By Keke, China

In 2012, I accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days. I was 20 years old that year. I learned that this is God’s final work to save humanity, that God will sort people according to their kind, rewarding the good and punishing the evil, bringing this age to its close. Only by following Christ of the last days, Almighty God, can one have the chance to be saved and survive. I felt so blessed to have had the chance to accept God’s salvation of the last days! A few years after finding God, I began to ponder, “What is truly meaningful and valuable to pursue in life? Working and getting married might improve one’s material life, but these things are all temporary, and when the catastrophes come, nothing will remain.” After much thought, I still believed that pursuing truth is what truly has value. So I chose to put aside my job and the prospect of marriage to devote myself to my duty full-time, resolving to diligently believe in God. But as I grew older, having reached my 30s without having married or started a family, when relatives and friends saw me, they would ask, “You still don’t have a partner at this age? Why haven’t you married yet?” During holidays, everyone would also ask my mom why I wasn’t married yet, saying that I had to hurry up and bring someone home to meet them. My uncle was also busy trying to find me a partner, urging me to hurry up and get married. To avoid their questioning, when they came to visit during the New Year, I would avoid them by saying I was too busy with work. My father saw that other people of my age had long since gotten married, and their kids are pretty much grown up, and he started getting anxious, always telling me, “You still don’t have a partner at this age. What will our relatives and friends think? Who’s going to support you when you’re old? We won’t always be here for you; you need to think about your future!” As for me, I appeared calm, even comforting my dad saying, “I’m not in a hurry; I just haven’t met the right person yet.” But deep down, I felt somewhat despondent, thinking, “He’s right. Time’s flown by and I’m all grown up. I’m no longer a young woman in my 20s. Friends and classmates my age have already married, and as the saying goes, ‘When men are of age, they should marry; when women are of age, they should wed.’ I’ve reached this age, and I’m still unmarried. People are going to wonder if there’s something wrong with me—that no one wants me. After all, why else wouldn’t I get married? Am I just an old maid? As I get older, if I don’t get married soon, I’m going to drown in everyone’s criticism!” Thinking about this, I became even more depressed. Also, my health wasn’t good, I got sick often, and I often suffered from insomnia and felt dizzy every day. Even washing clothes at home was exhausting, let alone going out to work to support myself. A faint sense of worry began forming in my heart. My parents were still alive and could provide for me, but once my parents were no longer around, and with my poor health, still unmarried, and with no one to rely on, who’d take care of me if I got sick, or if something terrible happened, or when I get old? I couldn’t help but envy my classmates and friends. They were all married, and some of their families were pretty well-off. They’d have children and husbands to rely on in the future, while I’d be all alone, with no one to rely on. When I thought about having to endure the cold stares and mockery of others in the future, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat worried. Sometimes I’d even think, “While I’m still young, why don’t I find a partner who supports my belief in God and get married? That way, I’ll have someone to rely on, and my relatives and friends won’t mock me anymore.” But I thought about how this is the last time God will save humanity, so if I got married and settled down, I wouldn’t have as much time and energy to do my duty, and my life would also suffer loss. So I felt that I couldn’t get married. But this state kept coming back, and sometimes when I thought about it, I felt a bit despondent. Especially during holidays, I was always troubled by this matter, so I lost my motivation to do my duties. I realized that if this issue wasn’t resolved, it’d affect my duties so I thought I needed to seek the truth to resolve it.

Later, I thought of God’s words: “God has you live, you live for God, and you live to do your duty as a created being. This is the meaningful way to live. If people live without accepting or understanding the truth and live only for the flesh, there’s no value in that whatsoever. … God has given you this opportunity and had you live, doing your duty and expending for Him, and this is the most meaningful thing. You should feel proud and honored and cherish this opportunity. You’re so young, and for you to do your duty, follow God, and bear witness to Him in the midst of disaster and in such hostile surroundings and conditions—what a rare chance this is! God’s becoming flesh in the last days and expressing so much truth to completely save humanity so that humanity may gain the truth and be purified is the rarest opportunity. There isn’t much time, and it’s gone in the blink of an eye. You should take hold of this opportunity and gain all the truth that you should. This is the greatest blessing, and it’s a blessing greater than that of all the saints of ages past” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). I chose not to marry in order to earnestly believe in God. This wasn’t something shameful or something that made me inferior to others. Being able to expend myself for God is the most meaningful thing in the world. Though my classmates had already married and had children early and had families of their own, their entire lives were devoted to raising children, making a living, and managing their families, and they were entirely occupied with toiling for their flesh and their families. They spent their lives bustling about, but they didn’t know what it really meant to live a meaningful life, much less did they know about God. Their whole lives were for nothing and without any meaning. Although I hadn’t married or had children, God had graced me with the privilege of hearing His utterances and words, and I had come to understand so many truths and mysteries. God had also elevated me to do the duties of a created being, and to be able to offer my strength to propagate the gospel of the kingdom, and to dedicate my life to satisfying God is the most honorable and glorious thing. There was no need for me to care about what others said, and I should focus on seeking God’s intentions and requirements. Practicing according to God’s intentions is the most important thing, and I shouldn’t keep feeling troubled or inferior for not being married.

I then read more of God’s words and gained some understanding of my thoughts and views: God says: “Pernicious influences that thousands of years of ‘the lofty spirit of nationalism’ have left deep in the human heart, as well as the feudal thinking by which people are bound and chained, without an iota of freedom, with no will to aspire or persevere, no desire to make progress, remaining instead negative and regressive, entrenched in a slave mentality, and so on—these objective factors have imparted an indelibly filthy and ugly cast to the ideological outlook, ideals, morality, and disposition of humanity. Humans, it would seem, are living in a dark world of terrorism, which none among them seeks to transcend, and none among them thinks of moving on to an ideal world; rather, they are content with their lot in life, to spend their days bearing and raising children, striving, sweating, going about their chores, dreaming of a comfortable and happy family, and dreaming of conjugal affection, of filial children, of joy in their twilight years as they peacefully live out their lives…. For tens, thousands, tens of thousands of years until now, people have been squandering their time in this way, with no one creating a perfect life, all intent only on mutual slaughter in this dark world, on the race for fame and fortune, and on intriguing against one another. Who has ever sought after God’s intentions? Has anyone ever heeded the work of God? All the parts of humanity occupied by the influence of darkness have long since become human nature, and so it is quite difficult to carry out the work of God, and people have even less heart to pay attention to what God has entrusted to them today” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Work and Entry (3)). After reading God’s words, I realized that my thinking was utterly feudal and outdated, and that the idea that “When men are of age, they should marry; when women are of age, they should wed” had become deeply rooted in my mind. When I was young, I heard the gossip and mockery of people in the village, saying that any girl who got older without marrying was an unwanted old maid. So I thought that getting married, having children, and starting a family were the most important things in life, and that this was the life of a normal person. I regarded these traditional cultures and feudal ideas as truth, to the point where now I felt that not marrying at an older age was abnormal, and I found myself completely unable to hold my head high, as if I’d done something shameful. To avoid people gossiping about me behind my back, I even thought about getting married to get out of this awkward situation, and I couldn’t quiet my heart while doing my duties. Think about it: getting married, starting a family and career, and having children are God’s predestinations, and also human responsibilities. But times have changed. Now is the final time God will save humanity, and His work is about to end. The most crucial thing now is not getting married, having children, building a home and a career, and settling down. Instead, we should ponder how to fulfill the duties of a created being, and pursue the truth to achieve dispositional change and be saved. These are the most meaningful and valuable things. In modern society, many people in their 30s and 40s aren’t married, and this is now a very common thing. Many nonbelievers choose not to marry or have children to focus on their careers or pursue freedom. They live freely, not troubled by the idea of marriage, and this doesn’t violate ethical standards at all. I shouldn’t be bound by traditional culture. God predestined that I’d accept His work in my 20s, and I should spend the most precious years of my youth on believing in God, doing my duties, and steadfastly pursuing the truth, and I don’t need to worry about anything else. There are many choices in life, and marriage is not a big matter that a person must accomplish. Fulfilling the duties of a created being is what matters most. Thank God for giving me some discernment about these traditional cultures; otherwise, I would still be living in a state of inferiority and negativity, delaying my duties, and I would likely have missed the opportunity to follow God and be saved.

I then read God’s words: “Those who believe in God need only to pursue the truth and follow His way, and they will ultimately be saved. This is your mission, and is God’s greatest expectation and hope for you. God arranges the remaining matters, so you need not be anxious or worried. When the time comes, you will enjoy all that you ought, eat all that you ought, and use all that you ought. Everything will surpass your imagination and expectations, and will be abundant. God will not let you go without, nor be poor. There is a line in the Bible which says that the Lord’s burden is light. What does the original say? (‘For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light’ (Matthew 11:30).) Is that not the meaning? (It is.)” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (9)). What God exposed was my exact state. As I grew older and my health kept deteriorating, especially when I heard my dad say, “What’ll happen when we get old and aren’t around anymore, and you’re left all alone?” I couldn’t help but feel a little worried, thinking, “What if, in the future, when my parents are gone, I have no one to rely on?” I thought that if I got married, I’d have someone to rely on and that I’d suffer less. I was pinning my destiny on human beings, thinking that with someone to rely on, my life would be secure. I didn’t believe that everything was in God’s hands. In reality, how much a person suffers or is blessed has long since been predestined by God, and marriage doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have someone to rely on. Everyone wants to find someone to rely on. Some rely on their husbands, some on their children, but whether they can actually rely on or depend on them is not for people to decide. It’s all in God’s hands. I thought of some people around me who thought they could rely on their husbands after marriage, but not long after, their husbands had affairs and left them, and in the end, they still had to work alone to earn a living and support their families. Others counted on their husbands to support them after marriage, but then their husbands got sick and became incapable of taking care of themselves. They then had to take painstaking care of their husbands. Then there were others who never married, and had no husbands or children to rely on, yet they got by just fine on their own. Also, many brothers and sisters in the church have never gotten married, choosing to do their duties full-time, but they are living very well. God has provided for their daily needs in the house of God, they don’t have to worry about their livelihood, and they can focus entirely on expending themselves for God and pursuing the truth. I knew a sister who lived alone. Her husband had passed away long ago, and her children weren’t around. She was old and her health was poor, but the brothers and sisters in the church helped care for her. Then there was another sister; she was old, and when she got sick and was hospitalized, she had no husband or children to accompany and care for her. But God raised up distant relatives and hospital staff to help and care for her, and in the end, with everyone’s help, she was successfully discharged from the hospital. These sisters, though they had no husbands or children to rely on, sincerely relied on God, and He raised up people, events, and things to help them. Just as the Lord Jesus said: “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:26). God has mercy and care for those who truly believe in Him, and we should only focus on truly expending ourselves for God. God has already arranged everything for our future, and we don’t need to worry or be anxious about these things any further. I believed in God but didn’t trust in His sovereignty, and I didn’t fully entrust myself into His hands, always wanting to rely on marriage as a backup plan. My faith in God was too small! People cannot even control their own destiny, yet I kept wanting to rely on people to avoid suffering. Was this not utterly foolish? If God has predestined that I will suffer, then even if I get married, I will still suffer, and if God has predestined that I won’t suffer much in my life, then even if I don’t get married, I will be fine and won’t need to suffer so much. All of this is in God’s hands! From then on, I was willing to entrust myself to God, relying on Him to experience everything, and no matter what my destiny would be—whether a life of poverty, suffering, or comfort—there would be lessons for me to learn, and I was willing to accept and submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements. Realizing this, I gained faith in God, and I no longer worried or had concerns about my future.

Later, I read God’s words, and I understood the principles of practice on how to treat marriage: Almighty God says: “In regard to marriage, you should let go of the burdens you ought to let go of. Choosing to be single is your freedom, choosing to enter into marriage is also your freedom, and choosing to have many children is your freedom as well. Whatever your choice may be, it is your freedom. … God does not look at your marital background or marital status; He looks only at whether you are pursuing the truth, your attitude toward performing your duties, how much of the truth you have accepted and submitted to, and whether you act according to the truth principles. Ultimately, God will also set aside your marital status to examine the path in life, the principles by which you live, and the rules by which you survive that you have chosen to determine whether you will be saved” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (16)). “The words I speak now make demands of people based on their real circumstances, and I work in accordance with their needs and the things inside them. The practical God has come to earth to do practical work, to work according to people’s real circumstances and needs. He is not unreasonable. When God acts, He does not coerce people. Whether or not you get married, for example, should be based on the reality of your circumstances; the truth has been clearly spoken to you, and I do not constrain you. Some people’s families oppress them so that they are unable to believe in God unless they get married. In this way, marriage, conversely, is helpful for them. For others, marriage brings no benefits, but costs them what they once had. Your own case must be determined by your actual circumstances and by your own resolve. I am not here to invent rules and regulations with which to make demands of you” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Practice (7)). By reading God’s words, I understood God’s intention, and I knew how to treat marriage correctly. A person is free to choose whether to enter into marriage. God does not force anyone, nor does He interfere with people’s marriages. People can choose based on their own pursuit and real circumstances. This is the right God gives to people. God’s salvation does not depend on a person’s marital status; God only looks at whether a person pursues and accepts the truth, and this is how He determines their outcome. I thought of some brothers and sisters in the church whose parents persecuted them severely, who found believers to marry, and this actually benefited their faith. But some sisters, after getting married, suffered from their husbands’ persecution and constraint, and they had great family entanglements. They no longer had time to believe in God and do their duties, in which case, marriage became detrimental to their faith. Whether to get married is a right and freedom given by God, and I had to choose whether to marry based on my background, conditions, and what I was pursuing, and I shouldn’t make a blind decision. I thought about how much importance I placed on affections and family notions. When I first found God, I hadn’t yet broken up with my boyfriend, and at that time, I was focused on my relationship, causing me to lack focus in my faith. This also greatly affected my participation in gatherings and my duties, and it greatly damaged my spiritual life. Later, after breaking up with my boyfriend, I was able to have more time to believe in God and do my duties, my life progressed faster than before, and I came to understand more truths than I did before. If I’d married, my days would definitely be oriented around my husband and family, I wouldn’t have so much time to believe in God and do my duties, and gradually, my life would be ruined by marriage. I am currently single; I only have to worry about feeding myself; I have more time and energy, and this is more beneficial for my faith and pursuit of the truth. Thinking of this, I became able to treat marriage correctly.

I then read more of God’s words: “If you spend your best years thinking about finding a good job or looking for a partner, hoping to enjoy a life of the flesh while believing in God, to do both at the same time, then after a few years, you may find a partner, get married, have children, and build a home and a career, but you will have gained nothing from believing in God for all those years, you will not have gained any of the truth, your heart will feel empty, and your best years will have slipped by. When you look back at the age of forty, you will have a family, you will have children, and you will not be alone, but you will have to support your family. That is a chain that you cannot break free from. If you want to perform your duty, you will have to do so while shackled to the chains of your family. No matter how big your heart is, you cannot attend to both—you will not be able to wholeheartedly follow God and do your duty well. There are many people who abandon family and worldly things, but after believing in God for a few years they still only pursue fame, gain, and status. They have not gained the truth, and they do not even have any real experiential testimony. This is the same as them wasting their time. When they perform their duties now, they do not understand even a small part of the truth, and when something happens to them, they do not know how to experience it—so they start to snivel, and they are filled with great remorse. When they think back to the beginning, to all the young people living church lives together, doing their duties, singing hymns and praising God together, they think about how good those days were, and how much they would like to return to that time! Unfortunately, in this world there is no cure for regret. No one can turn back time, even if they would like to. There is no way to go back to the beginning and live life over again. That is why, once an opportunity has passed, it will not come again. A person’s life is only a few decades long, if you miss out on this optimum time to pursue the truth, your regrets will be useless. Some people have believed in God up until this day, and they are still muddled. They are completely ignorant of what stage God’s work has reached. The great disasters have come, and these people are still living in a dream, thinking: ‘There’s still a lot of time left before God finishes His work! People now still eat, drink, and marry as usual. I have to hurry up and enjoy life, I can’t miss out!’ They still covet fleshly comfort, without the smallest thirst for the truth in their hearts. In this way, they miss out on their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for salvation” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Paying the Price to Gain the Truth Is of Great Significance). “What is it you must do now? While God’s heart still toils for mankind, while He’s still making plans for mankind, while He still sorrows over and feels concern for every human movement and gesture, you must make your choice as soon as possible, and establish the goal and direction of your pursuit. Don’t wait until the days of God’s rest have come to make your plans. If you don’t feel true ruefulness, regret, grief, and lamentation until then, it will all have come too late. No one will be able to save you, nor will God. This is because when the time comes, the moment in which God’s plan truly ends, and He has made the last mark and is closing the book on His plan, He will work no longer. God needs rest; He needs to savor the fruits born of His six-thousand-year management plan and enjoy the stewardship of all things, for Him, of the humans who remain. What God wants to enjoy is the sight of the humans who remain managing all things according to the rules and regulations He has established, in meticulous accordance with the order He created for the seasons, and all things, and mankind, without violating anything He wills or anything He desires. God wants to enjoy His rest; He wants to enjoy His comfort, without further worry about mankind or work for their sake. Do you understand this? (Yes.) That day will soon be here. … To God, six thousand years is a blink of an eye, and what to man is sixty years, eighty years, or a hundred years is, to God, a few seconds—a few minutes, at most; a blink of the eye. Even people who don’t walk the correct path or pursue the truth often say, ‘Life is short: In a blink of the eye, we’re old; in the blink of an eye, the house is filled with children and grandchildren; in the blink of an eye, our lives have run their course.’ So what if you do pursue the truth? For you, time is even more pressing. People who don’t pursue the truth and live in a world of hollowness while their days away, and they all feel time goes by quite fast. What if you do pursue the truth? Any environment, any person, event, or thing set up by God is an adequate thing for you to experience for a while—and only after a long time will you gain just that little bit of knowledge, insight, and experience. It isn’t easy” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. Why Man Must Pursue the Truth). God’s 6,000-year management plan is about to end, and His gospel has already reached over 100 countries, long since having spread from the East to the West. The little scroll mentioned in Revelation has also been opened to all of humanity, and there isn’t much time left for me to believe in God and do my duties. The most crucial thing now is to ponder how to pursue the truth and fulfill my duties, not to think about whether to get married. Now that I’m not married, with no one restricting or binding me, even with lots of time to pursue the truth, I still feel that I don’t have enough time, and that there are still many truths I don’t understand. If I were to get married, have children, and get settled at this critical moment, though God wouldn’t condemn me, my family entanglements would be significant, and I wouldn’t have much time or energy to pursue the truth. God’s work won’t wait for me forever, and when God’s work finishes, I’d be left empty-handed, having gained no truth, and my regret would be immense! I thought of what the Lord Jesus said: “And woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!” (Matthew 24:19). Now is the critical moment for God to perfect people, and if I didn’t seize on these prime years and instead got married and settled down, though I’d save face and escape the pressure of public opinion, I’d lose this great opportunity to pursue the truth, which would be equivalent to ruining my chance of salvation, and by that time, I would truly be in trouble. Thinking this, I was no longer bound by the prospect of marriage; I felt much more liberated, and my heart was able to find peace in my duties. Thank God for the guidance of His words, which enabled me to escape the worries and anxieties of marriage, and to no longer look at things through the lens of traditional culture. I have gained some understanding of God’s sovereignty and predestinations, and I can now treat the ideal of marriage correctly.