In every period and at every stage, some particular things happen in the church that are at odds with people’s notions. For example, some people get sick, leaders and workers get replaced, some people are exposed and cast out, some face the test of life and death, some churches even have wicked people and antichrists who cause disturbances, and so on. These things happen from time to time, but they are by no means accidental. All of these things are the result of God’s sovereignty and arrangements. A very peaceful period may suddenly be interrupted by several incidents or unusual events, which happen either around you, or to you personally, and the occurrence of these things breaks the normal order and normality of people’s lives. From the outside, these things don’t conform to people’s notions and imaginings, they are things that people don’t want to happen to them or to witness. So does the occurrence of these things benefit people? How should people deal with them, experience them, and understand them? Is this something any of you have thought about? (We should understand that this is the result of God’s sovereignty.) Is it just a matter of understanding that this is the result of God’s sovereignty? Have you learned any lessons from it? Can you understand further how God holds sovereignty over all these things? What does God’s sovereignty involve, specifically? What specific things manifest themselves in people that they should know and understand? Have you learned any lessons from the things that have happened around you? Can you accept them from God, and then gain something from this? Or do you muddle along thinking to yourself, “It’s all the result of God’s sovereignty, just submit to God, there’s nothing in this that requires thinking about,” letting it slip by while you think such simple thoughts? Which of those situations apply to you? Sometimes major events occur in the church, for example, in spreading the work of the gospel, unexpectedly good results are achieved, or there are some unexpected difficulties, ups and downs, obstacles, or even disruption and destruction from external forces. Sometimes something unusual happens in a certain church or among some people performing their duties. Whether in ordinary times or unusual times, have you ever contemplated these extraordinary things that happen? What final conclusion did you draw? Or is it that most of the time, you have no understanding at all? Some people just think about it inwardly, and then simply say a brief prayer, without even seeking the truth to gain some understanding of these things. They just admit that these things are from God, and that is the end of it. Isn’t this going through the motions? Most people just muddle through. And when people of exceedingly poor caliber encounter these things, such people develop a great deal of incomprehension and confusion, and can easily develop notions and misunderstandings about God, and doubts about God’s sovereignty and orchestration. People had no understanding of God to start with, and when they encounter some things that are at odds with their notions, they don’t seek the truth or find people to fellowship with, but only treat them based on their notions and imaginings, before finally coming to the conclusion that “whether these things are from God or not is still uncertain,” and they start to have misgivings about God, and even doubt His words. As a result, their doubts, speculations, and wariness of God become more and more serious, and they lose the motivation to perform their duties. They are unwilling to suffer and make sacrifices, and they slack off, muddling through each day as it comes. Having experienced a few particular incidents, what little enthusiasm, resolve, and desire they had beforehand has deserted them and vanished, and all that remains are thoughts of how to make their own plans for the future and seek their way out. Such people are not in the minority. Because people don’t love the truth and don’t seek it, whenever anything befalls them they view it with their own eyes, without ever learning to accept it from God. They don’t seek the truth in God’s words in order to find the answers, and they don’t seek out people who understand the truth to fellowship with and resolve these things. Instead, they always use their own knowledge and experience of dealing with the world to analyze and judge the things that befall them. And what is the end result? They trap themselves in an awkward state with nowhere to go—this is the consequence of not seeking the truth. Nothing happens by chance, everything is ruled over by God. Although people can understand and accept this in theory, how should people treat God’s sovereignty? This is the truth that people should pursue and understand, and they should specifically practice it. If people only acknowledge the sovereignty of God in theory, but do not have a real understanding of it, and their own notions and imaginings have not been resolved, then no matter for how many years they believe in God and how many things they experience, they will still not be able to gain the truth in the end. If people do not pursue the truth, they cannot know God’s work. The more things they experience, the more notions they will have about God, the more they will question Him and, of course, their speculations, misunderstanding, and wariness of God will become all the more serious. The fact is, everything that happens is the result of God’s sovereignty and arrangement. The purpose and significance of God’s doing all these things is not to increase your misunderstanding and doubts about Him, but to clear up and resolve your inner notions and imaginings as well as your doubts, misunderstanding, and wariness of God, as well as other such negative things. If you don’t resolve problems in a timely manner when they occur, once these problems within you accumulate and become increasingly serious, and your enthusiasm or resolve is already no longer sufficient to support you in the performance of your duties, you will collapse into negativity, even to the point that there is a danger of you leaving God, and you certainly cannot stand firm. Now, some people reluctantly make a token effort in performing their duties, but only in order to gain blessings, without pursuing the truth whatsoever, and they become negative whenever some difficulty befalls them. This is what people who don’t pursue the truth are like. Because they are not entirely clear about the truth of visions, and they don’t have a true understanding of God’s work, even if they do their duties and expend themselves for God, they don’t have strength in their heart, and the little doctrine they understand cannot sustain them for long before they fall down. If people do not regularly gather, listen to sermons, or seek the truth to resolve their problems, they are unable to stand firm. Therefore, those who perform duties need to regularly fellowship on the truth, and whenever some matters befall them and they develop notions, they must fix this by seeking the truth in a timely manner. Only in this way can they be sure of staying loyal in the performance of their duty and being able to follow God to the very end.

The road of belief in God is rocky and uneven. This is ordained by God. No matter what happens, regardless of whether it is as people wish, or accords with their notions and imaginings, or is foreseeable to them, its happening cannot be dissevered from God’s sovereignty and His orchestration. God’s doing all that He does is significant in that it allows people to take a lesson from it and know God’s sovereignty. The goal of knowing God’s sovereignty is not that people should resist God, nor is it that people, having understood God, should have more power and capital with which to compete with Him. Rather, it is that when things befall them, people should learn to accept them from God, seek the truth to understand it, and then practice the truth to achieve true submission, and develop true faith in Him. Do you understand this? (Yes.) Well then, how do you put it into practice? Is your path of practice regarding such things correct? Do you treat each thing that befalls you with a heart of submission and an attitude of seeking the truth? If you are someone who pursues the truth, you will be possessed of such a mindset. Whatever befalls you, you will accept it from God, and you will go on to seek the truth, and grasp His will, and view people and things on the basis of His words. In all the things that befall you, you will be able to experience and know God’s work, and capable of submission to Him. If you are not someone who pursues the truth, then no matter what befalls you, you will not deal with it according to God’s words, nor will you seek the truth. You will just muddle through, without gaining any truths whatsoever as a result. God makes people perfect by arranging many things that do not conform to their notions, in order to train them to seek the truth, gain an understanding of His deeds, and see His almightiness and wisdom, so that their life gradually grows. Why is it that those who pursue the truth experience God’s work, gain the truth and are perfected by God, whereas those who don’t are cast out? It is because those who pursue the truth can seek it no matter what befalls them, so they have the work and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and can therefore practice the truth, enter into the reality of God’s words, and be perfected by Him; whereas, those who do not love the truth see that God’s work does not conform to their notions, and yet do not fix this by seeking the truth, and can even become negative and complain. Over time, their notions of God increase, and they start to doubt and deny Him. As a result, they are thrown off and cast out by God’s work. That is why people’s attitude toward the truth should be to seek it, practice it, and strive to meet God’s requirements, rather than being negative and passive. To experience God’s work, they must face many things, and view them all according to God’s words, as well as spending more time contemplating, seeking the truth and fellowshiping on it, so that they can know God’s work and keep pace with it. Only this way can they understand the truth, and go deeper into it day by day, and only this way can God’s words and every aspect of the truth take root in people. Experiencing God’s work cannot be separated from real life, let alone from the environments of various people, matters, and things that God sets out, otherwise people will not be able to understand and gain the truth. Most people don’t know how to experience God’s work whenever a problem befalls them. They don’t know how to seek the truth in order to resolve their notions and imaginings, or fix their mistaken understandings and preposterous views. As a result, despite experiencing many things, they cannot understand the truth and instead gain nothing—this is a waste of time. Whatever matter befalls them, ultimately what people should practice is to submit to God’s orchestration and arrangements. This submission does not mean that people should submit negatively, passively, or as a last resort, but rather that they have a positive, proactive intention, and a path of practicing the truth. What does it mean to submit to God’s orchestration and arrangements? It means that no matter what God arranges, no matter what matter befalls you, let God do it and learn to submit to Him. Don’t have any desires or personal plans, and don’t try to do things your own way. Everything that people like, pursue, and long for is preposterous and absurd. People disobey God too much. He asks people to go east, but they don’t want to go east. Even if they reluctantly submit, they still inwardly think about going west. This is not true submission. True submission means that when God tells you to go east, you should go east, and abandon and dismiss all thoughts of going south, north or west, and be able to forsake the will of the flesh, and then go practice by following the path and direction that God has shown you. This is what submission means. What are the principles for practicing submission? They are to listen to God’s words and submit, and to practice according to what God says. Don’t harbor your own intentions, and you also cannot be capricious. Whether you understand God’s words clearly or not, you should meekly go about putting them into practice, and doing things according to His requirements. From the process of practicing and experiencing, you will unconsciously come to understand the truth. If your mouth says that you submit to God, but you never let go and forsake your inner plans and desires, isn’t this saying one thing and thinking another? (Yes.) This is not true submission. If you do not truly submit, you will have many requirements of God whenever things befall you, and inwardly you will be impatient for God to meet your requirements. If God doesn’t do as you wish, you will feel very anguished and upset, you will suffer a great deal, and you will not be able to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements and the environments that God has set out for you. Why is this? Because you always have your own requirements and wishes, and you cannot let go of your own personal ideas, and you want to be the one calling the shots. Therefore, whenever you encounter things that are at odds with your notions, you cannot submit, and it’s hard for you to submit to God. Although people know in theory that they should submit to God and let go of their own ideas, they just cannot let go of them, constantly fearing that they will be disadvantaged and incur losses. Tell Me, does this not put them in great difficulty? Does their anguish not then increase? (Yes.) If you can give up everything, and let go of the things that you like and demand but which are contrary to God’s intentions, if you can proactively and willingly let go of them, and not set terms with God, but be willing to do what God requires, then the difficulty within you will be much smaller and the obstacles will be much smaller. If the obstacles to a person’s submission to God are lessened, won’t their anguish be lessened? As their anguish lessens, the suffering they are needlessly subjected to drastically lessens. Will you go and experience this way? Probably not yet. When some people see someone encountering difficulties, they immediately look out for themselves by putting themselves in that person’s shoes. Whenever they see someone encountering some kind of anguish, sickness, tribulation, or calamity, they immediately think of themselves and wonder, “If this happened to me, what would I do? It turns out that believers can still encounter these things and suffer these torments. So exactly what kind of God is He? If God is so inconsiderate of that guy’s feelings, will He treat me the same way? This shows that God is unreliable. At any place and any time, He sets up an unexpected environment for people, and can put them in embarrassing situations constantly, and in any circumstances.” They are afraid that if they do not believe, they will not gain blessings, but that if they continue to believe, they will meet with disaster. In this way, when people pray before God, they merely say, “God, I beg You to bless me,” and dare not say, “God, I ask that You test me, discipline me, and do as You will, I am willing to accept it”—they do not dare to pray like this. After experiencing a few setbacks and failures, people’s resolve and courage lessen, and they have a different “understanding” of God’s righteous disposition, His chastisement and judgment, and His sovereignty, and also develop a sense of wariness toward God. In this way, there is a wall, an estrangement, between people and God. Is it okay for people to have these states? (No.) So do these states tend to develop within you? Does it happen that you live in these states? (Yes.) How should such problems be resolved? Is it okay not to seek the truth? If you don’t understand the truth and don’t have faith, it will be difficult for you to follow God to the end, and you will fall down whenever you encounter disasters and calamities, whether natural or man-made.

After Job underwent a trial, he uttered the words: “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). Nowadays many people learn to recite this sentence, and they do so articulately. But whenever they recite it, all they think about is that it is Jehovah who gives, yet they never think about what it will be like when Jehovah takes away, and what kind of anguish, difficulty and awkward predicament people will experience then, or how people’s hearts will change with the environment. They have never given it a second thought, they just keep on reciting “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah,” even to the point of using this sentence as a slogan and a doctrine that they trot out at every opportunity. In everyone’s mind, the only thing they can think about is all the graces, blessings, and promises that Jehovah bestows on people, but they never think—or cannot envision—what kind of scene will come to pass when Jehovah takes all these things away from them. Everyone who comes to believe in God is only ready to accept God’s grace, blessings, and promises, and only willing to accept His kindness and compassion. Yet no one is waiting or preparing to accept God’s chastisement and judgment, His trials and refinement, or His deprivation, and not a single person makes preparations to accept God’s judgment and chastisement, His deprivation, or His curses. Is this relationship between people and God normal or abnormal? (Abnormal.) Why do you say that it’s abnormal? Where does it fall short? It falls short in that people do not have the truth. It is because people have too many notions and imaginings, constantly misunderstand God, and do not fix these things by seeking the truth—this makes it most likely for problems to occur. In particular, people only believe in God for the sake of being blessed. They only want to strike a deal with God, and demand things from Him, but do not pursue the truth. This is very dangerous. As soon as they encounter something that is at odds with their notions, they immediately develop notions, grievances, and misunderstandings with respect to God, and can even go so far as to betray Him. Are the consequences of this serious? What path do most people walk in their faith in God? Though you may have listened to so many sermons and feel that you have come to understand quite a few truths, the fact is that you are still walking the path of believing in God only to eat your fill of bread. If your mind is already prepared to accept judgment and chastisement, trials and refinement, and you have also mentally prepared yourself to suffer disaster, and if, no matter how much you expend for God and how much of a sacrifice you make in performing your duty, you really did face the trials of Job, and God deprived you of all your property, even to the point that your life were about to end, what would you do then? How should you deal with God’s sovereignty and arrangements? How should you deal with your duty? How should you deal with what God has entrusted to you? Do you have the correct understanding and the right attitude? Are these questions easy to answer or not? This is a great hurdle placed before you. Since it is a hurdle and a problem, should it not be resolved? (Yes.) How to resolve it? Is it easy to resolve? Supposing that, having believed in God for so many years, read so many of God’s words, listened to so many sermons, and understood so many truths, you are already prepared to let God orchestrate everything, whether that be blessings or disaster. And supposing that, despite your forsaking and expending yourself, and the sacrifices you have made, and a lifetime of energy, all you get in return is God uttering curses at you, or depriving you. If, even then, you have no words of complaint, no desires or requirements of your own, but only seek to submit to God and to put yourself at the mercy of His orchestrations, and you feel that being able to have even a little understanding of and a little submission to God’s sovereignty still makes your life worthwhile—if you have such a correct attitude, is it not then easy to resolve some of the difficulties? Do you now have true knowledge of God’s sovereignty and arrangements? Do you still have plans for your personal future and destiny deep within your heart? Can you leave everything behind and sincerely expend yourself for God? Have you spent time and energy carefully contemplating and thinking about these issues? Or have you experienced some things to achieve understanding of truths and know God’s sovereignty? If you have never even thought about such a practical problem as how people who follow God should deal with His sovereignty and the Creator’s orchestration and arrangements, which is also the biggest problem before you, and you don’t realize that this is the biggest truth of visions, then if one day a major event or disaster were to happen, would you be able to stand firm in your testimony? It’s hard to say, and it’s still an unknown factor, is it not? (Yes.) Shouldn’t this issue be thoroughly reflected on? (Yes.) So how can you have sufficient stature to face a future that you cannot foresee? How can you stand firm in your testimony within the environments that God sets out? Is this not an issue that should be seriously considered and pondered over? If you constantly think, “I am a good person by nature, and I have enjoyed a great deal of God’s grace, blessings, and protection. When others encounter difficulty, they are in a helpless position, but whenever I encounter difficulty, I have God’s provision, guidance, and help. Now, I am able to endure hardship and make sacrifices in performing my duty, my faith in God has grown stronger, and I am also fulfilling an important duty. I see that God is especially gracious to me, and I have His protection and blessing. If I keep this up, even if in the future I suffer some chastisement, judgment, trials, and refinement, I should be able to overcome them. In the end, I will definitely be one of those who are blessed, I will definitely be brought into the kingdom by God, and I will definitely see the day when God will be glorified!” How about thinking this way? You believe that you are different, that God shows you special favor, and that if God casts out or forsakes anyone, it won’t be you. Are these thoughts right? (No.) Why are they not right? (It is not objective to think this way.) Do these words amount to true knowledge of God? Or is this being too subjective and speculative? Are people who have these thoughts people who pursue the truth? (No.) So can they truly submit to God? (No.) Are they ready to accept God’s chastisement, judgment, trials and refinement, and even His curses? (No.) What will they do when God’s chastisement and judgment, trials and refinement really happen to them? Will they develop notions or complain about God? Can they accept these things from God and truly submit? (No.) It would be hard to achieve, to say the very least. This is because they believe in God only to seek grace or to eat their fill of bread. They do not know that God also has wrath and majesty, and that God’s disposition cannot be offended. God treats everyone fairly, and when it comes to any created being, God’s disposition is compassion and love, but also majesty and wrath. In God’s dealings with each person, the compassion, love, majesty, and wrath in His righteous disposition are unchanging. God will never show compassion and love only to some people, and majesty and wrath only to others. God will never do this, because He is a righteous God, and He is fair to everyone. God’s compassion, love, majesty, and wrath exist for any person. He can bestow grace and blessings on people, and can give them protection. At the same time, God can also judge and chastise people, curse them, and take away all that He has given them. God can give to people, but He can also take everything away from them. This is God’s disposition, and this is what He must do with every person. Therefore, if you think, “I am precious in God’s eyes, like the apple of His eye. He absolutely cannot bear to chastise and judge me, and He absolutely will not have the heart to take away everything that He has given to me, lest I be upset and distressed,” is this thinking not mistaken? Is this not a notion about God? (Yes.) So, before you come to understand these truths, do you not think only about enjoying God’s grace, compassion, and love? As a result, you keep forgetting that God also has majesty and wrath. Though your lips say that God is righteous, and you are able to thank and praise God when He shows you compassion and love, whenever God shows majesty and wrath in chastising and judging you, you feel very upset. “If only such a God didn’t exist,” you think. “If only it wasn’t God who did this, if only God wasn’t targeting me, if only this wasn’t God’s intention, if only these things were done to others. Because I am a kind-hearted person, and I have done nothing bad, and I have paid a heavy price for believing in God for many years, God should not be so merciless. I should be entitled and qualified to enjoy God’s compassion and love, as well as God’s abundant grace and blessings. God will not judge or chastise me, and neither does He have the heart to do it.” Is this just wishful and wrong thinking? (Yes.) In what way is it wrong? What’s wrong here is that you don’t regard yourself as a created being, as a member of created humanity. You mistakenly detach yourself from created humanity and regard yourself as belonging to a special group or type of created being, bestowing special status on yourself. Is this not arrogant and self-righteous? Is this not unreasonable? Is this a person who truly submits to God? (No.) Absolutely not.

In God’s family, among brothers and sisters, no matter how high your status or standing, or how important your duty, and no matter how great your talent and contributions, or how long you have believed in God, in the eyes of God you are a created being, an ordinary created being, and the noble titles and appellations you have bestowed on yourself do not exist. If you always regard them as crowns, or as capital that enables you to belong to a special group or be a special personage, then by doing this you resist and conflict with God’s views, and are incompatible with God. What will be the consequences of this? Will it cause you to resist the duties that a created being should perform? In the eyes of God, you are but a created being, but do not regard yourself as one. Can you truly submit to God with such a mindset? You always think wishfully, “God shouldn’t treat me like this, He could never treat me like this.” Does this not create a conflict with God? When God acts at odds with your notions, your mentality, and your needs, what will you think in your heart? How will you deal with the environments God has arranged for you? Will you submit? (No.) You will not submit, and you will certainly resist, oppose, grumble, and complain, puzzling over it again and again in your heart, thinking “But God used to protect me and treat me graciously. Why has He changed now? I can’t live anymore!” So you start being petulant and acting up. If, at home, you behaved like this toward your parents, it would be excusable and they wouldn’t do anything to you. But it’s not acceptable in God’s house. Because you are an adult and a believer, even other people won’t stand for your nonsense—do you think God would tolerate such behavior? Will He condone you doing this to Him? No, He won’t. Why won’t He? God is not your parent, He is God, He is the Creator, and the Creator would never allow a created being to be petulant and unreasonable or to throw tantrums in front of Him. When God chastises and judges you, tests you, or takes away from you, when He places you in adversity, He wants to see a created being’s attitude in how they treat the Creator, He wants to see what kind of path a created being chooses, and He will never allow you to be petulant and unreasonable, or to spout preposterous justifications. After understanding these things, shouldn’t people think about how they should deal with everything that the Creator does? First of all, people should assume their proper places as created beings and acknowledge their identity as created beings. Can you acknowledge that you are a created being? If you can acknowledge it, then you should assume your proper place as a created being and submit to the Creator’s arrangements, and even if you suffer a little, you do so without complaint. This is what it means to be someone with sense. If you do not think you are a created being, but reckon that you have titles and a halo over your head, and that you are a person of status, a great leader, conductor, editor, or director in God’s family, and that you are someone who has made worthy contributions to the work of God’s family—if that is what you think, then you are a most unreasonable and brazenly shameless person. Are you people with status, standing, and worth? (We are not.) Then what are you? (I am a created being.) That’s right, you are just an ordinary created being. Among people, you can flaunt your qualifications, play the seniority card, brag about your contributions, or talk about your heroic exploits. But before God, these things do not exist, and you must never talk about them, or show them off, or assume the airs of an old hand. Things will go awry if you flaunt your qualifications. God will regard you as utterly unreasonable and arrogant to the extreme. He will be repulsed and disgusted by you, and sideline you, and you will be in trouble then. You must first acknowledge your identity and standing as a created being. No matter your status among others, or how distinguished your standing, or what advantages you have, or whether God has given you some kind of special talent, so that you can enjoy an ample sense of superiority among people—when you come before God, these things have no value or significance. Therefore, you must not show off, but instead be a created being meekly before God. Before God, you are just a member of created humanity. No matter how renowned you are, how gifted or talented you are, and no matter how great your endeavors among people, before God these things are not worth mentioning, let alone showing off, and you should just assume your proper place as a created being. This is the first thing. The second thing is not to seek only to enjoy God’s grace and blessings while inwardly resisting and rejecting God’s chastisement and judgment, or fearing God’s trials and refinement for you. These fears and resistance are all to no avail. Some people say: “If I am willing to accept God’s judgment, chastisement, trials and refinement, can I then be spared these sufferings?” God does not do all these things according to whether you like them or not, or according to your subjective wish or your choice, but according to His will, His thoughts, and His plans. Therefore, as a created being, in addition to accepting God’s grace and blessings, you must also be able to truly accept and experience in your heart the chastisement, judgment, trials and refinement of God’s words. There are some people who will say: “Do You mean that God’s grace can be bestowed on people anywhere and at any time, but that God’s chastisement, judgment, trials, refinement, and calamities can also fall on people anywhere and at any time?” Do you think that God’s chastisement, judgment, trials and refinement would befall people arbitrarily, making it impossible for them to guard against? (They would not.) Absolutely not, that is not the case at all. Corrupt human beings are not worthy of God’s judgment and chastisement—this is something you should be aware of. But you must understand that God’s revealing and exposing you, disciplining, chastening and chastising you, and His judgment, trials and refinement, and even cursing of you are based on your stature, your circumstances, and of course your personal pursuits. If God approves of you, then His judgment, chastisement, trials and refinement will befall you at the appropriate time. Over the course of your belief in God, His blessings and grace accompany you at all times and in all places, as will His revelations, chastening, discipline, chastisement and judgment, trials and refinement, and so on. Of course, at all times and in all places means in just measure, at the right time, and based on God’s plan. It doesn’t happen to people arbitrarily, and it doesn’t mean that a major calamity will suddenly befall people as soon as they stop being careful. It’s not like that at all. If you do not have a certain stature and God hasn’t yet planned to do anything with you, do not worry, you might only be accompanied by God’s grace, blessing, and presence in your life. If you do not have sufficient stature, or you are particularly resistant and afraid of God’s chastisement, judgment, trials, and refinement, then God will not force things on you against your will, so you need not worry about this. Regardless of whether these things happen or not, people should know God’s work and understand His will. Only with an accurate knowledge of God’s words can people have a correct attitude, a normal state, and be able to properly face whatever befalls them. Are you now ready to accept God’s chastisement, judgment, trials and refinement? Are you willing to accept? (We are.) Your mouths say yes, but you are still very scared in your hearts. If, right after saying yes, a calamity suddenly descended on you out of the blue, how would you deal with it? Would you burst into tears? Would you be afraid of death? Would you worry that you won’t be blessed? Would you worry that you won’t be able to see the day when God will be glorified? These are all problems that people face when things befall them. In short, if one wishes to stand firm amid trials and tribulations, one must be possessed of two things. Firstly, assume your proper place as a created being. You should be clear in your heart that you are an ordinary created being, an ordinary person among corrupt humanity, nothing extraordinary or special, and you should assume your proper place as a created being. Secondly, have a sincere heart that submits to God, and be ready at all times to accept blessings and grace from God, as well as accepting chastisement, judgment, and trials and refinement from Him. As Job said, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10), and “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). This is a fact, and it is a fact that will never change. You understand, don’t you? (Yes.) If you are possessed of these two things, you will basically be able to stand firm and get through general calamities and tribulations. Although you may not be able to bear strong and resounding testimony, at the very least you will be unlikely to go astray, stumble, or do something treacherous. Are you not then secure? (Yes.) Then you should practice according to these two things, and see whether it is easy to achieve, and whether you can accept them deep within your heart. Once you know these things, then when you encounter some trials, how differently you will view and understand them is your own business. Here ends our fellowship on this topic.