There are some people who, during the Chinese New Year, spend their days flipping through almanacs, starting the traditional holiday from the 30th day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, adhering strictly to the lifestyle and taboos passed down through these traditional customs in what they eat, what they wear, and what they abstain from doing each day. Whatever it is taboo to say or do they make sure to avoid saying or doing that thing, and whatever it is lucky to eat or say, okay, they’ll eat and say that thing. For example, some believe that during the New Year, they must eat rice cakes to ensure a promotion in the coming year. For the sake of promotion in the coming year, they’ll make sure to eat rice cakes, regardless of any significant matters they have to deal with, how busy or exhausted they are, or any special circumstances regarding their performance of duty or whether they can carve out enough time to attend to it. If they don’t have the time to make rice cakes at home, then they’ll go out and buy some just to ensure good luck. And some people have to eat fish during the New Year, as it symbolizes abundance year after year. If they don’t eat fish one year, they believe they will face poverty over the next twelve months. If they are unable to buy fish, they might even place a wooden fish on the dining table as a symbolic gesture. They eat rice cakes and fish to ensure both promotion and abundance in the coming year. In one respect, they do this in order to make this year go more smoothly, to make their life better and more prosperous, and in another respect, they hope for success in their career or to make a lot of money from their business. Furthermore, during the New Year, they also make sure to use lucky phrases. For instance, they avoid saying the numbers four and five because “four” sounds like “death,” and “five” sounds like “nothing” in Chinese. Instead, they prefer to use numbers like six and eight, where the word “six” represents smooth sailing, and “eight” represents making a fortune. They not only use auspicious words and phrases but also give red envelopes to employees, family members, relatives, and friends. Giving red envelopes symbolizes making a fortune, and the more red envelopes they give, the more it signifies that they will be prosperous. Not only do they give red envelopes to people, but also to their pets, symbolizing that they can make a fortune off of anyone, and the next year will be full of a thriving business and massive fortune. Everything, from what they eat to what they do, from what they say to how they act, is all about continuing the habits and sayings passed down through tradition, and they practice them with painstaking precision. Even if their living environment or the community in which they live changes, these traditional customs and lifestyles cannot change. Because these traditions carry a certain meaning within them, encompassing both positive sayings and taboos passed down by people’s ancestors, they must continue them. If these traditions are violated or taboos broken, then the upcoming year might not go favorably, leading to obstacles everywhere, a downturn in business, or bankruptcy. That’s why it’s crucial to uphold these traditions. There are traditions that must be followed during festive occasions, and there are traditions that must be followed in one’s daily life as well. For example, getting a haircut—if one checks the calendar and sees that it is inauspicious to get a haircut or leave the house today, then they will not dare go out. If they didn’t check the calendar and went ahead and got a haircut anyway, then both taboos of leaving the house and getting a haircut would be violated, and they might face unforeseen consequences—so these things must be followed. They belong to both tradition and superstition. If someone needs to go out, but they check the calendar and see that all things are inauspicious today, meaning it is a day to rest, be at leisure, relax, and avoid doing anything, then even if they’re told they need to go out and spread the gospel today, they might worry what might become of them if they violate the taboo and something unexpected happens to them, like a car accident or getting robbed. They won’t dare go out, and they say, “Let’s go tomorrow! We can’t ignore what our ancestors tell us. They say that we must always consult the calendar before going out. If the calendar says all things are inauspicious, then we shouldn’t go out. If you do go out and something happens, you must bear the consequences yourself. Who told you not to look at the calendar and obey what it says?” This pertains both to tradition and superstition, doesn’t it? (Yes, it does.)

Some people say, “I’m 24 this year; it’s my zodiac year.” Others say, “I’m 36 this year; it’s my zodiac year.” What do you have to do during your zodiac year? (Wear red underwear and a red belt.) Who has worn red underwear before? Who has worn a red belt? How did it feel to wear red underwear and a red belt? Did you feel that your year went well? Did it ward off bad luck? (When it was my zodiac year, I wore red socks. However, that year, my exam results were particularly bad. Wearing red didn’t bring good luck as people said it would.) Wearing them brought you bad luck, didn’t it? Would you have possibly done better if you didn’t wear red? (It had no effect whether I wore them or not.) That’s an accurate view of the question—it had no effect. This is both a tradition and a superstition. Regardless of whether you currently accept this idea of the zodiac year or whether you want to continue this tradition, the traditional thoughts and sayings associated with it have left an imprint on people’s minds. For example, when it comes time for your zodiac year, if you meet with unexpected events or special circumstances that make your year go roughly and contrary to your wishes, you won’t help thinking, “This year has really been rough. Come to think of it, it’s my zodiac year, and people say that during your zodiac year, you need to be careful because it’s easier to break taboos. According to tradition, I should wear red, but because I believe in God, I haven’t been. I don’t believe in those sayings, but when I think about the challenges I faced this year, things haven’t been going smoothly. How can I avoid these issues? Maybe next year will be better.” You’ll unconsciously link the exceptional and unfavorable events you met with during the year to the traditional sayings about zodiac year that your ancestors and family conditioned into you. You’ll use these sayings to validate the exceptional events you encountered during this year and, in doing so, you set aside the facts and essence behind them. You also set aside the attitude you should have toward these situations and the lessons you should learn from them. You’ll instinctively think of this year as a special one, unconsciously linking all the events that happened within it to your zodiac year. You will feel, “This year has brought me some misfortunes, or this year has brought me some blessings.” These ideas have a definite relation to the conditioning from your family. Regardless of whether they are correct or not, are they related to your zodiac year? (No, they aren’t.) They are not related. So, are your perspectives and viewpoints on these matters correct? (No, they are not.) Why are they not correct? Is it because you have been influenced to some extent by the traditional thoughts instilled in you by your family? (Yes.) These traditional thoughts took precedence and occupied your mind. Then, when faced with these matters, your immediate reaction is to view them from the perspective of these traditional thoughts and viewpoints, while setting aside the perspective that God wants you to have or the thoughts and viewpoints that you should have. What will be the ultimate result of how you view these matters? You will feel that this year has not been favorable, that it has been unlucky and contrary to your wishes, and then you will adopt depression and negativity as a means to evade, oppose, resist, and reject these things. So, is the reason for you giving rise to these emotions, thoughts, and viewpoints related to those traditional thoughts instilled in you by your family? (Yes.) In such matters, what should people let go of? They should let go of the perspective and stance from which they measure them. They shouldn’t view these matters from the perspective that they encountered these situations because this year is unlucky, unfavorable, contrary to their wishes, or they broke some taboo or didn’t follow traditional practices. Instead, you should take up each of these matters one by one, and first and foremost, you should at the very least view them from the perspective of a created being. Say that these matters, whether good or bad, whether in line with or against your wishes, whether favorable or unlucky to human eyes, are arranged by God, under God’s sovereignty, and come from God. Is there an advantage to adopting this type of perspective and stance on these matters? (Yes.) What is the first advantage? You can accept these matters from God, which means to some extent, you can adopt a mentality of submission. The second advantage is that you can learn a lesson and gain something from these disappointing matters. The third advantage is that from these disappointing matters, you can recognize your own shortcomings and deficiencies, as well as your own corrupt disposition. The fourth advantage is that in these disappointing matters, you can repent and turn back, let go of your previous thoughts and viewpoints, of your previous way of living, of your various misunderstandings about God, and return before God, accepting His orchestrations with an attitude of submission, even if they pertain to God’s chastisement and judgment, His chastening and disciplining of you, or His punishment. You will be willing to submit to it all and not blame Heaven and other people, nor tie everything back to the viewpoint and stance instilled in you by traditional thoughts, but instead view each matter from the perspective of a created being. This is beneficial to you in many ways. Aren’t all these things beneficial? (Yes, they are.) On the other hand, if you view these matters based on the traditional thoughts instilled in you by your family, you will try every possible means to evade them. What does evading them mean? It means finding various ways to avoid these misfortunes, to avoid these disappointing, unfavorable, unlucky matters. Someone says, “It’s the little demons messing with you. If you wear red clothes, you can avoid them. Wearing red clothes is like when you are given a talisman in Buddhism. A talisman is a piece of yellow paper with a few red characters written upon it. You can stick it on your forehead, sew it into your clothes, or put it under your pillow, and it will help you steer clear of these things.” When people don’t have a positive path of practice, their only recourse is to seek help from these crooked and evil paths, because no one wants to be unlucky or face any misfortune. Everyone wants things to go smoothly. This is an instinctual reaction on the part of corrupted humankind when facing worldly matters. You want to evade these matters or use various human means to resolve them because you have neither the correct path to address them nor the right thoughts and viewpoints to face them. You can only view these things from the perspective of an unbeliever, so your first reaction is to avoid them, not wanting to encounter these things. You say, “Why are things so unfavorable for me? Why am I so unlucky? Why do I face being pruned every day? Why do I keep hitting the wall and making mistakes in everything I do? Why are my actions always exposed? Why do people around me always go against my wishes? Why do they target me, look down on me, and go against my will in everything?” As some people say, “When you’re unlucky, even cold water can get stuck in your teeth.” Can cold water get stuck in your teeth? Do you chew cold water with your teeth? Isn’t this nonsense? Isn’t this blaming Heaven and other people? (Yes, it is.) What does it mean to be unlucky? Does that kind of thing really exist? (No, it doesn’t.) It doesn’t exist. If you truly recognized that everything is in God’s hands, that everything is under God’s sovereignty and arrangement, you wouldn’t use words like “unlucky,” and you wouldn’t try to evade matters. When people encounter matters that go contrary to their wishes, their first reaction is to evade them, and then they refuse them. If they can’t refuse, evade, or hide from these matters, they start to resist them. Resistance isn’t just contemplating in one’s thoughts or going over it in one’s mind; it involves taking action. In private, people engage in petty maneuvering, uttering provocative, self-justifying, self-preserving, self-glorifying, or self-embellishing statements to make themselves look good, so as to avoid being impacted by or dragged into an unlucky event. Once a person starts resisting, it can turn dangerous for them, can’t it? (Yes, it can.) Tell Me, when a person reaches the point where they start resisting, is there any function of the conscience and reason of normal humanity left in them? They have already moved from thoughts and viewpoints to real action, and reason and conscience can no longer restrain them. What does this mean? It means that a person’s actions and thoughts evolve into the reality of resisting God. They are not simply rejecting, being unwilling, or feeling unhappy in their heart; they are using their actions and actual deeds to resist. When it comes to resisting through real action, isn’t this person basically done for? When the realities of rebelling against God, resisting God, and opposing Him have taken shape, it’s no longer a problem of the path people are on—this has already produced a result. Isn’t this very dangerous? (Yes, it is.) So, even a tiny, insignificant traditional cultural idea, traditional thought, or superstitious saying can lead to very serious consequences. It’s not just a simple lifestyle habit, a matter of what to eat, what to wear, or what to say or not say. It can go as far as what kind of attitude a person adopts when facing the environments that God has orchestrated. Therefore, these are also issues that people should let go of.

In addition to upholding certain traditional ways of life and thoughts and viewpoints during major festivals, people also uphold them during certain minor festivals. For example, they eat sweet dumplings on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. Why do people eat sweet dumplings? (They symbolize that a family is reunited.) A family is reunited. Have you eaten sweet dumplings during the past few years? (I’ve eaten them at home, never at church.) Is being reunited with one’s family a good thing? (No, it isn’t.) Are there any good people in your family? Either they ask you for money or to repay a debt; if you possess fame and profit, they fawn over you and ask for a cut, and if you don’t, they look down on you. There’s eating sweet dumplings on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, as well as other customs on various dates like the second day of the second lunar month, the third day of the third month, the fourth of the fourth month, the fifth of the fifth month…. There’s a mess of different things, and all kinds of food associated with them. These things that the world of unbelievers and demons do are all ridiculous. If you want to celebrate during a festival and enjoy some good food, then just say you’re going to enjoy some good food and that’s it. As long as your living conditions permit it, you can eat whatever you like. Enough with all these tricks, like eating rice cakes for promotion year after year, eating fish for abundance, or sweet dumplings for the family to be reunited. Chinese people also make rice dumplings, but for what purpose? Every year during various festivals, there are some dedicated individuals in the church who buy various items corresponding to each of the festivals, such as rice dumplings. I asked some of them, “Why do you eat rice dumplings?” They said, “It’s for the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.” Rice dumplings are quite tasty, but I don’t know why there’s a festival associated with them or how it relates to people’s lives and fortunes. I never did any research or put out a survey on it, so I don’t know. Supposedly, it’s to commemorate someone. But why should we eat these things in his memory? The rice dumplings should be given to that person. Whoever seeks to commemorate him should place rice dumplings in front of his grave or picture. They shouldn’t be given to living people: This is not the business of the living. The living eat them on that person’s behalf—that’s absurd. The knowledge concerning these festivals as well as what to eat during them was obtained from unbelievers: I don’t know the specific details, and certain details were later passed along through people in the church—rice dumplings are eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival and rice cakes during the Lunar New Year. In the West, people eat turkey on Thanksgiving: Why do they eat turkey? According to news reports, they eat turkey on Thanksgiving in order to give thanks—this is a tradition. There is another holiday in the West called Christmas, where people set up Christmas trees and wear new clothes—this is also a tradition. During this holiday Westerners also must exchange pleasant words and good wishes, as well as blessings. They are not allowed to say bad words or curse words. All this is equivalent to the auspicious sayings of Eastern cultures, and their purpose is to prevent people from breaking taboos, or else the following year won’t be favorable. Western holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas involve eating special delicious foods, and stories were created to justify eating these foods. In the end, I summarize what happens: People look for an excuse to indulge in these delicious foods, allowing them to justify taking a few days off to feast at home, eating until they have a pot belly. When it’s time to donate blood, the nurse says, “Your blood lipid levels are too high, they’re not up to standard and disqualify you from donating.” This is due to consuming excessive amounts of meat. The primary purpose of celebrating these traditional holidays is to enjoy good food and drink. It’s passed down from one generation to the next, from the old to the young, and becomes a tradition. The underlying thoughts and viewpoints instilled by these traditions, as well as certain superstitious sayings, are also passed down from elders to the younger generation.

What other superstitious sayings are there? Does the eye twitching I just mentioned occur often? (Yes.) You say, “My eye keeps twitching.” Someone asks, “Which eye is twitching?” You reply, “The left eye.” They say, “No problem, twitching on the left eye forecasts fortune but twitching on the right eye forecasts disaster.” Does this hold true? Did you get rich when your left eye twitched? Did you get money? (No.) Then did any disaster occur when your right eye twitched? (Also no.) Has there been any situation where disaster occurred when your left eye twitched, where something bad happened, or where something good happened when the right eye twitched? Do you believe in these things? (No.) How can you not believe in these things? Why does your eye twitch? Are there any remedies in folk culture to stop eye twitching? Are there any methods? (I’ve seen some people stick a piece of white paper on their eyelid.) They look for a white piece of paper to stick on. Regardless of which eye is twitching, they tear off a piece of white paper from the calendar or a small notebook and stick it on their eyelid—it cannot be any other color than white. What does white paper signify? It means the twitch is “in vain,” indicating that nothing bad will be allowed to happen. Is this a brilliant method? It’s pretty brilliant, isn’t it? But does it mean that it’s twitching “in vain”? (It has nothing to do with whether one sticks the paper on their eyelid or not.) Can you clarify this matter? “Twitching on the left eye forecasts fortune but twitching on the right eye forecasts disaster”—whether it means fortune or disaster, are there any explanations for eye twitching? Is there a situation where when your right eye twitches, you feel like something bad is going to happen, you have a premonition, and after a while it stops twitching, you forget all about it, and then something bad happens after several more days, and after handling this matter, you suddenly remember, thinking, “Wow, the saying about eye twitching is accurate. Why? Because a few days ago, my right eye indeed started twitching, and after it stopped, this incident happened. After it happened, my eye hasn’t twitched since.” Does this ever happen? When you can’t comprehend something, you don’t dare say anything, you neither dare deny it nor admit it as true; you can’t avoid the topic, you can’t articulate it clearly, but you still think that it’s plausible. With your mouth, you say, “That’s a superstition, I can’t believe in that, everything is in God’s hands.” You don’t believe it, but this matter came true; it’s just so accurate, how do you explain it? You don’t understand the truth and essence here, so you can’t articulate it clearly. You deny it with your mouth, calling it superstition, but deep down, you’re still afraid of it because sometimes it really comes true. For example, someone gets in a car accident and passes away. Before the accident, that person’s wife gets a bad twitch in her right eye: It keeps twitching day and night—how bad is the twitching going to get? Even other people can see her eye twitching. After a few days, her husband gets into a car accident and dies. After handling the funeral, she sits down and slowly begins to think, “Oh my, those few days my eye was twitching so badly that I couldn’t even hold it down with my hand. I didn’t expect it to come true like this.” Later, she starts to believe this saying, thinking, “Oh my, things really do happen when my eye twitches. They may not necessarily be good or bad things, but something is bound to happen. It’s a kind of projection or premonition.” Does this ever happen? Some people say, “I don’t believe in it, it’s a superstition.” But it comes just at the right time, and it really is that accurate. The things mentioned in folk culture are not baseless rumors; superstition is different from tradition. To some extent it exists in people’s lives, and it also influences and controls people’s living environments and the events that occur in their lives. Some people say, “Well, isn’t this a sign from God, not a superstition? As it isn’t a superstition, we should treat and understand it properly. This didn’t come from Satan, it could be from God—a hint from God. We shouldn’t condemn it.” How do we view this matter correctly? This tests your ability to view things and your understanding of the truth. If you treat everything uniformly, believing that, “All of it is superstition, there’s no such thing and I don’t believe any of it,” is this a correct way to view things? For example, when unbelievers want to move house, they see on their almanac that it says, “Today is inauspicious for moving,” so they follow this taboo and don’t dare to move on that day. They check for a day where it says “It is auspicious for moving” or “All matters are auspicious” before they move. After moving, nothing bad happens, and it doesn’t affect their fortunes in the future. Does this happen? Some people see “inauspicious for moving” but don’t believe it; they move anyway. As a result, after moving, something goes wrong: there is misfortune in the family, their fortunes decline, someone in their family dies, and another gets sick. Everything, from farming, work, and doing business to their children’s schooling, becomes difficult. They don’t know what’s happening. They consult a fortune-teller, who says, “You broke a major taboo during that time. The day you moved was inauspicious for moving, and in doing so you offended Tai Sui.”^[a] What’s happening here? Do you know? If you can’t comprehend this, then you won’t know how to handle such situations when they arise. If an unbeliever says, “Let me tell you, I moved on the day it was inauspicious for moving, and after moving, my family kept experiencing problems day after day, getting more and more unlucky, and we haven’t had a good day since,” your heart may skip a beat when you hear it. You get scared, thinking, “Oh my, if I don’t follow the taboo, will the same happen to me?” You turn it over in your mind, thinking, “I believe in God, I’m not afraid!” But doubt still lingers in your mind, and you dare not break the taboo.

How should we view these superstitious sayings? Let’s start with the matter of eye twitching. Do we all know what eye twitching is all about? The most basic understanding people have is that it predicts what might happen in the future, whether that thing will be good or bad. But is this superstition or not? Go ahead. (It is superstition.) It’s superstition. Next question, should people who have faith in God believe in this saying? (They should not.) Why shouldn’t they believe? (Because our fortunes and misfortunes are managed and orchestrated in the hands of God and have nothing to do with whether your eye twitches or not. Everything we face is under God’s sovereignty and arrangement, and we should submit to it.) Let’s say one day your eye twitches badly for a whole day, and it continues into the next morning. Afterward, something happens, and you are pruned. After being pruned, your eye twitch stops. What would you think? “My eye twitch was a sign that I was going to be pruned.” Is this just a coincidence? Is it superstition? Sometimes it is just a coincidence; sometimes such things happen. What’s going on? (God, it feels like eye twitching might be part of normal bodily rhythm, and it shouldn’t be associated with being pruned.) Eye twitching should be understood like this: No matter whether people believe that one eye twitching indicates fortune and another indicates disaster, God created the human body with many mysteries. How deep these mysteries go, what specific details are involved in it, what instincts, abilities, and potential the human body has—humans don’t possess this knowledge on their own. Whether the human body can perceive the spiritual realm, whether it possesses what some call a sixth sense—people don’t know. Should people bother to understand these unknown aspects of the human body? (No, they shouldn’t.) There’s no need—people don’t need to understand what mysteries exist within the human body. Even though they don’t need to understand, they should have a basic understanding that the human body is not simple. It is fundamentally different from any thing or object not created by God, such as a table, a chair, or a computer. The nature of these things is entirely different from that of the human body: These lifeless objects have no perception of the spiritual realm, while the human body, a living thing that comes from God, that is created by God, can sense how to perceive its immediate environment, atmosphere, and certain special objects, as well as how to react to the surrounding environment and upcoming events. It’s not simple—these things are all a mystery. Not only can the human body sense things that are cold, hot, pleasant or disagreeable to smell, sweet, sour, and spicy, but there are also certain mysteries that the subjective consciousness of the individual is not aware of. Humans do not know about these things. So, specifically speaking, whether eye twitching is related to someone’s nerves, to their sixth sense, or to something involving the spiritual realm—we won’t delve into this. In any case, this phenomenon exists, and we won’t investigate its purpose and meaning for existing. Regardless, there are certain sayings about eye twitching both in the family and in folk culture. Whether these sayings consist of superstition or not, at the end of the day, it is a sign that manifests in the human body in advance of certain events taking place in a living environment. Now, does this manner of manifestation belong to superstition, to tradition, or to science? It is something that cannot be researched—it is a mystery. In short, within real life, over thousands of years from ancient times to the present, humanity has concluded that someone’s eye twitching is somehow connected to events that are going to happen around them. Whether this connection is related to wealth, luck, or some other aspect of a person’s life, is impossible to research. This is also a mystery. Why is it considered a mystery? Many things involve the spiritual realm beyond the material world, which you can’t see or feel even if they were told to you. That’s why it is considered a mystery. Since these matters are mysteries and people can’t see or feel them, but certain feelings of foreboding and prescience still exist in humans, how should people deal with them? The simplest rule is to just ignore them. Don’t believe that they have anything to do with your wealth or luck. Don’t worry that bad things might happen when your right eye twitches, and certainly don’t rejoice when your left eye twitches, thinking you’ll become wealthy. Don’t let these things affect you. The main reason is that you don’t have the ability to foresee the future. Everything is orchestrated and governed by God; whether what is going to happen will be good or bad, it is all in God’s hands. The only attitude you should hold is submission to God’s orchestration and arrangement. Don’t make predictions or any unnecessary sacrifices, preparations, or struggles. Whatever is going to happen will happen, because it is all in God’s hands. No one can change God’s thoughts, His plans, or what He is determined to make happen. Whether you stick white paper to your eyelid, press on your eyelid with your hand, or rely on science or superstition, none of it will make a difference. What is going to happen will happen, will come true, and you can’t change it because it’s all in God’s hands. Any attempt to avoid it is foolish, a futile sacrifice, and unnecessary. Doing so would only show that you are rebellious and stubborn, lacking a submissive attitude toward God. Do you understand? (Yes, I understand.) So, whether eye twitching is considered superstition or science, your attitude should be this: Don’t feel happy when your left eye twitches, and don’t be fearful, terrified, worried, rejecting, or resistant when your right eye twitches. Even if something does happen after your eye twitches, you should face it calmly because everything is in God’s hands. You don’t need to fear or worry. If something good happens, thank God for His blessing—this is the grace of God; if something bad happens, pray for God to lead you, to protect you, and to not let you fall into temptation. In whatever environment that may follow, be able to submit to God’s orchestration and arrangement. Don’t abandon God, don’t complain to Him, no matter how great the disaster that befalls you, or how severe the misfortune that you experience, don’t blame God. Be willing to submit to God’s orchestration. Won’t this issue then be resolved? (Yes.) Regarding matters like this, people should have this thought and viewpoint: “No matter what happens in the future, I am prepared, and I have a submissive attitude toward God. Whether my left eye twitches, my right eye twitches, or both eyes twitch simultaneously, I am not afraid. I know something might happen in the future, but I believe that everything is in God’s hands. It could be a way God is informing me about something that is going to happen, or it could be an instinctive reaction of my physical body. No matter what, I am prepared, and I have a submissive attitude toward God. No matter how great the harm or loss I suffer after this thing occurs, I won’t blame God. I am willing to submit.” This is the attitude people should have. Once they adopt this attitude, they will no longer care whether the sayings about eye twitching conditioned into them by their family constitute superstition or science. They say, “It doesn’t matter if it’s superstition or science. What you believe is your business. If you ask me to stick a piece of paper on my eyelid, I won’t do it. If the twitching gets uncomfortable, I’ll just do it for a little bit.” If someone tells you, “Your eye is twitching so much, be careful over the next couple of days!” can being careful help you avoid anything? (No, you can’t avoid what’s meant to happen.) If it’s a blessing then it can’t be a disaster, if it’s a disaster then you can’t avoid it; whether it’s a blessing or a disaster you accept it either way. This is having the same attitude as Job. If you accept it as long as it’s a blessing, and you’re happy when your left eye twitches, but you get angry when your right eye twitches, saying, “Why is it twitching? It keeps twitching, it never stops! I will pray and I will curse to make my right eye stop twitching and keep misfortune far away from me”—this isn’t the attitude a person who believes in God and follows Him should have. Without God’s permission, without God determining for it to happen, would misfortune or demons dare approach you? (No.) Both the material world and the spiritual realm are under God’s control, sovereignty, and arrangement. No matter what a little demon wants to do, without God’s permission, would it dare harm even a single hair on you? It wouldn’t dare, would it? (No, it wouldn’t.) It wants to touch you and harm you, but if God doesn’t allow it, it won’t dare. If God allows it, saying, “Stir up a few circumstances around them and bring them ill fortune and problems,” then the little demon will be happy and start acting against you. If you have faith in God and you overcome it, standing firm in your testimony, not denying or betraying God, not letting it succeed, then when the little demon comes before God, it won’t be able to accuse you anymore, God will gain glory from you, and He’ll lock up the little demon. It won’t dare to harm you again, and you will be safe. This is the genuine faith you should have, believing that everything is in God’s hands. Without God’s permission, no unlucky or bad thing will come to you. God can do more than just bless people; He can arrange various circumstances to test you and temper you, teach you lessons from among them, and He can set up various circumstances to chastise and judge you. Sometimes the circumstances God arranges may not align with your notions and certainly not your imaginings. But don’t forget what Job said, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). This should be the source of your genuine faith in God. Believe that God is in control of everything, and you won’t be afraid of a simple eye twitch, isn’t that right? (Yes, it is.)

Just now, we fellowshipped on how to deal with eye twitching. Eye twitching—a common occurrence in daily life—is something people often try human methods to resolve. However, these methods usually don’t achieve the desired results, and in the end, what is meant to happen will happen, and no one can escape it. Whether it’s a good or bad thing, whether it’s something people want to see or not, what is meant to happen will definitely happen. This further confirms that whether it’s a person’s destiny or the trivial matters of daily life, they are all orchestrated and managed by God, and no one can escape from them. Therefore, wise individuals should approach these things with the correct, positive attitude, viewing them and resolving things like this based on the truth principles and God’s word, rather than resorting to human methods to make any futile sacrifices or struggles, or in the end, they will be the ones to suffer loss. This is because, when it comes to the sovereignty of the Creator, there is no second path for humanity to choose. This is the only path that should be chosen and followed. Submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, learn lessons in the environments God orchestrates, learn to submit to God, to understand God’s deeds, to understand oneself, and what path a created being should choose and walk, and learn how to walk well the life path that people should walk, instead of resisting God’s orchestrations and arrangements with superstitious or human methods.

Footnotes:

a. Tai Sui is short for Tai Sui God. In Chinese astrology, Tai Sui means the Guardian God of the Year. Tai Sui governs all the fortunes of a particular year.