so many people worked their guts out for money, but some of them didn’t even recover their capital, some lost all their property. Some chose to drown themselves in a river; some had earned millions but still felt hopeless before a fatal illness; some felt too empty and committed suicide. Now I understood the reason why God hates money and fame so much is that Satan wants to use money and fame to corrupt man, occupy man, and devour man, and at last make man die with it. These poisons and wrong pursuit of life had afflicted me till today and made me unable to extricate myself. How evil and contemptible Satan is! Previously because of pursuing fame and gain, I even didn’t have the life a normal man should have. It was God’s words that saved me from Satan’s snare. I felt indebted to God. So I knelt down before God and prayed, “Almighty God! Thank You! Your words have taught me how to discern positive things from negative things, and also let me understand what man should pursue and what man should not pursue. In addition, You make me know that only by pursuing the truth can man see through Satan’s scheme and live in God’s care and protection. Yet if we live by Satan’s poisons, we will only walk toward death.”
Under the guidance of God’s words, I understood what was the most valuable thing one should pursue in his life. Man was created by God, and it is God who nurtures and provides for man. The breath we live by is given by God, and it should be breathed for God. We are supposed to pursue the truth to satisfy God. Only living this way is the most meaningful life. Since then, I was not subject to money and fame that much. I attended meetings with brothers and sisters, read the words of God, and pursued the truth. In the Church of Almighty God, I saw the brightness brought by the sovereignty of the truth, and that before the truth, everyone is equal regardless of being rich or poor, having status or not. My heart felt especially released. Thanks God for His salvation!
Later, Satan’s temptation came to me. After the construction project my husband contracted for was fully completed at the end of the year, the 17 million project payment was always unforthcoming. I was especially anxious when I saw this. I thought: 17 million, it is not a small number. If we cannot get it back, all we did will be in vain along with our principal. Then how can we continue to live? I kept thinking about this day and night, and couldn’t eat or sleep again, living in great sorrow. So I came before God and called upon Him. Then I thought of His words, “What occupation one pursues, what one does for a living, and how much wealth one amasses in life are not decided by one’s parents, one’s talents, one’s efforts or one’s ambitions, but are predetermined by the Creator” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). I suddenly became aware that everything in this world is under the dominion of God, that how much wealth we can possess is not decided by us, but predetermined by God. How much wealth we can possess in our life depends on God’s predetermination, and none of us can obtain what God doesn’t give us no matter how hard we try. So many people around me worked their guts out for money, but they still remain empty-handed. What God gave me is already enough; we don’t have to worry about food or clothes, and we have already owned the car and the house. I cannot be deceived by Satan anymore. Still thinking about this all day, do I want to go back to the time when I lived in the torment of illness and preferred to die? This is absolutely not God’s intention. I began to let go of it little by little and commit my state and difficulty to the control and arrangement of God. After a period of time, we received a call consulting with us about using the completed building to cover the back project payment. In the end, they transferred more than twenty apartments to us. Then we sold out each of the apartments at a price 20,000 to 30,000 yuan lower than the market value and gradually withdrew the money. From this experience, I saw that all was ruled and arranged by God. God’s words guided me to break free from the affliction and torment of Satan. Ever since then, I handed over all my projects to the hands of God. When there was difficulty or problem in the project, I would not be as anxious as before, because I knew that everything is controlled by the hands of God. And no matter what I encountered, I prayed to God, relied on Him and was willing to face the difficulty according to His will. I didn’t think about how much money I’d make but rather let things be and obeyed God’s orchestration.
One day, when I was reading the words of God attentively, my daughter asked me, “Mom, how many sleeping pills are left?” I blurted out, “There’re still many.” My daughter said, “Such a few pills, it’s so long since I bought them, but you haven’t finished them?” At that time, I had a sudden realization, as if waking up from a long dream, and said to my daughter in surprise, “Wow! I haven’t taken the pills for such a long time, but I can fall asleep now!” My daughter asked surprisedly, “Are you sure, Mom? Is that true?” I said positively, “Yes! I can fall asleep like a normal person now!” My daughter said in tears happily, “Mom! Finally you don’t need to take the pills and can live like a normal person.” Tears ran down my face as if I was a child drifting on the street for many years who finally found her own parents and received their love. I felt incomparably joyful in my heart and said to my daughter in tears, “I spent so much money and took so many pills these years, but my illness wasn’t cured. Today, a book of God’s words saved me from the affliction of illness, and made me see God’s love, see hope, and have the courage to live on. Come and believe in Him! This is the true God!” My daughter said excitedly, “I’m willing to believe!”
Before long, my son also accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days. We attended meetings with brothers and sisters, sang hymns and danced to praise God. Almighty God’s words helped me give up all the worldly entanglements, and God saved me from the hellish life. One day, I saw God’s words say, “In a day when you completely obtain liberation and freedom and no longer have any sort of burden nor bondage, you will become a free person — you will become a person like Job. Why could Job say what he did? Why could he so easily utter those words? Was it a matter of a single day? It was not a matter of a single day. It was the result of day after day, year after year of refinement, and letting go, bit by bit. The more you set aside the more relaxed you will be — the more set aside the more relaxed. You will become free and liberated. In the day when you become free and liberated, you will feel that the things you have forsaken are entanglements, and the things you have truly obtained are most precious to you. You will feel that those are the most valuable things and most worthy of your treasuring. Those things you liked — material pleasures, fame and fortune, status, money, face, and the honor of others — will seem worthless to you. Those things caused you great suffering, and you will want them no more. You won’t want them even if they are given to you. You don’t need them!” (“You Can Obtain Truth After Turning Your True Heart Over to God” in Records of Christ’s Talks).
After reading these words of God, I realized that just as God’s words talk about, I had regarded money and fame as a life-saving straw, and believed that one could possess everything if he owned money. But in my experiences, I saw that no matter how much money we had, we could not solve the matter of birth, death, illness and old age. Just as God’s words say, “But only when they are close to dying do they realize … 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 Himself, the Unique III”). God’s word is the truth and can be our life. When I was not constrained by money and fame and lived completely by the words of God, I felt the fulfillment with unspeakable sweetness and happiness. And this cannot be bought no matter how rich one is. This made me deeply feel that only the truth expressed by Almighty God can save man, purify man, and change man. Thank God for saving me from the whirlpool of fame and money, and guiding me to take the right path of life. Now my life is full of sunshine.
Source from: find the shepherd
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