By Weixiao, China

When I was young, my family was very poor. Our relatives and neighbors all looked down on us, and our neighbors’ kids didn’t play with me. I remember there was one time when I cheerfully went to see if the neighbors’ kid wanted to play, but when I was about to reach the entrance to her home, she suddenly closed the door. This scene is imprinted in my childhood memories like a stamp. It hurt my self-esteem very badly. Once I started school, my classmates and teachers also looked down on me. When I saw that the children of other families had nice backpacks and pencil cases and pretty clothing, knowing I didn’t have any of that, I thought every day of how great it would be if my family could have as much money as other families. Then people wouldn’t look down on me. When I was 10 years old, my family was in great debt due to a traffic accident, and my father went to borrow money from my relatives. Because we were poor, they didn’t dare lend it to us. After that, my father became so gloomy that he would often sigh in despair, and he often said to me, “Our relatives and neighbors look down on us because we don’t have money. When you grow up, you’ve got to bring honor to the family name; only when you earn more money will people think highly of you.” My father’s words and the memory of being bullied as a child were both etched into my mind, and I resolved to make lots and lots of money when I grew up, lead a life of affluence, get rid of my “poor person” label once and for all, and make all those people who once looked down on me take notice.

In 1996, my father began working as an intermediary in the freight transport business. A few years later, our family business was flourishing more and more. Not only had we paid off our debt, we also bought a freight truck and got telephones and mobile devices. Once our family got money, the relatives and neighbors who had looked down on us in the past began to pay us visits. Wherever we went, we were thought highly of by others. I could finally walk with my head held high. That made me believe even more firmly that living in this world, one has to earn more money. Only when one has money in their hands will people respect them. Through what I saw and heard around me, I gradually learned how to conduct business. In 1999, just as I was preparing to invest all my energy into business, God's salvation of the last days came upon me. In the beginning, I was very enthusiastic in my belief in God. I saw that many people had still not come before God, and so I joined the ranks of gospel-spreaders. After that, I often went out to spread the gospel, which interfered with my family’s business. My family began to scold me, saying, “Why are you believing in God at such a young age? If you keep running around, we won’t give you any money to spend.” I thought, “If I don’t have money, then won’t I have to endure people’s discrimination just like when I was young?” In the end, I didn’t defeat this temptation and gave up on doing my duties, and I would only attend gatherings every now and then. As work became more and more busy, my heart grew further from God. Later, my father handed the management of the entire business over to me, and I had my own career in my early twenties. At that time, I was extremely happy. In order to make more money and become a successful career woman, I racked my brains every day to get in touch with various goods suppliers. All day and night, I was getting more phone calls than I could answer. When I was thirsty, I couldn’t manage to drink water, and when my throat was hoarse, I wasn’t willing to rest. Through this hard work, I finally saved up close to 100,000 yuan. Although I suffered more than the average person during those few years, it was worth it seeing my purse gradually start to bulge.

Later, I saw that most of the clients who came to my home to discuss business drove cars and lived in high-rises, while I was renting an old two-room house facing the street. I paled in comparison to these rich folks. I said to myself, “This won’t do, I’ve got to keep working hard and strive to one day drive a car, live in a high-rise apartment, and have my own company.” To fulfill my wish as soon as possible, I became even busier than before. In those years, I barely had a single good night’s sleep and was often in a state of utter exhaustion. I was still young when I began to come down with tension headaches. When I had these headaches, it felt like being pricked with a bunch of needles. In addition, I often got nauseous and vomited due to radiation from my computer and phone. To alleviate the pain, I used my fingernails to forcefully pinch my scalp, or smashed my head against the wall, but these methods didn’t mitigate my pain in the slightest. When my head hurt too much for me to bear any longer, I thought of going to the hospital to get tested, but I saw all the 100-yuan banknotes flowing into my purse and couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Forget it,” I thought, “opportunities to make money are rare now. I should take advantage of this opportunity and make some more money while I’m still young.” Several years later, we had a car and a house and had registered a containerization company. Each time I drove my car to other companies to talk business, the bosses gazed at me with approving eyes, and praised me for having my own career at such a young age, saying I had great ability. Many clients often called me “manager” when they saw me, and my friends praised me for being a successful woman. During holidays, when we drove as a family back to our home in the countryside, many of our neighbors came to get a look at us, and said that my husband’s parents were fortunate to have such a capable daughter-in-law. Hearing these words of praise, I was very pleased with myself. Those few years, every day I was thinking about how I could earn more money, and I grew more and more apathetic toward faith in God. Sometimes, when I did not participate in a gathering, the sisters would come looking for me. But I wasn’t at all in the right state of mind to listen to their fellowship. Sometimes, although I would go to a gathering, I would still be thinking about business matters the whole time. Although I was extremely busy every day, the business was not going as smoothly as I had imagined. Traffic accidents were happening one after another, and many clients were behind in their freight payments. In those few years, we lost more than several hundreds of thousands of yuan. To make back the money we had lost, I put in even more time and energy than before. With an extreme workload every day, my body was in serious overdrive, and my headaches grew more and more severe. Every day, I felt that I’d be better off dead. Ever since we started having money, my husband would go out every day to seek pleasure and stay out all night. He even gambled and squandered a lot of money. We argued every day over this, and my face was often red with tears. I felt that living was too painful. I felt extremely helpless, and also very puzzled. Now, I had already realized my dream. I had a car, a house, and a company. But why did I not feel the least bit happy? What on earth was going on? When I was in pain and helpless, I thought of the book of God’s words that I had put in my office before. I turned to the chapter titled “The Sighing of the Almighty” and began to read. At that time, it was very quiet in the office, and I kept on reading from the beginning. When I read the final passage, God’s words touched my heart. God says: “Humanity, having strayed from the Almighty’s provision of life, is ignorant of the purpose of existence, but fears death nonetheless. They are without help or support, yet still reluctant to close their eyes, and they steel themselves to drag out an ignoble existence in this world, sacks of flesh with no sense of their own souls. You live in this way, without hope, as do others, without aim. Only the Holy One of legend will save the people who, moaning in the midst of their suffering, long desperately for His arrival. So far, such belief has not been realized in those who lack consciousness. Nevertheless, the people still yearn for it so. The Almighty has mercy on these people who have suffered deeply; at the same time, He is fed up with these people who lack consciousness, as He has had to wait too long for an answer from humanity. He wishes to seek, to seek your heart and your spirit, to bring you water and food and to awaken you, that you may no longer be thirsty and hungry. When you are weary and when you begin to feel something of the bleak desolation of this world, do not be lost, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival at any time. He is keeping watch by your side, waiting for you to turn back around. He is waiting for the day you suddenly recover your memory: when you realize that you came from God, that, at some unknown time you lost your direction, at some unknown time you lost consciousness on the road, and at some unknown time acquired a ‘father’; when you realize, furthermore, that the Almighty has always been keeping watch, waiting there a very, very long time for your return. He has been watching with desperate longing, waiting for a response without an answer. His watching and waiting are beyond any price, and they are for the sake of the human heart and the human spirit. Perhaps this watching and waiting are indefinite, and perhaps they are at an end. But you should know exactly where your heart and your spirit are right now” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Sighing of the Almighty). When I read the words “waiting for a response without an answer,” my heart which had been in a deep sleep was suddenly awakened. And I began to ponder, “Who can wait for a response without an answer? Only God! Only God is always silently staying by people’s side like this.” God’s words consoled my wounded soul, and I couldn’t stop my tears from flowing. In that moment, I felt that my heart was very close to God. In all those years of believing in God, I had never seriously read God’s words, and my brain was always filled with thoughts of how I could earn more money and get people to think highly of me. Every day, I dragged my exhausted body through managing a business. In the end, I gained generous material enjoyments and the respect of others, but what this brought me was my husband’s repeated betrayals, as well as illnesses. I had not felt the slightest shred of happiness. Instead, what I felt was empty, in pain, and helpless. All this pain was caused by keeping myself away and hiding myself from God’s care and protection. Ten years ago, I heard the voice of God, but I did not cherish His saving grace or properly eat and drink His words, nor did I take up doing my duties. I was so rebellious, but God did not abandon me, and always stayed by my side, waiting for my change of heart. When I was confused and helpless, God’s words promptly consoled my wounded soul. When I did not regularly attend gatherings and was keeping away from God, He had the sisters help me again and again, but I was ungrateful and resisted. I repeatedly rejected God’s salvation of me; I truly do not have any conscience or reason. The more I thought, the more I regretted and reproached myself. Crying, I prayed to God, “God, I was wrong. I hate that I didn’t read Your words carefully back then and put my whole heart into earning money. I thought that if I had money, I would have everything. But after I gained money and material enjoyments, I actually felt so empty, in pain, and helpless. God, the path I chose before was the wrong one. From now on, I want to pursue the truth and walk the path of believing in God once again.” After praying, I felt extremely at ease and peaceful. I was like a lone boat in the sea that had found a harbor to set my anchor, like a prodigal son who had returned to the arms of his mother after wandering for years. I felt a sense of security that I had never felt before. After that, whenever it was time to gather, I would always schedule my business ahead of time. Gradually, I was able to feel at ease when I participated in gatherings, and I could usually make some time to read God’s words and do my duty in the church. But sometimes, when my business conflicted with my duty, I would choose my business and put off my duty in spite of myself. Because of this, I was tormented on the inside. Sometimes, I would also think, “When will I be able to be unaffected by my business and do my duty in peace?” When I saw that many brothers and sisters were able to abandon their families and give up their careers to spread the gospel, my heart was touched so much. I thought that we are all humans, so if brothers and sisters can cast aside their concerns and expend themselves for God, then why can’t I let go? I hoped so much that one day I would be able to wholeheartedly invest myself in doing my duty; how great that would be! I repeated this thought again and again to God in prayer, hoping that God would give me more faith and let the day come when I was able to let go of my business and wholeheartedly expend myself for Him.

In the summer of 2011, my headaches were getting increasingly severe. I really couldn’t bear it anymore, so I went to the city hospital to get checked. The doctor said to me, “Your headaches may be related to the work you are doing now. If you want to improve your condition, the best way is to not do this business anymore. Otherwise, your condition will get more and more severe.” Hearing the doctor’s words, it was clear to me that this was God giving me a way out. I wanted to use this opportunity to tell my family that I could not continue doing business anymore, but I was unable to make up my mind, because it took me 10 years of painstaking effort and management to bear the fruits of today, and moreover, business was flourishing that year and we could sometimes earn five or six thousand yuan in one day. If I gave up, then the clients I had been in contact with all these years would be stolen by others in the industry. In the end, I was unable to overcome money’s seduction, and I endured the torture of my illness to persist with working for several more months. Although I earned a lot of money, I was not happy at all, and I thought of before, when I had prayed to God and been willing to let go of my business and expend myself for Him. But now, I was still holding onto money and not letting go. I felt very guilty inside. So, I prayed to God again, asking Him to help me let go of my business and expend myself for Him. One day, I saw God’s words that said: “If I were to place some money in front of you right now and give you the freedom to choose—and if I did not condemn you for your choice—then most of you would choose the money and forsake the truth. The better among you would give up the money and choose the truth reluctantly, while those in-between would seize the money in one hand and the truth in the other. Would your true colors thus not become self-evident? When choosing between the truth and anything to which you are loyal, you would all make this choice, and your attitude would remain the same. Is that not so? Are there not many among you who have seesawed between right and wrong? In contests between positive and negative, black and white, you are surely aware of the choices that you have made between family and God, children and God, peace and disruption, riches and poverty, status and ordinariness, being supported and being cast aside, and so on. Between a peaceful family and a broken one, you chose the former, and you did so without any hesitation; between riches and duty, you again chose the former, even lacking the will to return to shore; between luxury and poverty, you chose the former; when choosing between your sons, daughters, wives and husbands, and Me, you chose the former; and between notion and truth, you once again chose the former. Faced with all manner of your evil deeds, I have simply lost faith in you. It simply astounds Me that your hearts are so resistant to being softened. Many years of dedication and effort have apparently brought Me nothing more than your abandonment and despair, but My hopes for you grow with each passing day, for My day has been completely laid bare before everyone. Yet you persist in seeking dark and evil things, and refuse to loosen your grip on them. What, then, will be your outcome? Have you ever given careful consideration to this? If you were asked to choose again, what then would be your position? Would it still be the former? Would you still bring Me disappointment and wretched sorrow? Would your hearts still possess the sole modicum of warmth? Would you still be unaware of what to do to comfort My heart? At this moment, what do you choose? Will you submit to My words or be weary of them?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. To Whom Are You Loyal?). Faced with God’s questioning, I entered a state of reflection. I thought about how I prayed to God many times saying that I was willing to abandon my business and would expend myself for Him at all times. But, when I looked at my daily income of several thousand yuan, I was no longer willing to abandon it. Was I not cheating God? I thought that although I was believing in God during these years, I had spent almost all my time and energy on doing business. My brain was full of thoughts about how I could earn more money, and I never cherished the duty that I should do. Whenever there was a conflict between my duty and my business, I always chose to satisfy the business side first, putting my duty in the back of my mind and not taking it seriously. These few years, I became a total slave to money in order to stand out amongst my peers, and every day I was struggling amidst the emptiness and pain, sinking further and further. Even though I rebelled against God over and over, He never gave up on saving me. When I could not participate in gatherings for the sake of my business, He arranged for sisters to support and help me. When I was facing the betrayal of my husband, the challenges of my business, and also my ailments, and when I was living in a state of pain and helplessness, God used His words to lead and guide me, and enabled me to yearn for the light and have the will to properly pursue the truth. When I would not let go of my business, God used the doctor’s words to advise me. He has always been anxious and worried about my life, and has made such painstaking efforts for me, but I was constantly thinking about how to earn more money and did not consider my duty at all. I was truly so selfish! Now, God was still giving me a chance to do my duty, and I had to cherish it. I had to expend myself for the spreading of the kingdom gospel and do my duty as a created being. After I made my choice, some unexpected events took place, which made me see through the harm and consequences of pursuing wealth to some extent.

One day in the winter of 2011, someone made a threatening call to my husband, saying that we had offended someone, and asked my husband to send them 100,000 yuan to ensure his safety. Otherwise, they were going to remove my husband’s arms and legs. Hearing these words, my heart began to thump with fear. I had only seen such scenes on TV before, and never thought that I would experience them first-hand in real life. Why was the world in such chaos nowadays? How could people’s hearts be so sinister? In that moment, I suddenly thought that if I continued to do this business, it would truly lead to a fatal disaster. I thought that ever since my family had money, I had not spent a single day in peace, and now I had encountered this unexpected misfortune—money did not bring happiness and joy. Later, I heard in succession about several truck drivers who delivered goods to our home who had died in car accidents. When I heard the news of their deaths, I simply could not believe that it was true. Among them, the young ones were only twenty-something years old, and the middle-aged ones were only in their forties. The ones who left the deepest impression on me were a husband-and-wife couple who would not hire a driver in order to earn more money and would work all day and night. In the end, they got in a car accident due to fatigue, and both husband and wife died. Even though they earned some money, they lost their life doing it. What good did that money do them? I thought of the Lord Jesus’ words: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Thinking back to those years when I put my whole heart into climbing the social ladder, every day I was like a machine working day and night. Although I earned some money and also gained praise and was thought highly of by people, I did not get any joy or enjoyment from it, and instead I felt increasingly empty and in pain. For the sake of earning money, I came down with illnesses, and when my head hurt so bad that I wanted to bang it against a wall, I was still unwilling to stop making money. I saw that money had me firmly bound up. Money is like a knife that kills people in cold blood. If I was still trying to earn money for all I was worth like before, maybe one day I would also be tortured to death by money like these people. After this day, I would absolutely not give my life for money anymore. It occurred to me that now there were still many people who could not see through this matter and were still splashing about inside money’s whirlpool. They didn’t see a direction for their life and didn’t know how to live a meaningful life. I wanted to spread God’s gospel in the last days to more people, to help people hear His voice sooner and understand the truth, and to no longer suffer from Satan’s corruption and harm. I told my family that now my headaches were very bad, and that in the future I would no longer participate in business matters. My family agreed and allowed me to recuperate. I was very happy. From my heart, I thanked God for offering me a way out.

In 2012, after the Spring Festival, I handed over the entire business to my husband for him to manage, and I could read God’s words and do my duty in peace. I felt extremely at ease and peaceful inside my soul. My mental state also gradually improved. What was even more miraculous was that without any treatment, my headaches magically went away. My heart was very moved, and I was keenly aware that this was God healing my illness and relieving me from the torture of my ailment and the destruction of my spirit. I resolved to properly do my duty and repay God for His saving grace. When my husband saw that my headaches were getting better, he pressed me to continue doing business, and I stated clearly to him my attitude of not wanting to do business again. When he saw I wouldn’t listen to him, he used divorce to threaten me and said that if I continued believing in God, he wouldn’t give me money to spend. Seeing how heartless my husband was, I was so angry that my whole body started shaking. Scenes of people looking down on me as a child appeared in my mind once more. I truly did not want to live that kind of life again. I felt very weak. If I did not believe in God, I could go on enjoying an abundant material life and the respect of others. If I chose to do my duty at all times, I would lose everything I had. My heart was in great pain and extreme torment, and tears flowed nonstop down my face. On one side was my duty, and on the other was the career I had managed for many years. I didn't know how to make a choice. Crying, I prayed to God, “God! I am very weak right now, and I don’t know what I should choose. If I persist in doing my duty, my career and my family will be lost. If I choose my family and my career and abandon my belief in God and the performance of my duty, I will be a person without a conscience and reason. God, I don’t want to leave You. If You did not guide me step-by-step until this day, I would not have walked the correct path in life. In the past, I did not pursue the truth and expend myself for You. Today, I cannot be unworthy of Your thoughtfulness any longer. I want to properly pursue the truth and continue to follow You forward. God! Please give me the faith and strength to make the right choice.” After praying, I read a passage of God’s words: “You must suffer hardship for the truth, you must give yourself to the truth, you must endure humiliation for the truth, and to gain more of the truth you must undergo more suffering. This is what you should do. You must not throw away the truth for the sake of a peaceful family life, and you must not lose your life’s dignity and integrity for the sake of momentary enjoyment. You should pursue all that is beautiful and good, and you should pursue a path in life that is more meaningful. If you lead such a vulgar life, and do not pursue any objectives, do you not waste your life? What can you gain from such a life? You should forsake all enjoyments of the flesh for the sake of one truth, and should not throw away all truths for the sake of a little enjoyment. People like this have no integrity or dignity; there is no meaning to their existence!” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Experiences of Peter: His Knowledge of Chastisement and Judgment). Reading God’s words, I felt as if He was addressing me face-to-face: “In the future, you should properly pursue the truth. Don’t live that vulgar life that you did in the past.” Before, I did not pursue the truth, and I did not read God’s words enough. I put my time and effort into doing business, wasting so much of my time. Now, I had to cherish the time ahead of me, and no matter how my family held me back, I could not abandon this great opportunity to pursue the truth. I said to my husband, “These few years, I came down with illnesses trying to earn money. If I did not believe in God, I would have died long ago. As a believer in God, I am walking a bright and correct life path. Now that I have chosen this path, I must follow it to the end. You do not believe in God, but you cannot interfere with my freedom.” Seeing that he could not hold me back, from then on, my husband no longer bothered me about it. After making this choice, my heart felt so liberated. After that, I performed my duty at all times.

Later, when I saw acquaintances driving in their cars, I would still feel a kind of loss: When I was doing business in the past and drove a car, people would think highly of me wherever I went. Now, I rode an e-bike instead. When past acquaintances and clients saw me, they wouldn’t say hello, and almost everyone I knew treated me coldly. Not only had I lost the halo I once had, I was also met with my family’s scolding: “You did 10-plus toilsome years of business and then voluntarily passed it on to others. If you don’t do business, let’s see who will still give you money to spend in the future. I don’t know what on earth you were thinking. You’re truly too foolish!” These offensive and probing words made me feel extremely disturbed. In those days, I was ill at ease and in low spirits every day. I thought, “If I had continued to do business, I could still get others to think highly of me. But now, without my business, if I don’t have money in the future, how am I supposed to live?” Before I knew it, I had become caught up in Satan’s temptations once again, and in spite of myself, I began to think of a backup plan. In the dead silence of night, I would often toss and turn and be unable to sleep. I began to reflect, “How come every time I am faced with the temptation of money, fame, and status, my heart always becomes disturbed?” I wanted very much to find the answer to this question. Later on, I saw this passage of God’s words: “‘Money makes the world go round’ is a philosophy of Satan. It prevails among the whole of mankind, in every human society; you could say it is a trend. This is because it has been instilled in the heart of every single person, who at first did not accept this saying, but then gave it tacit acceptance when they came into contact with real life, and began to feel that these words were in fact true. Is this not a process of Satan corrupting man? … Satan uses money to tempt people, and corrupts them into worshiping money and venerating material things. And how is this worship of money manifested in people? Do you feel that you could not survive in this world without any money, that even one day without money would be impossible? People’s status is based on how much money they have, as is the respect they command. The backs of the poor are bent in shame, while the rich enjoy their high status. They stand tall and proud, speaking loudly and living arrogantly. What does this saying and trend bring to people? Is it not true that many people make any sacrifice in the pursuit of money? Do many people not lose their dignity and integrity in the pursuit of more money? Do many people not lose the opportunity to perform their duty and follow God for the sake of money? Is losing the chance to gain the truth and be saved not the greatest of all losses for people? Is Satan not sinister to use this method and this saying to corrupt man to such a degree? Is this not a malicious trick? As you progress from objecting to this popular saying to finally accepting it as truth, your heart falls completely into Satan’s grasp, and therefore you inadvertently come to live by the saying” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique V). Through what God’s words exposed, I found the root cause of why I could never break free from the shackles of money and fame. I thought back to what my father often taught me when I was young, “Our family is poor, so when you grow up, you have to earn more money and bring honor to our name. Only if we have money will people have a good opinion of us.” My father’s words were imprinted on my memory. I thought that during these years, satanic poisons such as “Money makes the world go round,” and “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing” were determining how I lived my life. I believed that only if I had money could I speak with my head held high and be held in high regard by others. In order to be thought highly of by others, I worked tirelessly day and night like a money-making robot. When I was tired or sleepy, I was unwilling to rest, and when I was sick, I was unwilling to go to the doctor. In fear of missing a bit of business, I put my whole heart into making money. Whenever a conflict occurred between my business and gatherings, I would take care of the business matters first and then go to the gathering. I never put pursuing the truth and doing my duty first, and when I was busy with my business, I simply would not attend gatherings. I was bogged down by money and could not extricate myself, and I became increasingly greedy and degenerate. From what was exposed by God’s words, I finally saw clearly Satan’s sinister motive of using these poisons to harm people. It wanted to take advantage of people’s ambitions and desires for pursuing money and fame to harm them and swallow them whole. If God had not exposed Satan’s sinister motive, it truly would have been tough for me to see through its cunning scheme, and I would have continued to be swept up in money’s whirlpool, giving my life to Satan. After experiencing this, I understood first-hand that no matter how much money, material enjoyments, and respect from others I possessed, my heart was still empty and in pain. My life did not have a shred of value or meaning. If I still could not let go of the interests in front of me and clung tightly to money, then money would absolutely torture me to death in the end. In this life, I was fortunate enough to be following God, and to have heard the Creator’s words with my own ears and perform my duty as a created being. This was the thing in my life that had the most value and meaning. I could not throw away the truth in order to pursue material enjoyments and the respect of others. Instead, believing in and worshiping God was the objective I was pursuing. It was the time of great expansion of the kingdom gospel, and as a created being, I was supposed to fulfill my responsibility and duty, and spread and bear witness to the gospel so that more people could be saved by God. This was the value and meaning of my life. After understanding God’s will, I was no longer influenced by money. When I went to my parents’ home, they no longer scolded me for not doing business, and sometimes they would even give me some money for living expenses. I knew very well that all of this was the grace and mercy of God, and I was full of gratitude for Him in my heart.

I thought that on this journey, if it were not for the guidance of God’s words, I would not have broken away from the control of Satan’s poison known as “Money makes the world go round,” much less let go of my business and chosen to do my duty. I understood that money, fame, status, cars, houses, and so on—all those material things were as fleeting as a floating cloud. Only by pursuing the truth, living according to God’s words, and doing one’s duty as a created being could one live a life that had the most meaning and value. Just as God’s words say: “When people engage in careers in the world, all they think about is pursuing things like worldly trends, prestige and profit, and fleshly enjoyment. What’s the implication of this? It is that your energy, time, and youth are all occupied and consumed by these things. Are they meaningful? What will you gain from them in the end? Even if you gain prestige and profit, it will still be hollow. What about if you change your way of living? If your time, energy, and mind are only occupied by the truth and the principles, and if you only think about positive things, like how to perform your duty well, and how to come before God, and if you expend your energy and time for these positive things, then what you gain will be different. What you gain will be the most substantive benefits. You will know how to live, how to comport yourself, how to face every kind of person, event, and thing. Once you know how to face every kind of person, event, and thing, to a large extent this will enable you to naturally submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements. When you can naturally submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, then without even realizing it, you will become the kind of person that God accepts and loves. Think about it, isn’t that a good thing? Perhaps you do not know this yet, but in the process of you living your life, and of you accepting God’s words and the truth principles, you will imperceptibly come to live, to view people and things, and to comport yourself and act according to God’s words. This means that you will unconsciously submit to God’s words, and obey and satisfy His requirements. Then you will have already become the kind of person that God accepts, trusts, and loves, without you even knowing it. Isn’t that great? (It is.) Therefore, if you expend your energy and time to pursue the truth and to perform your duty well, what you gain in the end will be the most valuable things” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth I. How to Pursue the Truth (18)). After reading God’s words, I better understood the value and significance of pursuing the truth. Although now I was not as rich as before and my clothes were not as bright and pretty, I was enjoying God’s supply of life. This was something that one could not get in exchange for any amount of money. I thought of how, over the years, I had repeatedly rebelled against God and wounded His heart, and how I had rejected His salvation many times in order to pursue money. I did not cherish the great opportunity to do my duty, but God always stayed by my side and waited for me to turn myself around; He did not give up on saving me. After I stopped doing business, God did not leave me in the cold or leave me hungry, and He continued to provide for me in every possible way. God’s saving grace cannot be calculated, much less repaid. I will never regret choosing to follow God in this life. Thank God for His salvation. All glory be to God!