By Xiaoli, China

I was born into an ordinary working-class family. My parents were guileless, dutiful people with no special abilities, and our relatives and friends looked down on us. I thought to myself, “I can’t be like my parents, living a life of mediocrity and being looked down upon. I’m going to strive to succeed and work hard to build a career. I want to be the center of attention and have everyone praise me when they mention me.”

In 2017, I graduated from college and I joined a real estate company as a property consultant. At that time, the property market was booming, and in my first month as an intern, I easily sold three houses. The bonus and commission for selling one house were comparable to a month’s salary for other classmates, and I thought to myself, “I’ve found such a lucrative job right after graduation. Compared with my classmates, I’m doing the best. After two years, when I earn even more money, my classmates and friends will admire me.” In March 2018, house prices rose again, and people’s enthusiasm for buying houses soared instantly. My colleagues started buying houses one after another, and many big investors in the industry were also buying houses. I heard that they’d used credit cards to invest in real estate before prices surged, that in just a few short years, housing prices skyrocketed, and that by selling any house, they could bring in double what they’d paid. Seeing this, I felt very envious. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up with this surge in the housing market, and that if house prices kept rising, my chance of buying would become increasingly slim. I feared that if I missed this golden opportunity, there’d be no knowing when I’d ever be able to achieve my goal of surpassing others. Also, if my relatives and friends knew I’d bought a house, they would surely look at me in a new light and praise me for being so capable. So I decided to take out a loan and buy a house. At that time, my mother had already come to believe in Almighty God, and when she heard I was buying a house, she advised me, “God’s work of saving mankind in the last days is about to end, and the catastrophes will keep getting bigger. When catastrophes strike, will you be able to take these material things with you? It’s more important to believe in God, read His words more, and pursue life. Also, we don’t have that much money in our family, so where did you get the money to buy a house?” But at the time, I didn’t listen to anything she said, and I thought she was being short-sighted. I thought that there was no knowing when catastrophes might strike, and that as I was still young, now the most important thing was to find ways to make money and stand out. So, I quickly took out a loan to buy a house. Later, to avoid being looked down upon by colleagues and to flaunt my status in front of clients, I took out another loan to buy a car. I thought that in this day and age, having a car and a house was the standard for a successful life, and that only then could a person be respected wherever they went. Later, relatives and friends praised me, saying, “You’re doing well; don’t forget us when you get rich.” Hearing this, I felt pleased and my vanity was greatly satisfied. Although the house and car had both been bought with loans, no matter who brought this up, at least I had a car and a house now. I only cared about looking well off, and it didn’t matter to me whether I was in debt or not. I thought to myself, “Now that I have a car and a house, the lifestyle that I show the world should match up. Only then will I look like a person who makes a lot of money and handles big business, and then I’ll be even more likely to gain the envy and admiration of others.” So, I applied for several credit cards and started spending recklessly, presenting myself as a person of moderate success. At all the major restaurants and entertainment venues, wherever rich people went, you would find me there. I signed up for charges of hundreds, even thousands of yuan on membership cards as casually as drinking water. In this way, as soon as my salary was paid, I’d immediately use it to pay off my credit card debt and monthly payments. Sometimes, I couldn’t save a single penny, and I even had to pay extra, and my credit card bills started piling up. At first, I was also worried about what’d happen if I couldn’t pay off my debts. But I thought, “With my abilities, I’ll always be able to earn money, and besides, I’ve got a house as a fixed asset, so at worst, I can sell the house in a couple of years when the price rises and make a quick heap of cash. With such a strong backup, what have I got to be afraid of?” So I stopped worrying about it.

But to my surprise, at the end of 2019, an accident completely shattered my plans. One day after work, I went out for drinks with three colleagues, and on the way home, the driver got overexcited, and started hitting the gas like he was at a racetrack. But he was driving too fast, and before he could brake, the car veered off the road and crashed into a house. The car was totaled on the spot and the four of us were sent to the hospital. The final diagnosis was that the driver had a ruptured intestine and was bleeding, and the front passenger had a spinal fracture. Fortunately, I was sitting behind the driver, and I was the least injured of the four of us, being left with only a fracture in my right arm. But my colleague who’d been sitting next to me wasn’t so lucky. Because there’d been a utility pole in front of the house, the driver had instinctively jerked the steering wheel to the left when he saw the house, and as a result, my colleague in the back seat was struck violently by the pole, his liver ruptured, and he died on the spot. I get chills every time I think about it. At the same time, I felt really shaken and fortunate. What shocked me was just how fragile human life is, how it seems that life and death can happen in an instant, and that no one can predict what will happen in even the next second. Luckily for me, if the driver had turned the wheel to the right or if I had been sitting in my colleague’s seat, I might have been the one to die. It felt as though, unseen to me, this had been arranged by God, allowing me to escape this calamity. Afterward, the deceased’s family demanded compensation. The three of us pooled together 800,000 yuan in compensation to settle the matter. By this point, I had accumulated a debt of 300,000 yuan. Later, whenever I thought of the car loan, the mortgage, and the hundreds of thousands of credit card bills, I’d feel really depressed. How was I supposed to go on with my life? After feeling despondent for a while, I decided to pull myself together and keep selling houses to make money and pay off my debts. But right after that, the sudden global COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 dealt my life yet another mortal blow. Due to the long-term city lockdown, everyone was quarantined at home, the sales office was empty, and sales ground to a halt. Later, in order to cut costs, the company paid only 50% of the employees’ salaries. I thought to myself, “It’s over. There’s nothing I can do to recover this time. This isn’t even enough for my monthly car and mortgage payments, and then there are the hundreds of thousands in credit card bills to think about. If I stop paying, the bank will take the house and auction it off, and if I can’t pay off my credit card debt, my credit will be blacklisted, and then I’ll lose everything.” I thought about selling the house I’d just bought, but just then, the developer declared bankruptcy and ran away, leaving the houses unfinished and the handover endlessly delayed. To make up for the monthly car and mortgage payments, I had no choice but to take out numerous installment plans on my credit cards. From then on, I was burdened with high-interest rates, and I found myself living my life in a pit of debt.

During that time, I felt despondent, had no courage to live, and I felt utterly hopeless about life. I often wondered, “What was even the point of buying a car and a house? Now the car’s sitting outside unused, and the house is unfinished and can’t be sold. If I’d died in that car accident, what would owning a car and house have meant?” In my suffering, my mom once again preached the gospel of Almighty God of the last days to me. She said, “People’s lives are all in God’s hands. You should come before God and read His words earnestly, and whatever difficulties or pain you have, you should tell God, and ask Him to help you through this hardship.” At this point, I remembered a passage from God’s words my mom had often recited to me: “All manner of disasters will befall, one after another; all countries and places will experience disasters: Plague, famine, flood, drought, and earthquakes are everywhere. These disasters are not just happening in one or two places, nor will they be over within a day or two; rather, they will expand across a greater and greater area, and become more and more severe. During this time, all manner of insect plagues will arise one after another, and the phenomenon of cannibalism will occur everywhere. This is My judgment upon the myriad countries and peoples” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 65). God has long said that the catastrophes would become ever greater, and now these words have been fulfilled. My mom often used to talk to me about faith in God, but I was always indifferent, insisting on buying a house and a car, and striving to stand out to gain others’ admiration. But things didn’t turn out as I’d wished. My hopes of using the house to finance my loans were shattered, and I was burdened with huge debts, and I just kept falling deeper and deeper into the vortex of debt. With the pandemic having spread worldwide and tens of thousands of people dying daily, the climate continually worsening, and global catastrophes and wars breaking out one after another, I truly felt that the great catastrophes of the last days had arrived. I felt that if I didn’t believe in God now, then one day I too may fall into disaster. I couldn’t keep stubbornly going about things the wrong way, and I made up my mind to diligently read God’s words. Later, by reading God’s words, I came to understand some truths, my heart found reliance, and I gained the hope to keep on living.

With lockdown measures lifting temporarily, my work gradually returned to normal. Because I had set up installment plans for numerous credit cards, I was accumulating enormous interest fees each month, and my monthly salary was almost entirely being used to pay this off. It was then that I realized that though the bank’s installment plan seemed to reduce my repayment pressure at the time, it was essentially usury! I felt as though I had fallen into a bottomless pit of debt, and that if things went on like this, I would never be able to finish the repayments, and I’d spend the rest of my life trying to pay off my debts. Looking at the monthly bills, I couldn’t help but cry. In my pain, I cried out to God, “God, I know that believing in You is the right path in life, and I am willing to earnestly pursue the truth. But right now, I have actual difficulties and don’t know how to resolve them. I’m in so much pain. Please open a way for me.” Later, by chance, I saw online that you could make money editing videos, so I tried editing videos online. To my surprise, one of the videos I posted suddenly went viral. After that, I kept editing videos and posting them on platforms, and in three months, I’d earned almost 100,000 yuan, which greatly alleviated the financial pressure on me. I felt deeply moved. I had truly experienced God’s almightiness and sovereignty. God had heard my prayers and helped me through my difficulties. And I was able to have more time to gather and read His words. So, I resigned from my job without hesitation, and I then attended gatherings while editing videos to earn money. Shortly after I resigned, the leader arranged for me to do text-based duties, and I was really excited. I’d gather and do my duties by day, and I’d make money editing videos to repay my debts in the evening. Later, I had more articles to screen, and I couldn’t find more time to edit videos. Before, I could post a video every two days, but now I could only post once every five days, and sometimes, during holidays, clients would urgently need videos edited at the last minute, but because I’d been out doing my duty that day and couldn’t be reached, they’d go to someone else, and I’d lose lots of orders. Seeing my income slowly decrease, my heart began to change. I thought, “My duty is really holding up my time. I’ve finally got this opportunity to make money, and this might be my only springboard for making a comeback. If I stick with this for another year or so, I’ll not only be able to pay off all my debts, but I’ll also achieve financial freedom and regain the admiration of my friends and relatives. If I miss this chance to make money, who knows how long it will be before the next one comes? I can’t just give this up so easily. Besides, only by earning enough money will I have time to calm my heart to do my duties properly. Otherwise, I will remain troubled by debt and be unable to focus on my duties.” Later, though I appeared to be doing my duties every day, in my heart, I kept thinking about how to write copy for the videos. When I got home, I would sit at my computer to collect materials and edit videos, and I’d not want to bother making time to screen the articles the brothers and sisters had sent me. As a result, I hadn’t submitted a single article in three months.

One day in February 2023, a video platform invited me to create a video. I completed the video in just four hours, and unexpectedly, after the video was released, it immediately went viral, and in seven days, I earned a net income of 130,000 yuan, enabling me to immediately pay off half of my debt. I thought, “If I keep making money at this pace, and keep working hard for another six months, I’ll be able to pay off all my debts, and then I’ll again be able to achieve both fame and gain, and attain the admiration of my friends and relatives. I’ll be able to return to my days of being prosperous and admired. I’ll be able to make a comeback right away! I can’t miss such a rare opportunity! I need to quickly grab as much time as I can to make money, and cut down the time I spend on my duties.” But when I thought this way, I felt uneasy. I thought back to when I was deep in debt, at the end of my rope, and feeling that I’d be better off dead. It was God’s grace that led me to the path of faith. I had prayed to God, asking Him to open a way for me and to help me get through my difficulties, and I’d decided to properly believe in God and pursue the truth. Now, God had opened a way for me and helped me pay off a great deal of my debt. If I went back out into the world to pursue money, fame, and gain to make a comeback, would I not be deceiving God? I also thought about how I’d tried every possible way to earn money in pursuit of fame and gain, and that in the end, not only did I fail to make money, but I even lost a lot due to the car accident. Now, I’d earned nearly a year’s worth of money in just four hours, and all of this was God’s almightiness and sovereignty. I saw how much a person earns in their lifetime has all been predestined by God. When it’s not time for them to make money, even if they work themselves to the bone to earn money, it will be lost in various ways. But when it is the right time for them to make money, they can earn it with barely any effort. I always wanted to rely on my own abilities to earn lots of money, but if I’m not destined to have much money, then no matter how hard I try, it’ll be futile in the end. Thinking of this, I quickly prayed to God, “God, the money I make now is all from Your sovereignty and arrangements. I know that this is You opening a way for me to ease my debt pressure, allowing me to properly believe in You and do my duties, but now, faced with the temptation of making money, I just can’t let go. I don’t know how to choose between wealth, fame and gain, and my duties. I just don’t know how to decide. Please help and guide me, and enable me to understand Your intentions and find a path of practice.”

Later, I read God’s words. “God has long told people they should be content with just having food and clothing. No matter what profession you engage in, do not treat it as a career, and don’t see it as a springboard or a means to rise to prominence or accumulate wealth and live comfortably. Regardless of the work or profession you engage in, it’s enough to see it solely as a means to sustain your livelihood. If it can sustain your livelihood, you should know when to stop and not pursue riches anymore. If earning two thousand yuan per month is enough to cover your three meals a day and the basic necessities of life, then you should stop there and not try to expand the scope of your job. If you have any special necessities, you can take on additional shifts part-time or a temporary job to make ends meet—that’s acceptable. God’s requirement for people is this: No matter what profession you engage in, regardless of whether it involves knowledge or any technical skills, or if it calls for any physical labor, as long as it is reasonable and lawful, it is within your capabilities, and this profession can sustain your livelihood, then that is enough. Do not turn the profession you engage in into a stepping stone for realizing your own aspirations and desires for the sake of satisfying your life in the flesh, thereby letting yourself fall into a temptation or quagmire, or leading yourself down a path of no return. If earning two thousand yuan per month is enough to sustain your personal life or the life of your family, then you should keep that job and use the remaining time to practice faith in God, attend gatherings, do your duties, and pursue the truth. This is your mission, the value and meaning of a believer’s life. … If you wish to have rewards for your belief in God, if you want to attain the truth, it depends on your own efforts to secure time and energy. This is a matter of choice. God doesn’t forbid you from sustaining a normal life. Your income is sufficient to cover food and warmth, sustaining your bodily survival and life activities. It’s enough to support your continued existence. But you are not content; you always want to earn more. Then your energy and time will be taken away by this sum of money. What are they being taken away for? To enhance the quality of your physical life. As you improve the quality of your physical life, you gain less from believing in God, and your time for doing duties is gone, it is occupied. What occupies it? It is occupied by the pursuit of a good physical life, by physical enjoyment. Is it worth it? (No.)” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (20)). “In the world, every profession that people engage in is associated with fame, gain, and physical enjoyment. The reason why people earn more money is not to achieve a certain number, but to improve their physical enjoyment through earning that money, and also to become wealthy people known to the public. This way, they will have fame, gain, and position, all of which exceed the range of basic necessities. Any price people pay is for physical enjoyment, none of it has meaning; all of it is empty, like a dream. What they gain in the end is pure emptiness” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (20)). God’s words showed me a path of practice. I shouldn’t treat my career as a springboard to try and make a meteoric rise or a comeback, and I should just be content with having enough clothing and food. God’s intention was for me to maintain a normal life so that I could have more time and energy to do my duty and pursue the truth, and so I could avoid falling back into the vortex of pursuing money, fame, and gain, and being deceived by Satan’s schemes. When I saw just how lucrative editing videos was and that I quickly paid off much of my debt, I wanted to make more money by editing videos, so that I could not only pay off my debt, but also make a comeback and regain the admiration of my friends and relatives. So I put all my thoughts and time into editing videos to make money, and I gave no thought or consideration to my duties, even to the point where I felt resistant in my heart when my duties were busy, as I wanted to take more time to make money. To satisfy my desire to pursue fame and gain, I used all my time and energy on making money, I gave no thought to my duties, and I also lost many opportunities to gain the truth. If I carried on like this, earning ten thousand and wanting one hundred thousand, then earning one hundred thousand and wanting more, my desires would be endless and never satisfied. I’d just end up being led by the nose by money, fame, and gain, and I’d fall into the vortex of money, fame, and gain again. Even if I ended up attaining money, fame, and gain in the future, I would lose my duty, I’d grow ever further from God, and after losing God’s care and protection, what would be the point? Thinking back to when I was helpless and without hope, it was the guidance of God’s word that gave me hope to live, and when I faced massive debt and had no way out, God opened a way for me, enabling me to earn money and resolve real difficulties, and to have time and energy to do my duty. But now, facing the temptation of money, I once again wanted to make big money and stand out. To give myself more time to make money, I did my duty perfunctorily, delayed the screening of articles, and let down God’s painstaking intention. In fact, the situation God had arranged was the most suitable, as it both allowed me to pay off my debt each month and enabled me to ensure my basic needs were met. I could clearly fulfill my duty without delaying debt repayment, but I was not content at all, and facing repeated temptations from big orders, I set aside my duty. I truly had no conscience! I violated the resolution I made to God and deceived Him! I truly didn’t deserve to live! I couldn’t keep chasing big money anymore. I had to devote the majority of my energy to my duty, and each week, in my spare time, I would edit videos to make money and pay off my debt without delaying my duty. Later, I began to feel a sense of burden toward my duty, I finished screening the backlog of articles, and I was able to put my heart into gatherings.

Later, I read another passage of God’s word, and I gained some understanding of the root cause of my attachment to wealth, fame, and gain. Almighty God says: “In fact, no matter how lofty man’s ideals are, no matter how realistic man’s desires are or how proper they may be, all that man wants to achieve, all that man seeks for, is inextricably linked to two words. These two words are vitally important to the life of every person, and they are things Satan intends to instill in man. What are these two words? They are ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Satan uses a very mild method, a method that’s very much in line with people’s notions, and that isn’t very aggressive, to cause people to unknowingly accept its means and laws of survival, develop life goals and life directions, and come to possess life aspirations. No matter how high-sounding the words which people use to talk about their life aspirations may seem, these aspirations are inextricably linked to ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Everything that any great or famous person—or, in fact, any person—chases throughout their life relates only to these two words: ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ People think that once they have fame and gain, they have capital that they can use to enjoy high status and great wealth, and to enjoy life. They think that once they have fame and gain, they have capital that they can use to seek pleasure and to engage in wanton enjoyment of the flesh. For the sake of this fame and gain which they desire, people willingly, albeit unknowingly, hand over their bodies, hearts, and even all that they have, including their prospects and fates, to Satan. They do so without reservation, without even a moment’s doubt, and without ever knowing to reclaim everything that they once had. Can people retain any control over themselves once they have given themselves over to Satan and become loyal to it in this way? Certainly not. They are completely and utterly controlled by Satan. They have completely and utterly sunk into a quagmire, and are unable to free themselves. Once someone is mired in fame and gain, they no longer seek that which is bright, that which is just, or those things that are beautiful and good. This is because, for people, the enticement of fame and gain is too great; these are things that people can pursue without end throughout their lives and even for all eternity. Is this not the actual situation?” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique VI). Reading God’s words of exposure, I understood that the root of my constant desire to pursue wealth and admiration was that I was tightly bound by “fame” and “gain.” From a young age, I saw my parents being looked down upon by relatives and friends, and I felt that living like this was truly undignified, and so I decided that I had to strive for prosperity and become admired. I lived by the satanic poisons of “Man struggles upward; water flows downward,” and “Stand out above the rest.” Seeing others invest in buying houses and attain both fame and gain, I too longed to use this method to stand out and gain the admiration of friends and relatives. I clearly didn’t have the financial means, yet I didn’t hesitate to take out loans to buy a house and a car, and I also made large amounts of credit card purchases, frequenting various high-end places and buying luxury goods, presenting myself as a person of success. Though my life seemed prosperous and endlessly glamorous, in reality, I was burdened with high-interest repayments to maintain my face. I became utterly superficial and unable to conduct myself in a down-to-earth way. And most importantly, my mother repeatedly testified to me about God’s work of the last days, but because I was so focused on seeking money, fame, and gain, I couldn’t hear a word of it, and I kept rejecting God’s salvation. I took out loans to buy a car and a house, accumulating hundreds of thousands in debt, and then I suffered the double blows of a car accident and the pandemic. I spent my days racking my brain for ways to rob Peter to pay Paul, and during that time, my mind was dazed, and my hair turned white from worry. I was trapped by debt with no way out, and I felt like I’d be better off dead. After I found God, He opened a way for me, granting me more time for gatherings and to do my duties, but when I encountered a chance to make money, I wanted to pursue money, fame, and gain, and stand out again. Throughout this journey, I kept pursuing money, fame, and gain, and even when I ended up battered and bruised, I still didn’t know to turn back. I realized my heart had become utterly intransigent. At first, I had resolved to God that I would do my duties properly, but after taking up my duties, I once again pursued money, fame, and gain, which was deceiving God. I saw that I wasn’t trustworthy and that I was living without any integrity and dignity. When faced with God’s salvation and elevation, I not only didn’t cherish this, but I even thought my duties were delaying my pursuit of money, and I almost missed the chance to pursue the truth and be saved. I finally realized that the pursuit of money, fame, and gain is a path of no return, and that if I didn’t turn back, I would fully become Satan’s companion in death.

Later, I read a passage of God’s words. “People exhaust a lifetime of energy fighting against fate, and spend their whole lives bustling about trying to provide for their families and rushing back and forth for the sake of prestige and profit. The things that people treasure are family love, money, and fame and gain, and they view these as the most valuable things in life. All people complain about being ill-fated, yet still they push to the back of their minds the issues that people ought most to understand and explore: why man is alive, how man should live, and what the value and meaning of human life are. They spend their entire lives, however long they may last, merely rushing about seeking fame and gain, until their youth is gone and they have become gray and wrinkled, until they realize that fame and gain cannot stop them from getting old, that money cannot fill the emptiness of their hearts, and until they understand that no one can escape the laws of birth, aging, sickness, and death, and that no one can evade the arrangements of fate. Only when they have to confront life’s final juncture do they truly grasp that even if one owns vast wealth and extensive assets, even if one is privileged and of high rank, one still cannot escape death and must return to their original position: a solitary soul, with nothing to its name. … The fame and gain that one achieves in the material world give temporary satisfaction, passing pleasure, a false sense of ease; in the process, they cause one to lose one’s way. And so people, as they thrash about in the vast sea of humanity, craving peace, comfort, and tranquility of heart, are engulfed by wave after wave. When people have yet to figure out the questions that are most crucial to understand—where they come from, why they are alive, where they are going, and so forth—they are seduced by fame and gain, misled and controlled by them and irrevocably lost. Time flies; years pass in the blink of an eye, and before one realizes it, one has bid farewell to the best years of one’s life. When people are soon to bid farewell to the world, they arrive at the gradual realization that everything in the world is drifting away, that they no longer have the strength to hold onto anything that was originally theirs; at this time, they truly feel that they are just like a newly born, wailing infant after all, still possessed of absolutely nothing” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III). God’s words are so clear. People live their lives busying themselves for money, fame, and gain, but everyone must experience the laws of life—birth, aging, sickness, and death—and nobody can escape the outcome of death. The things people pursue throughout their lives—money, fame, and gain—are ultimately ephemeral, nothing but emptiness, and when people die, they take nothing with them. Looking back, after graduation, I kept pursuing money, fame, and gain to be admired by others. On the surface, I had a car and a house, and this earned me the admiration of others, and satisfied my vanity for a moment, but when I got in a car accident, I finally realized just how fragile human life is, and how it can be lost in an instant. If I lived my life just to pursue superficial things like a life of materialism and the admiration of others, and I never even came to know where I came from, how to live, or why I live, and I just muddled through this world in a daze, then that would be truly tragic! If I had died in that car accident, and my life had been frozen in that moment, what would it have mattered how many material things I’d acquired then? Just like many of my colleagues who invested in multiple properties, in their lifetime, they can’t live in all of them, and after they die, they can’t take any of them with them. Their hearts remain empty. They don’t understand the true value or meaning of life, and they can’t hear God’s voice, much less know of the existence of the Creator. All they can do is pursue a good material life to bring some brief comfort to their minds, but when death comes, no amount of money or material goods can save their lives, and in the end, they must go to hell to be punished. Though the famous and great people of this world may possess vast fortunes, fame and gain, and lives free of worrying about necessities, their hearts are still empty. Some seek thrills, and end up getting involved with drugs, ruining their reputation and life, and some suffer from depression and end up committing suicide.

I saw through to the fact that pursuing money, fame, and gain is a wrong path, and I began to ask myself, “What kind of life is truly valuable and meaningful?” I then read God’s words. “God does not merely pay a price for each person in the decades from their birth to the present. As God sees it, you have come into this world countless times, and have been reincarnated countless times. Who is in charge of this? God is in charge of this. You have no way of knowing these things. Each time you come into this world, God personally makes arrangements for you: He arranges how many years you will live, the sort of family that you will be born into, when you will build a home and a career, as well as what you will do in this world and how you will make a living. God arranges a way for you to earn a living, so that you can accomplish your mission in this life unhindered. … While you follow God, no matter whether you suffer or pay a price, you are actually working with God. Whatever God asks us to do, we listen to God’s words, and practice according to them. Do not rebel against God or do anything that brings Him sorrow. In order to work with God, you must suffer a little, and you must renounce and lay aside some things. You must give up fame, gain, status, money, and worldly pleasures—you even need to give up things like marriage, work, and your prospects in the world. Does God know whether you have given up these things? Can God see all this? (Yes.) What will God do when He sees that you have given up these things? (God will be comforted, and He will be pleased.) God will not only be pleased and say, ‘The prices that I paid have borne fruit. People are willing to work alongside Me, they have this resolve, and I have gained them.’ Whether God is pleased or happy, satisfied or comforted, God does not only have that attitude. He also acts, and He wants to see the results that His work achieves, otherwise what He requires of people would be meaningless. The grace, love, and mercy that God shows man are not merely a kind of attitude—they are a fact, as well. What fact is that? It is that God puts His words within you, enlightening you, so that you may see what is lovely about Him, and what this world is all about, so that your heart is filled with light, allowing you to understand His words and the truth. In this way, without knowing it, you gain the truth. God does so much work on you in a very real way, enabling you to gain the truth. When you gain the truth, when you gain that most precious thing which is eternal life, God’s intentions are satisfied. When God sees that people are pursuing the truth and willing to cooperate with Him, He is happy and contented. He is then of an attitude, and while He is of that attitude, He goes to work, and approves of and blesses man. He says, ‘I will reward you with the blessings that you deserve.’ And then you will have gained the truth and the life. When you have knowledge of the Creator and you have gained His appreciation, will you still feel an emptiness in your heart? You will not. You will feel fulfilled and have a sense of enjoyment. Is this not what it means for one’s life to have value? This is the most valuable and meaningful life” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Paying the Price to Gain the Truth Is of Great Significance). After reading God’s words, I understood that the family I was born into, and when I would find God and do my duties were all long since arranged by God. It was God’s care and protection that allowed me to survive that car accident, and it was God who opened a way for me, allowing me to finally see the light again after being trapped in the haze of debt, and to have the chance to fulfill the duties of a created being. Without God’s protection, I would have long since been devoured by Satan. I have enjoyed so many blessings and grace from God. God’s words also gave me direction in life, allowing me to understand that only pursuing the truth and fulfilling my duties to satisfy God is truly meaningful and valuable. Thinking of this, I decided to devote myself wholeheartedly to my duties, and as for my remaining debt, I chose to make money in my spare time by editing videos without delaying my duties, and I’d be fine just so long as I could earn enough for my monthly payments and living expenses.

Two months later, I was elected as a church leader, and I saw that being a leader involved more work and concerns than screening articles, and that it also required more time and energy. This would mean that my opportunities to make money would keep decreasing. But this time, I would no longer live to pursue money, fame, and gain, and I was willing to prioritize my duties and do my primary work well, and so I calmly accepted this chance for training and I devoted myself to my duties. When my desire to pursue money, fame, and gain ended, to my surprise, three months later, when I was handling my personal income tax refund on my phone, I saw that a refund of 20,000 yuan had been directly deposited into my account, which perfectly solved the issue of my mortgage for more than half a year. I saw that so long as I submit to the situations orchestrated by God and do the duties of a created being as best I can, God won’t let me live a life I cannot bear.

Having gone through this experience, I’ve come to understand that having material things like money, fame, and gain, is entirely temporary, and that pursuing and gaining the truth is more precious, valuable, and meaningful. I am willing to devote more of my time and energy to my duties, and to seek to fulfill my duties to repay God’s love. Thank God!