The Hidden Motivation Behind “Not Calling Out People’s Shortcomings”

March 2, 2024

By Jiayu, China

Sister Li Le was a preacher, and she also checked up on our church’s work. We normally got along very well, and whenever I had a bad state, she would fellowship and help me based on her experience. Recently, I discovered that she felt no sense of burden toward her duty, and each week, she would only gather once with us deacons and get a rough understanding of the church’s work, but when it came to problems with the work, she rarely sought the truth to resolve them with us. Thinking that Li Le was in charge of the work of several churches, if she was always in such a state, then it would affect these churches’ work. I ought to mention it to her, or report her situation to the upper-level leaders so that they could promptly get a grasp on her state and fellowship with her and get her to reverse course. However, I thought of how I had recently heard Li Le’s fellowship. She thought that she was a layman in the work of spreading the gospel, and that she didn’t understand much of the professional work, nor did she have a good grasp on the principles of gospel-spreading. She thought that doing this duty was somewhat strenuous for her. Actually, her caliber was not bad, and she was not totally unable to cooperate. It was only that she had no sense of burden when doing her duty. As long as she diligently grasped some of the principles, she would be able to do her duty well. But, if I reported her situation to the leaders at this time, and required that she check up on and supervise the church’s work, wouldn’t she think that my requirements for her were too harsh? And would she, because of this, fall into a dejected state and be unwilling to do her duty? Forget it, I thought. Grasping Li Le’s state was the work of the upper-level leaders. Even if I didn’t say anything, they ought to know about it. Thinking up to this point, I decided not to report Li Le’s situation. Later on, when Li Le gathered with us, there were several times when I wanted to point out her problem in doing her duty, but I was scared that Li Le would say my requirements for her were too harsh. If she couldn’t accept it, this would destroy our relationship, and she would treat me differently after this. Just like this, when the words were on the tip of my tongue those few times, I swallowed them.

Before long, I saw a passage of God’s words: “It’s not so difficult to solve the problem of false leaders and antichrists; false leaders don’t perform practical work and are easy to discover and see clearly; antichrists disturb and disrupt church work and are also easy to discover and see clearly. All this relates to the problem of disturbing God’s chosen people performing their duties, and you should report and expose such people—only by doing that can you prevent church work from being delayed. Reporting and exposing false leaders and antichrists is crucial work that guarantees that God’s chosen people can perform their duties well, and all of God’s chosen people bear this responsibility. No matter who it is, as long as they are a false leader or an antichrist, then God’s chosen people should expose them and bring them to light, and in this way you will fulfill your responsibility. … You’ve been listening to sermons for years, and even now you still can’t discern false leaders and antichrists, instead willing to mix with antichrists and eat all day long without giving serious thought to anything at all. Such behavior is enough to show that you are not true believers in God. Firstly, you do not love the truth or accept the truth; secondly, you have no sense of responsibility for your duty, much less can it be said that you perform it loyally, and you simply ignore church work. You appear to perform your duty but you achieve no results; you’re just going through the formalities. No matter how false leaders and antichrists disturb and damage church work, you are totally unaware of it, and it doesn’t bother you at all. … God’s house has watered you all this time and you’ve listened to many sermons, and what is the outcome? There is this serious problem, that of an antichrist appearing in the church, but you’re unaware of it. This shows that you haven’t progressed at all, that you are numb and dull-witted, and that you indulge your flesh. You’re a pile of dead people, with not one living, not one who pursues the truth, at most just a few service-doers. To have believed in God and listened to sermons all this time to then mingle with an antichrist, to not expose him or report him—what is the difference between you and someone who doesn’t believe in God? You belong to the antichrists, you are not God’s people; you follow antichrists, you follow Satan, and are absolutely not followers of God. Even though you didn’t do those wicked things that the antichrist did, yet you followed him and protected him, because you didn’t expose or report him and prattled on about not having associated much with the antichrist and that you didn’t know what he was doing. By doing this, were you not shielding the antichrist with your eyes wide open? The antichrist did so much evil and paralyzed the church’s work, disrupted church life into a total mess, and yet you say you didn’t know what the antichrist was doing—who would believe that? You saw that the antichrist was disturbing and damaging church work with your very own eyes and yet were completely indifferent and didn’t react at all. No one exposed or reported him—you all failed to perform even this one tiny responsibility and you are so without conscience and reason! All churches frequently send report letters reporting false leaders and antichrists—have you never seen this? Only the Canadian church is a pool of stagnant water that has never contacted the Above to give a report on its situation. You’re just a bunch of dead people, with not one living at all! God will not acknowledge such a church, and if you do not repent, you’ll be completely finished and will all be cast out(The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Seven: They Are Wicked, Insidious, and Deceitful (Part One)). If an antichrist appears in the church and not a single person stands up and reports them, God will be disappointed and disgusted. God has expressed all these truths to provide us. His fellowships on truths regarding discerning antichrists and false leaders are very meticulous and comprehensive. He hopes that when people disturb the work of God’s house, we will be able to fulfill our responsibility and stand up to safeguard the church’s work. If someone sees the work of God’s house being affected and is not consciously aware of it, nor do they have a sense of justice and stand up to stop it or report it to the upper levels, then such a person is a dead person without a conscience and someone without a shred of witness. What God exposes was my exact state. When I saw that Li Le was rarely checking up on the church’s work lately and that this had already affected the work, because I was apprehensive and scared of destroying our relationship, I didn’t dare to point it out to her or report her to the upper levels. I did not safeguard the church’s work in the slightest, and God really detested me. Thinking of this, I reproached myself in my heart, and I opened my laptop, wanting to report Li Le’s situation to the upper-level leaders. But I still had apprehensions, and I thought, “If I report Li Le’s problem, then the upper-level leaders will certainly fellowship with her, and she will know that it was me who reported her to the leaders. What would she think of me then? Would she think that I had called out her shortcomings behind her back? If she bore a grudge against me, then how could we work together to do our duties in the future?” As soon as I thought of all this, I deleted the message. I thought to myself, “Everyone has a bad state at times, and everyone is lacking in certain areas. It’s better not to seize hold of others’ small problems and report them. After a while, perhaps Li Le will become aware of her issue and reverse course. It’s better if I don’t report it.”

Several days later, Li Le and I went to a gathering to implement work, and I read that passage of God’s words once more: “God’s house has watered you all this time and you’ve listened to many sermons, and what is the outcome? There is this serious problem, that of an antichrist appearing in the church, but you’re unaware of it. This shows that you haven’t progressed at all, that you are numb and dull-witted, and that you indulge your flesh. You’re a pile of dead people, with not one living, not one who pursues the truth, at most just a few service-doers(The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Seven: They Are Wicked, Insidious, and Deceitful (Part One)). Seeing the words “dead people,” it was like my heart had been pierced with a needle. Thinking that I was always unable to practice the truth, I reproached myself inside. I said a silent prayer in my heart, “God, please guide me to be able to safeguard the church’s interests and point out Li Le’s problem to her.” After I prayed, Li Le happened to fellowship about her manifestation of not doing practical work based on God’s words. She said that especially when she saw that some church leaders were of quite good caliber and that she was not as good as them at handling the work, she would be scared that they would look down on her. She said that as a preacher, her working abilities could not match those of the church leaders, so she didn’t check up too much on the work of that church. Li Le had realized that her lack of supervision and follow-up on the work was a manifestation of a false leader. Wouldn’t I be pouring salt on her wounds if I pointed out her problem after what she just said? Would she think that I was unloving and didn’t consider her feelings? So, all I did was nothing but give her a short and simple reminder. Afterward, I thought that it would be better for me to report Li Le’s situation to the leaders. This way, the leaders could promptly fellowship with her and help her. So, I reported the few situations that I had seen to the leaders. After the leaders fellowshiped with her and pointed out her problem, Li Le opened up during a gathering and said that she had eaten and drunk God’s words of exposing false leaders, and recognized that she hadn’t checked up on or supervised the work and had not done her job well. Later on, Li Le checked up on the church’s work somewhat more frequently, and she aAnalyzed the reasons that the gospel work did not produce results with us, trying to resolve these problems in a practical manner. When I saw that Li Le could do a bit of practical work, I was very happy. Afterward, I was reflecting, and thought, “Why did I never dare to point out Li Le’s problem or report it to the leaders? What exactly was controlling me on this?”

While seeking, I read a passage of God’s words: “‘If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings.’ This describes a method for interacting with others that Satan has inculcated in people. It means that when you interact with others, you must give them some leeway. You should not be too harsh with others, you cannot bring up their past faults, you have to maintain their dignity, you cannot damage good relationships with them, you must be forgiving toward them, and so on. This saying about morality mainly describes a kind of philosophy for living that dictates interactions among human beings. There is a tenet in philosophies for living that says, ‘Keeping silent on the faults of good friends makes for a long and good friendship.’ It means that in order to preserve a friendly relationship, one must keep silent about their friend’s problems, even if they see them clearly—that they should abide by the principles of not striking people in the face or calling out their shortcomings. They are to deceive each other, hide from each other, engage in intrigue with each other; and though they know with crystal clarity what sort of person the other is, they do not say it outright, but employ cunning methods to preserve their friendly relationship. Why would one want to preserve such relationships? It is about not wanting to make enemies in this society, within one’s group, which would mean subjecting oneself often to dangerous situations. Knowing someone will become your enemy and harm you after you have called out their shortcomings or hurt them, and not wishing to put yourself in such a situation, you employ the tenet of philosophies for living that runs, ‘If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings.’ In light of this, if two people are in such a relationship, do they count as true friends? (No.) They are not true friends, much less each other’s confidant. So, what sort of relationship is this, exactly? Is it not a fundamental social relationship? (It is.) In such social relationships, people cannot offer their feelings, nor have deep exchanges, nor speak about whatever they wish. They cannot say out loud what is in their heart, or the problems they see in the other, or words that would benefit the other. Instead, they pick nice things to say, to keep the other’s favor. They dare not speak the truth or uphold the principles, lest it give rise to animosity toward them in others. When no one is threatening to someone, does that person not live in relative ease and peace? Is this not people’s goal in promoting the saying, ‘If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings’? (It is.) Clearly, this is a cunning, deceptive way of existence with an element of defensiveness, whose goal is self-preservation. People who live like this have no confidants, no close friends with whom they can say whatever they like. They are defensive with each other, and calculating, and strategic, each taking what they need from the relationship. Is this not so? At its root, the goal of ‘If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings’ is to keep from offending others and making enemies, to protect oneself by not causing hurt to anyone. It is a technique and method one adopts to keep themselves from being hurt(The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth I. What It Means to Pursue the Truth (8)). In the past, I was quite approving of the saying, “If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings.” This was because this saying taught me that when interacting with others, one must take their feelings into account. One must not be too harsh to others or call out their shortcomings. I thought that people who could act in this way were good people, people with reason and morality. Seeing what God exposed, I finally understood that the saying, “If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings” was a philosophy for worldly dealings, and that those who lived by it would become extremely sly, deceitful, selfish, and despicable. On the surface, acting like this appeared to be considerate to others, but in reality, the motivation behind it was to not offend people. Even if one noticed someone else’s problems, they wouldn’t mention it, acting as a people pleaser and safeguarding their fleshly relationships. When interacting with people like this, even though one’s relationships with others might look very well-preserved on the surface, there was no sincerity between them. They were not helping each other, but rather being on guard around each other and using each other. I was living by the philosophy for worldly dealings known as, “If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings.” When I saw that Li Le was rarely checking up on and supervising the church’s work as of late, at first, I wanted to point it out to her or report it to the leaders. However, I thought that one must not call out the shortcomings of others, and Li Le herself had said that doing the work was a bit strenuous for her, so if I mentioned that she was not checking up on or supervising the work, would I not be requiring too much from her? I made the excuse that every person has a bad state at times and has their own inadequacies, and chose to remain silent. When I heard Li Le open up and recognize that she hadn’t checked up on the work, I was afraid that pointing out her problem after what she said would be like exposing her scars, so I just said a few meaningless words. On the surface, I appeared to be considerate of Li Le, but my despicable motivation was hidden in the background. I was afraid she would say I’d required too much of her or that I was telling on her and calling out her shortcomings. If I offended her over this matter, she would hold a grudge against me and give me attitude in the future, and we wouldn’t work together peacefully and joyfully like we do now. To safeguard my relationship with her, I gave up on practicing the truth time and again. Superficially, it seemed like Li Le and I were on the best of terms and were good friends who kept no secrets from each other, but I was not at all sincere or loving toward her. I thought of how when I was in a bad state, Li Le would often fellowship with me and help me, and when she saw that I had a problem, she would point it out so that I could recognize it and reverse course, but in order not to make an enemy, I heartlessly watched as Li Le lived inside her corrupt disposition and didn’t pay her any heed, all under the pretense of being considerate toward her. Li Le didn’t recognize her own problem and wasn’t able to promptly reverse course on her state. She suffered losses to her life entry and the church’s work was affected. I was truly so selfish and despicable! In no way was I being considerate toward her; this was clearly me seeing her about to fall into a pit and not pulling her back up. Was I not a people pleaser, an evil-hearted person? Reflecting on this, I finally had some discernment of the satanic philosophy known as “If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings.” Satan used these philosophies for worldly dealings to corrupt man and make people be on guard against each other and use each other, becoming increasingly selfish, cold, and lacking in humanity. If I continued living by this moral code, I would only become more and more deceitful.

Later on, I saw another passage of God’s words, and understood what it meant to call out people’s shortcomings and what it meant to help people. God says: “Is the phrase ‘call out’ in the saying ‘if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings’ good or bad? Does the phrase ‘call out’ have a level on which it refers to people’s being revealed or exposed within the words of God? (It does not.) From My understanding of the phrase ‘call out’ as it exists in human language, it does not mean that. Its essence is one of a somewhat malicious form of exposure; it means to reveal people’s problems and deficiencies, or some things and behaviors unknown to others, or some intrigue, ideas, or views operating in the background. This is the meaning of the phrase ‘call out’ in the saying ‘if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings.’ If two people get along well and are confidants, with no barriers between them, and they each hope to be of benefit and assistance to the other, then it would be best for them to sit together and lay out each other’s problems in openness and sincerity. This is proper, and it is not calling out others’ shortcomings(The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth I. What It Means to Pursue the Truth (8)). God’s words reversed my incorrect view on things. The “call out their shortcomings” part of “if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings” is a malicious exposing of other people’s problems and deficiencies. The motivation of this is not to help people, and instead, it carries some insidious intentions. It is for the sake of achieving one’s unmentionable goals, and acting like this would only mean attacking people and causing them pain. It is not at all edifying or advantageous for people. Meanwhile, the “exposing” that God speaks of is a positive thing. It means noticing someone’s problem and sincerely wanting to help them, and getting them to recognize the nature of the problem and be able to promptly reverse their incorrect actions. Exposing people like this is advantageous for them, and it is not calling out people’s shortcomings. When I noticed that Li Le’s problem was already affecting the work, pointing out the problem would have got her to recognize it and reverse course, and enabled her to do her duty well. Reporting this to the leaders was also to get the leaders to grasp Li Le’s situation and promptly help her reverse course so that the church’s work wouldn’t be affected. This was practicing the truth and helping brothers and sisters. It was not calling out people’s shortcomings, let alone telling on someone behind their back. It was a positive thing. If someone accepts the truth, when faced with others pointing out and exposing their problems, they are able to reflect, recognize, and promptly reverse course. This is beneficial to their own life entry and the church’s work. It’s just like Li Le, who, using the leaders’ pointing out her problem and helping her, was able to reflect on and try to know herself and promptly reverse her attitude toward her duty. When encountering problems with gospel work, she discussed and sought solutions with us, and after fellowships, she had somewhat of a path to practice. I saw that pointing out and exposing someone’s problem was not being harsh toward them, and that having harsh requirements for someone meant not considering their stature or caliber and not looking at whether they did their best to cooperate, but instead persistently making requirements of someone as soon as their deviations or insufficiencies became visible. Being so nitpicky and finding faults in others makes it easy to put restraints on people and even make them negative. Meanwhile, as a leader and worker, supervising and checking up on the church’s work was Li Le’s job. What’s more, she had some caliber, and even though she was unfamiliar with the work of gospel-spreading, as long as she studied diligently, she could master some principles or be able to resolve some problems when partnered with brothers and sisters in a group. She was living in her corrupt disposition and didn’t do practical work, so my pointing out and reporting her problem was normal supervision of leaders and workers, but instead, I mistakenly believed that I was being too harsh on her. This sort of view on things was truly so absurd!

One day, I read two passages of God’s words, and gained some understanding about the root cause of why I didn’t practice the truth. Almighty God says: “Most people wish to pursue and practice the truth, but much of the time they merely have a resolution and the desire to do so; the truth has not become their life. As a result, when they come across evil forces or encounter wicked and bad people committing evil deeds, or false leaders and antichrists doing things in a way that violates principles—thus disturbing the work of the church and harming God’s chosen ones—they lose the courage to stand up and speak out. What does it mean when you have no courage? Does it mean that you are timid or inarticulate? Or is it that you do not understand thoroughly, and therefore do not have the confidence to speak up? Neither; this is primarily the consequence of being restrained by corrupt dispositions. One of the corrupt dispositions you reveal is a crafty disposition; when something happens to you, the first thing you think of is your own interests, the first thing you consider is the consequences, whether this will be beneficial to you. This is a crafty disposition, is it not? Another is a selfish and mean disposition. You think, ‘What does a loss to the interests of God’s house have to do with me? I’m not a leader, so why should I care? It’s got nothing to do with me. It’s not my responsibility.’ Such thoughts and words are not something that you consciously think, but are produced by your subconscious—which is the corrupt disposition revealed when people encounter an issue(The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). “Once the truth has become life in you, when you observe someone who is blasphemous toward God, unfearful of God, and careless and perfunctory while performing their duty, or who disrupts and disturbs church work, you will respond according to the truth principles, and will be able to identify and expose them as necessary. If the truth has not become your life, and you still live within your satanic disposition, then when you discover wicked people and devils who cause disruptions and disturbances to the work of the church, you will turn a blind eye and a deaf ear; you will brush them aside, without reproach from your conscience. You will even think that anyone causing disturbances to the work of the church has nothing to do with you. No matter how much the work of the church and the interests of the house of God suffer, you don’t care, intervene, or feel guilty—which makes you someone who has no conscience or sense, a nonbeliever, a service-doer. You eat what is of God’s, drink what is of God’s, and enjoy all that comes from God, yet feel that any harm to the interests of the house of God is not related to you—which makes you a traitor who bites the hand that feeds you. If you do not protect the interests of the house of God, are you even human? This is a demon that has insinuated itself into the church. You feign belief in God, pretend to be a chosen one, and you want to freeload in God’s house. You are not living the life of a human being, are more like a fiend than a person, and are clearly one of the nonbelievers(The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). God’s words exposed my true situation. I saw that I did not have the truth, that I lived by a deceitful and selfish satanic disposition. When matters befell me, I only considered my own interests and didn’t safeguard the church’s work at all. I saw clearly that Li Le had no sense of burden when doing her duty, that she rarely checked up on and supervised the work, and that this had already affected the normal progress of the church’s work. If I was someone who had humanity and had a conscience, I would promptly point this out to Li Le and report it to the upper levels, but in order to safeguard my relationship with her, the few times that the words were on the tip of my tongue, I used the excuse of “The leaders often meet with Li Le, so if I don’t say anything, they’ll still grasp her state” as a reason to choose silence. When I wanted to tell the upper-level leaders about Li Le’s problem, I was afraid of offending her and came up with another high-sounding excuse, saying, “Everyone has a bad state at times, and one shouldn’t require too much of others.” I was fabricating things in order to not practice the truth. I was truly so deceitful, so crafty! I enjoyed the provision and shepherding of so many of God’s words; if I still had a bit of humanity and conscience, when I saw the church’s work suffering losses I ought to stand up and do whatever I could to safeguard it. If I had been able to promptly mention Li Le’s problem to her, she would have been able to recognize and reverse course a bit sooner, and the work would not have been held up for such a long time. These were all consequences of being selfish and despicable and not practicing the truth. How could a person as self-interested as me be worthy of God’s salvation? If I did not cast off these corrupt dispositions as fast as possible, I would certainly be spurned and cast out by God in the end. Additionally, before I always believed that pointing out Li Le’s problem was a matter for the upper-level leaders to handle. This view of mine was also wrong. Safeguarding the church’s work is the responsibility of every one of God’s chosen people. As a member of God’s house, I am responsible for supervising the work of leaders and workers, and when I see leaders or workers do something that goes against the principles or is not of benefit to the church’s work, I should point it out and fulfill my responsibility. Recognizing this much, I did not want to live by my corrupt disposition any longer, and I prayed to God, asking Him to guide me to find a path to practice.

I read God’s words that said: “If it is an action that aligns with principles, it is of little consequence if it offends people or causes you to be criticized behind your back; if it is an action that does not align with principles, then even if by doing it you gain approval and get along with everyone, but cannot account for it before God, you have suffered a loss. If you maintain relationships with the majority, making people happy and satisfied and earning their praise, but you offend God, the Creator, then you are a supreme fool. Therefore, whatever you do, you must clearly understand whether it aligns with principles, whether it pleases God, what God’s attitude toward it is, what stance you should take, what principles you should uphold, how God has instructed, and how you should do it—you should first be clear about this(The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (24)). “If you have the motivations and perspective of a ‘nice person,’ then, in all matters, you will be incapable of practicing the truth and abiding by principle, and you will always fail and fall down. If you do not awaken and do not ever seek the truth, then you are a nonbeliever, and you will never gain the truth and life. What, then, should you do? When faced with such things, you must pray to God and call out to Him, begging for salvation and asking that He give you more faith and strength and enable you to abide by the principles, do what you should do, handle things according to the principles, stand firm in the position you should stand in, protect the interests of God’s house, and prevent any harm from coming to the work of God’s house. If you are able to forsake your self-interests, your pride, and your standpoint of a ‘nice person,’ and if you do what you should do with an honest, undivided heart, then you will have defeated Satan and gained this aspect of the truth(The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). God’s words gave me a path to practice. In the matters that befell me, I had to seek how to act in accordance with the principles. I couldn’t not practice the truth or not expose someone’s problems because I feared offending them. If I did this, even though my relationship with them would be well-preserved, violating the truth principles and causing losses to the interests of God’s house was something that offended God. God loves pure and honest people who, when seeing that the interests of God’s house suffer losses, are able to safeguard the church’s work without considering their own interests. Recognizing this much, I secretly resolved that when I noticed something that damaged the church’s interests in the future, I could no longer be a coward in order to protect myself. Even if the other person didn’t accept what I pointed out, gave me attitude, or developed a prejudice against me because of it, I should not be constrained by this. My motivation was to help others and to safeguard the church’s interests. This was a positive thing, and I should not be constrained by my corrupt disposition. If we always consider our own interests, we can’t defeat our corrupt disposition; so, we should pray to and rely on God, asking Him to give us more faith and strength to be able to let go of our personal interests, be honest people, and fulfill our responsibility. Only in this way can we have a hope at salvation.

Later on, I consciously practiced being an honest person. There was a period of time when Shen Qing, a sister I was partnered with, rarely checked up on the watering work. There was a watering personnel who, for personal reasons, had not gone to water newcomers for two weeks, and Shen Qing didn’t know about it. I thought that Shen Qing was in charge of the watering work, and that she should have a grasp on the current working situations of watering personnel and promptly resolve problems with the watering work. I had to tell Shen Qing about her problems to get her to recognize them and reverse course as fast as possible, so that the watering of newcomers won’t be held up. But then I thought that if I pointed out these problems one by one, would Shen Qing be unable to accept it? She did usually do some work, so maybe it was only during this period of time that her check-ups were not timely, and afterward she would reverse course. I realized that once again, I had wanted to safeguard my relationships with others. I thought of God’s words that I had read in the past: “If you are able to forsake your self-interests, your pride, and your standpoint of a ‘nice person,’ and if you do what you should do with an honest, undivided heart, then you will have defeated Satan and gained this aspect of the truth(The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). God loves honest people. Now that I had noticed Shen Qing’s problem, I ought to mention it to her. This was safeguarding the church’s work and was not malicious at all. Even if she didn’t accept it and gave me attitude, I wouldn’t regret fulfilling my responsibility. I prayed to God and asked Him to give me more strength to practice the truth. After praying, I pointed out all the problems that I had noticed to Shen Qing, and at first, she didn’t accept it, reasoning with me and defending herself, so I pointed out her manifestations of not doing practical work based on God’s words and fellowshiped with her about the path of checking up on work. The next day, Shen Qing opened up and said that through my pointing out her problem, she finally realized that she had been perfunctory in the performance of her duty and was willing to reverse course. Afterward, Shen Qing was rather active when doing her duty, and she began to check up on the work of the watering personnel in detail. Seeing that Shen Qing was able to reverse course, I was very happy. I had finally put the truth into practice. Going forward, I am willing to rely on God and practice to become a true good person.

Would you like to learn God’s words and rely on God to receive His blessing and solve the difficulties on your way? Click the button to contact us.

Related Content

Crossroads

By Wang Xin, South Korea I used to have a happy family, and my husband was really good to me. We opened a family restaurant that did pretty...

Leave a Reply

Connect with us on Messenger