By Su Qing, China

I was born into a poor rural family. When I was in high school, my parents couldn’t afford the tuition, so they tried to borrow money from my uncle. However, my aunt was afraid that we couldn’t pay it back and was unwilling to lend us the money. I thought to myself, “I must strive to get into college and make the people around me admire my family.” When I was at school, I only ate pancakes I brought from home in order to save money. My studies were affected because of insufficient blood supply to the brain caused by long-term malnutrition, and in the end, I failed the college entrance examination. I burst into tears and complained that I had a tough fate. However, I was unwilling to accept this fate. In order to get a high-level degree and stand out from the crowd, I also signed up for adult self-taught exams, accounting training courses, and civil service exams. However, despite all my efforts, I still failed in the end. Therefore, I went to work in a factory. In order to become a workshop statistician and be admired by others, I would work overtime and stay up late to study the duties of the position while others were resting. I overworked myself by putting in more than ten hours every day. On top of that, I worked overtime and stayed up late every day as well. I was dizzy and burned out from working so hard, and I even dozed off at work. As a result, I got the product quantity statistics wrong, and almost caused huge losses to the factory. The team leader criticized me in front of all the employees in the workshop. At that time, I desperately wanted to find a hole in the ground to crawl into. My head buzzed, and I fainted right there on the spot. Since then, I have suffered from sensorineural hearing loss, and I can’t be subjected to any stimulation. Whenever I was under a lot of pressure at work, I would feel dizzy and experience ringing in my ears. Injections and medicines couldn’t cure it, and I couldn’t go to work anymore. At that time, my heart was miserable, and I complained about why my fate was so bad. I often locked myself in a room and cried, thinking about ending it all. Because I had been living in repression and misery for a long time, my hearing loss gradually worsened.

In 2013, my parents-in-law accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days. They also preached the gospel to me. I felt especially free and liberated when I read God’s words and lived church life with my brothers and sisters. Gradually, my mood improved and my hope for life was rekindled. Later, I was elected as a leader in the church. I thought to myself, “I paid such a high price in society, but it was all in vain. Now, even though I have just joined God’s house, I can do the duties of a leader. Believing in God is better. I have to work hard, and maybe I can be promoted further and admired by even more people in the future.” So I became more active in doing my duties. I was busy leading group gatherings all day, rain or shine. My brothers and sisters also praised me for bearing a burden in my duty. Later I was elected to be a preacher, and my desire for status was satisfied. Just when I was enjoying the admiration of my brothers and sisters, an incident of gas poisoning caused my deafness to worsen. My hearing has been even worse since then. During gatherings, I couldn’t hear my brothers and sisters clearly when they spoke in low voices, and I was often constrained by my deafness, living in a negative state. In the end, I was unable to do real work and I was removed from my duties. When I thought about how I could no longer do the duties of a leader and be admired by others, I complained even more about how bad my fate was. After that, I couldn’t pick myself up again, and lost faith in God. After treatment, my hearing recovered somewhat, and the leaders arranged for me to do watering duty. I thought to myself, “If I can achieve some results in watering duty, I will be admired by my brothers and sisters all the same.” Therefore, I read the relevant principles and equipped myself with the truth every day, often staying up until 11 or 12 at night. Slowly, the results I achieved in doing my duty improved, and I was also promoted to be responsible for a wider range of work. When I thought about winning the admiration of my brothers and sisters again, I was so happy. I thought to myself, “Hard work pays off. If I work even harder, maybe I can be promoted further. That way even more people would admire me.” However, my cervical spondylosis later flared up, and my hearing loss became so severe that I could no longer communicate about the work normally. The leaders arranged for me to return to my local church to receive treatment while doing my duties to the best of my ability. I felt very despondent. I thought about what a great price I had paid to, with great difficulty, win the admiration of others. However, because of my illness, I could no longer do this duty. Why was my fate so bad? Later, due to my poor hearing, it was too hard for me to communicate with others. I could only do some general affairs work. My heart was particularly tormented by this, and I thought to myself, “If I wasn’t deaf, I would have had the opportunity to preach the gospel and water newcomers. But now I can only do some general affairs work. If I can’t be in the spotlight, who will admire me? Why is my fate so bad? Anyway, this is my fate, so I’ll just have to muddle through. I’ll just have to get through it day by day!” Next, although I did not abandon my duty, I constantly lived in a despondent state and wasn’t focused when doing my duty. I was always forgetting this thing or that, and often made mistakes in my duty, hindering the work of the church.

Later, the sister cooperating with me reminded me that it was dangerous to live in this state, and that I had to seek the truth to resolve my negative emotions quickly. Thanks to my sister’s reminder, I came before God and prayed, “God, I don’t want to live in despondency. Living like this is too miserable. May You lead me to understand my own problems and walk out of this incorrect state.” One day, during my devotionals, I read two passages of God’s words, which touched my heart immediately. God says: “Why do people get despondent? Why do they feel no motivation to do things? Why are they always so negative, passive and without determination when they do things? There is clearly a reason for this. … the root cause for the arising of the negative emotion of despondency is different for everyone. One kind of person’s emotion of despondency may arise from their constant belief in their own terrible fate. Is this not one cause? (It is.) When they were young, they lived in the countryside or in a poor region, their family was not prosperous and, apart from some simple furnishings, they had nothing of much value. They had perhaps one or two sets of clothing that they had to wear even though they had some holes in them, and they could never ordinarily eat good quality food, but instead had to wait for New Year or holidays to eat meat. Sometimes they went hungry and hadn’t enough to wear to stay warm and having a big bowl full of meat to eat was a pipedream, and even finding a piece of fruit to eat was difficult. Living in such an environment, they felt different from other people who lived in the big city, whose parents were of means, who could eat anything they wanted and wear anything they wanted, who got everything they wanted right then and there, and who were knowledgeable about things. They’d think, ‘They have such a good fate. Why is my fate so bad?’ They always want to stand out from the crowd and change their destiny. However, it is not so easy to change one’s destiny. When one is born into such a situation, though they may try, how much can they change their fate, and how much better can they make it? After they become an adult, they are stopped by obstacles everywhere they go in society, they are bullied everywhere they go, and so they always feel so unfortunate. They think, ‘Why am I so unlucky? Why do I always meet mean people? Life was hard when I was a kid, and that’s just how it was. Now that I’m grown, it’s still so bad. I always want to show what I can do but I never get a chance. …’ … Once they have begun to believe in God, they set their resolve to perform their duty well in God’s house, they become able to endure hardship and work hard, able to endure more than anyone else in any matter, and they strive to win the approval and esteem of most people. They think they may even be chosen to be a church leader, someone in charge, or a team leader, and won’t they then be honoring their ancestors and their family? Won’t they then have changed their destiny? However, reality does not quite live up to their wishes and they become dejected, and think, ‘I’ve believed in God for years and I get on very well with my brothers and sisters, but how come whenever it’s time to choose a leader, someone in charge, or a team leader, it’s never my turn? Is it because I look so plain, or because I haven’t performed well enough, and no one has noticed me? Every time there is a vote, I may have a slight hope, and I’d be happy even to be selected as a team leader. I’m so filled with enthusiasm to repay God, but I just end up disappointed every time there is a vote and I’m left out of it all. What’s up with that? Could it be that I’m truly only able to be a mediocre person, an ordinary person, someone unremarkable my whole life? When I look back at my childhood, my youth, and my middle-aged years, this path I’ve trodden has always been so mediocre and I haven’t done anything noteworthy. It’s not that I don’t have any ambition, or that my caliber is too lacking, and it’s not that I don’t exert enough effort or that I can’t endure hardship. I have resolves and goals, and I can even be said to have ambition. So why is it that I can never stand out from the crowd? In the final analysis, I just have a bad fate and am destined for suffering, and this is how God has arranged things for me.’ The more they dwell on it, the worse they think their fate is” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). “People like this, who always think themselves to have a bad fate, constantly feel like their hearts are being crushed by a giant rock. Because they always believe that everything that happens to them does so because of their bad fate, they feel they cannot change any of it, no matter what happens. So what do they do? They just feel negative and slack off and resign themselves to their misfortunes” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). What God’s words exposed was exactly my state. The reason why I had constantly been living in negative emotions of despondency was because I had always believed I had a bad fate. When I was a kid, my family was poor and people looked down on us, so I complained about having a bad fate. I believed that only by living a superior life could one be admired by others and have a good fate. In order to change my fate, I studied hard, but in the end, I failed the college entrance examination due to insufficient blood supply to the brain caused by malnutrition. However, I was unwilling to accept my fate, so I went to work in a factory to earn money. In order to become a statistician and sit in an office and be admired by others, I worked overtime to learn the techniques. In the end, I made a statistical error, which gave me a shock that resulted in sensorineural hearing loss. I believed even more firmly that it was because of my tough fate, and I lived in misery, losing hope for my life. After I started to believe in God, I thought that by doing my duties properly and being promoted to be a leader, I would be admired by my brothers and sisters and change my fate. However, my deafness was aggravated by gas poisoning and I couldn’t do my duty normally. This affected the work and I was removed from my duty. Later, when I started doing watering duty, I paid a price in that duty in the hope of achieving results that would cause others to admire me. When I was promoted, I thought my fate had taken a turn for the better and I would finally have a chance to shine. However, I was anxious and overeager for quick success, and my deafness got worse. I was unable to communicate with others normally, affecting my duties. I had no choice but to return to my local church to do general affairs duties there. Because my desire for reputation and status was not satisfied, I blamed God for arranging a bad fate for me. I believed that my bad fate in this life was only to toil and work hard, and so I lived in a despondent state and gave up trying. I didn’t bear a burden in my duty, and constantly made mistakes in it, affecting the work. I had believed in God for many years and read so many of His words, but when things came upon me, I didn’t come before Him to seek the truth, and when things didn’t go my way, I complained that He had arranged a bad fate for me. I even became negative and resistant. This was the viewpoint of a disbeliever, and I showed no submission to God at all.

Later, I read more of God’s words and gained a deeper understanding of the concept of a good fate and a bad fate. God says: “God’s arrangement of what a person’s fate shall be, whether it be good or bad, is not to be viewed or measured with the eyes of man or the eyes of a fortune teller, nor is it to be measured according to how much wealth and glory that person enjoys in their lifetime, or how much suffering they experience, or how successful they are in their pursuit of prospects, fame and gain. Yet this is precisely the serious mistake made by those who say they have a bad fate, as well as a way of measuring one’s fate used by the majority of people. How do most people measure their own fate? How do worldly people measure whether a person’s fate is good or bad? Primarily, they base it on whether that person’s life goes smoothly or not, whether they can enjoy wealth and glory or not, whether they can live a lifestyle superior to others, how much they suffer and how much they have to enjoy during their lifetime, how long they live for, what career they have, whether their life is full of toil or comfortable and easy—these things and more they use to measure whether a person’s fate is good or bad. Don’t you measure it like this, too? (Yes.) So, when most of you encounter something not to your liking, when times are hard, or you aren’t able to enjoy a superior lifestyle, you will think you have a bad fate too, and you will sink into despondency. Those who say they have a bad fate don’t necessarily genuinely have a bad fate, nor do those who say they have a good fate necessarily have a good fate. How exactly is fate measured as being good or bad? … Tell Me, does a widow have a good fate? To worldly people, widows have a bad fate. If they are widowed in their thirties or forties, they really have a bad fate, this is really hard for them! But if a widow suffers a lot because they lost their spouse, and they come to believe in God, is their lot hard then? (No.) Because those who haven’t been widowed are living a happy life, with everything going well for them, with lots of support, food and clothing, a family full of children and grandchildren, living a comfortable life, without any hardship or feeling any spiritual want, they don’t believe in God and they won’t believe in Him no matter how you try to spread the gospel to them. So who has the good fate? (The widow has the good fate because she has come to believe in God.) You see, because worldly people consider the widow to have a bad fate, and she suffers so much, she then changes direction and begins to follow a different path, and she believes in God and follows God—doesn’t this mean that she has a good fate now, and is living happily? (It does.) Her bad fate has changed to a good fate. If you say she has a bad fate, then her fate in life should always be bad and she cannot change it; so how then can it be changed? Did her fate change when she started believing in God? (No, it’s because her views on things have changed.) Because the way she regards things has changed. Has the objective fact of her own fate changed? (No.) … In reality, has she truly come to have a good fate because she believes in God? Not necessarily. It’s just that now she believes in God, she has hope, she feels some satisfaction in her heart, the goals she is pursuing have changed, her views are different, and so her current living environment makes her feel happy, satisfied, joyful, and peaceful. She feels her fate is so good now, much better than the fate of the woman who has not been widowed. Only now does she realize that the view she held before, believing herself to have a bad fate, was wrong. What can you see from this? Are there such things as ‘good fate’ and ‘bad fate’? (No.) No, there aren’t” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). Reading God’s words brightened my heart. Whether a person’s fate is good or bad cannot be measured based on our notions and imaginings, nor can it be weighed up in the eyes of worldly people. Nonbelievers think that eating well, dressing well, and enjoying the admiration and support of others is having a good fate. Conversely, they think that if you are poor and backward all your life, living at the bottom of society and being looked down on by others, or if you experience the torment of illness, or experience ordeals and hardships, suffering a lot, this is having a bad fate. In fact, with God, there is no such thing as a good fate or a bad fate. It’s just like the example God gave of the widow. The widow went from thinking that she had a bad fate to thinking that she had a good fate. Although her objective living environment had not changed, her perspective on things had changed. She understood from God’s words that no matter how much those who have a happy family and a comfortable life enjoy themselves, if they cannot come before God and accept His salvation, they will ultimately have to go to hell. Because of the suffering she endured, she accepted God’s work and had the opportunity to understand the truth and be saved. She is really the most blessed person. Although the widow’s objective living environment had not changed, her criteria for measuring whether a person has a good or bad fate did change, and the goals she pursued also changed. However, because I did not understand the truth and believed that having fame, gain, and the admiration of others meant having a good fate, I pursued standing above the rest in my duty. I believed that being promoted and being able to do the duties of a leader meant having a good fate, and every time my duties were altered, I complained that I had a bad fate. I realized that I did not understand the truth and my viewpoints on things were so absurd and unreasonable. Actually, in God’s house, duties are altered based on the needs of the work and the alterations are weighed up according to people’s conditions and caliber. The duty a person does is not related to whether their fate is good or bad at all. Even if my duty had not been altered, if I had not pursued the truth, I would have been revealed and eliminated all the same. Although I was doing general affairs duty, as long as I pursued the truth and a change in my disposition, I could still be saved. Take a preacher who did her duty with me as an example. On the surface, she was of good caliber, and was later elected as a district leader. However, she always pursued reputation and status, and did many things that disrupted and disturbed the work of the church to make people admire her. In the end, she was expelled from the church and lost her chance to be saved. From this we can see that if you believe in God without pursuing the truth and without seeking a change in your disposition, instead only seeking reputation and status, even if you become a leader, you will still be revealed and eliminated by God. From these examples, it’s clear that I believed that enjoying wealth, fame, and gain throughout life was having a good fate, and that if you believe in God and are promoted and given important positions, you have a good fate. In contrast, if you do an ordinary duty and have a mediocre life, this means having a bad fate. This view is extremely distorted and does not conform to the truth at all. God arranges each person’s living environment based on their needs. God’s good intentions are in everything people experience in their life. I was born in a poor family and even though I studied hard, I still couldn’t stand out from the crowd. While I appeared to have a bad fate on the surface, it was because of these setbacks that I was able to come before God and accept His salvation. I reflected more deeply: I have a strong desire for reputation and status, and if I had lived a life with wealth and status, I would have pursued fame and gain even more. Ultimately, I would have been swept away by the evil trends. It was only after experiencing so many setbacks and failures that I was able to return to God, accept the watering and supply of God’s words, and understand some truths. This is the greatest blessing. It is so much more meaningful than obtaining fame and gain, and enjoying the wealth and splendor of the world. After I started believing in God, I was assigned to do general affairs duties because of my hearing loss. This was also God’s protection of me. Because my desire for reputation and status was too strong, whenever there was an opportunity to show off, I couldn’t help but work for reputation and status. It would be all too easy to embark on the path of antichrists and be revealed and eliminated. Although I am deaf, God’s house did not deprive me of the opportunity to do my duty. Instead, I was assigned appropriate duties based on my physical condition. Although this duty is behind the scenes and may not be highly regarded by others, it does not hinder me from pursuing the truth, and by doing this duty, some of my corruption was revealed. Sometimes I was perfunctory and unconscientious in doing my duty, indulging in fleshly comforts and unwilling to pay a price. Through eating and drinking the words of God, I gained some understanding of my own corrupt disposition, and afterward when I acted, I could rebel against the flesh, and put my heart into my duty and be conscientious. At the same time, I also learned to seek the truth principles in everything, to be conscientious and detail-oriented even in minor and insignificant matters. After my experience, I realized that no matter whether you are a leader or doing general affairs duties in God’s house, as long as you pursue the truth, you have a chance to be saved. God arranged my fate in life according to my needs; it is all beneficial to me. The problem was that I wasn’t content, I always had my own ambitions and desires, and I didn’t submit to God’s sovereignty. As a result, not only did I suffer terribly, but I also hindered my duties. After my perspective turned around, I didn’t feel as miserable anymore.

Later, I read God’s words: “Are the thoughts and views of those people who always say they have a bad fate right or wrong? (They’re wrong.) Clearly, these people experience the emotion of despondency due to becoming mired in extremism. Because they have this extreme emotion of despondency due to having extreme thoughts and views, they are unable to correctly face the things that happen in life, they cannot normally bring into play the functions people should have, nor perform the duties, responsibilities or obligations of a created being. … These extreme emotions cause the way they judge things, the way they think, and their views on things to come from an extreme, incorrect and distorted standpoint. They regard issues and people from this extreme and incorrect standpoint, thereby repeatedly living, viewing people and things, and comporting themselves and acting under the effect and influence of this negative emotion. In the end, no matter how they live, they seem so tired that they aren’t able to muster up any enthusiasm for their belief in God and pursuit of the truth. Regardless of how they choose to live their life, they cannot positively or actively perform their duty, and despite having believed in God for many years, yet they never focus on performing their duty with all their heart and soul or performing their duty satisfactorily, much less do they pursue the truth, of course, or practice in accordance with the truth principles. Why is this? In the final analysis, it’s because they always think they have a bad fate, and this leads them to have a profoundly despondent emotion. They become totally dispirited, powerless, like a walking corpse, without any vitality, exhibiting no positive or optimistic behavior, much less any determination or stamina to devote the loyalty they should devote to their duty, their responsibilities, and their obligations. Rather, they struggle reluctantly from day to day with a slipshod attitude, aimlessly and muddleheadedly, even unconsciously getting through the days. They have no idea how long they will muddle along for. In the end, they have no recourse but to admonish themselves, saying, ‘Oh, I’ll just keep muddling along as long as I can! If one day I can’t go on anymore, and the church wants to expel me and eliminate me, then they should just eliminate me. It’s because I have a bad fate!’ You see, even what they say is so defeated. This emotion of despondency isn’t just a simple mood but, more importantly, it has a devastating impact on people’s thoughts, hearts, and on their pursuit. If you cannot turn your emotion of despondency around in a timely and speedy manner, it will not only affect your whole life, it will also destroy your life and carry you to your death. Even if you do believe in God, you won’t be able to gain the truth and attain salvation and, in the end, you will perish” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). After reading this passage of God’s words, I realized that my state of constantly living in emotions of despondency and complaining that I had a bad fate was too dangerous. These were extreme thoughts, and if I didn’t resolve them, I would lose my opportunity to be saved. I originally thought that when I was living in despondency and complaining about my bad fate, I was merely feeling upset, and since I hadn’t given up my duty, I didn’t see it as an evil deed. Only now did I realize that the essence of living in emotions of despondency is dissatisfaction with God’s sovereignty; it is railing against and resisting God. If I never repented, I would eventually be spurned by God and walk the path to destruction. The consequences would be so terrifying! I thought about how, before I believed in God, I was dissatisfied with the fate that God had arranged for me because I was always unsuccessful in the world. After I started to believe in God, I still pursued admirations from others. When I couldn’t stand out in my duty, I felt miserable. I complained about having a bad fate and lived in a state of negativity and depravity. Although I was still doing my duty outwardly, I lacked motivation. I was passive and slacked off in the way I treated my duty, and gave up trying. Because I had been intransigently holding on to the fallacious view that my fate was bad, I was lukewarm and perfunctory in the way I treated my duty, hindering the work of the church and damaging my own life entry. If I didn’t turn this state around, I would lose the work of the Holy Spirit, my duty, and ultimately lose my chance for salvation. When I understood this, I felt a burst of lingering fear, and prayed earnestly to God, “God, for so many years I have been intransigent and averse to the truth. I have constantly complained about my bad fate, and have been unable to get out of extreme emotions. Only now have I realized that the perspective behind my pursuit has been incorrect. I am willing to repent to You, pursue the truth earnestly, and do my duty well.”

Later, I pondered: What was the root cause of me living in such misery for so many years? One day, I read the words of God: “What does Satan use to keep man firmly within its control? (Fame and gain.) So, Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts, until all people can think of is fame and gain. They struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and they will make any judgment or decision for the sake of fame and gain. In this way, Satan binds people with invisible shackles, and, wearing these shackles, they have neither the strength nor the courage to throw them off. They unknowingly bear these shackles and trudge ever onward with great difficulty. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind shuns God and betrays Him and becomes increasingly wicked. In this way, therefore, one generation after another is destroyed in the midst of Satan’s fame and gain. Looking now at Satan’s actions, are its sinister motives not utterly detestable? Maybe today you still cannot see through Satan’s sinister motives because you think one cannot live without fame and gain. You think that if people leave fame and gain behind, they will no longer be able to see the way ahead, no longer be able to see their goals, that their futures will become dark, dim and gloomy. But, slowly, you will all one day recognize that fame and gain are massive shackles that Satan uses to bind man. When that day comes, you will thoroughly resist Satan’s control and thoroughly resist the shackles Satan uses to bind you. When the time comes that you wish to throw off all the things Satan has instilled in you, you will then make a clean break with Satan and you will truly loathe all that Satan has brought to you. Only then will mankind have a real love and yearning for God” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique VI). After reading God’s words, I suddenly realized that all the pain I had endured over the years was brought by Satan. Satan lured and harmed me with fame and gain, making me pursue standing out from the crowd and changing my fate ever since I was a child. When I was in school, the teachers taught me that “One must endure the greatest hardships in order to become the greatest of men,” “Man struggles upward; water flows downward,” and “A man leaves his name behind wherever he stays, just as a goose utters its cry wherever it flies.” I accepted these rules of survival, and mistakenly believed that if I had fame and gain I would have everything, and that as long as I worked hard, suffered more and paid a higher price, I would have a good future and be able to enjoy all the wealth and prosperity in the world. I studied hard for more than a decade in order to have a good fate, be admired by others, and obtain fame and gain, but in the end, I still failed. I was unwilling to accept my fate, so I studied overtime to learn how to be a statistician. In the end, not only did I fail to change my fate, I also made mistakes at work due to pushing my body too far. I received a shock and developed sensorineural hearing loss as a result. After I started to believe in God, I stayed up late to equip myself with the truth, heedless of my health, in order not to be looked down upon. Eventually, my hearing loss worsened and I was unable to communicate about the work normally with my brothers and sisters. I could only do general affairs work behind the scenes, and I felt especially tormented because I was not admired by others. Fame and gain were like shackles on my body, preventing me from breaking free. I thought about how nonbelievers value fame and gain over life itself. Some people cannot bear the blow of not being able to get into college or failing in their careers, and as a result, suffer mental breakdowns, or even commit suicide by jumping off buildings. I was the same. When I couldn’t achieve my ambition and desire to pursue the admiration of others, I just kept on complaining that God had not arranged a good fate for me, living in a despondent state, and gave up trying. I even thought about ending it all. If it hadn’t been for God’s protection, I might have ended up like those nonbelievers. I finally came to see clearly that the rules of survival that Satan instilled in me were not positive things. They caused me to become more and more depraved, losing the reason of a normal human being. God requires us to submit to His sovereignty and arrangements and dutifully be created beings. However, Satan used fame and gain to lure me, making me worry about reputation and status and, when I couldn’t obtain them, I grew distant from God, betrayed God, resisted God, and ultimately risked losing my chance for salvation. This was Satan’s wicked intention in corrupting people. If I continued like this, I would be eliminated sooner or later. I regretted that I was so blind and foolish, and had been harmed by Satan for so many years. I resolved to completely rebel against Satan and live by God’s words from now on, no longer pursuing reputation and status.

One day, I read these words of God: “What attitude should people have toward fate? You should comply with the Creator’s arrangements, actively and strenuously seek the Creator’s purpose and meaning in His arrangement of all these things and achieve understanding of the truth, bring into play your greatest functions in this life God has arranged for you, fulfill the duties, responsibilities, and obligations of a created being, and make your life more meaningful and more of value, until finally the Creator is pleased with you and remembers you. Of course, what would be even better would be to attain salvation through your seeking and strenuous effort—this would be the best outcome. In any case, with regard to fate, the most appropriate attitude created mankind should have is not one of wanton judgment and circumscription, or using extreme methods to deal with it. Of course, much less should people try to resist, choose, or change their fate, but rather they should use their heart to appreciate it, and seek, explore, and comply with it, before facing it positively. Finally, in the living environment and on the journey set for you in life by God, you should seek the way of conduct God teaches you, seek the path God requires you to take, and experience the fate God has arranged for you in this way, and in the end, you will be blessed” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). From God’s words, I found a path. God requires me to hold to my position as a created being and to do my duty in a down-to-earth manner. Thinking about it, God’s good intentions are in whatever duty I do, and I must accept it from God. No matter what duty I do, or whether I can win admiration from others, I am just a tiny created being, and it is enough for me to fulfill my function as a created being. I am willing to submit to the fate God has arranged for me from the bottom of my heart. Now, I can willingly submit and am learning to put my heart into doing my duty and be conscientious while doing it. If I don’t understand something, I seek fellowship with my brothers and sisters. If I make mistakes in my duty, I promptly look for the deviation and summarize the causes, reflect on my corrupt dispositions, and correct my errors as soon as possible. When I practice in this way, I feel peaceful and at ease in my heart.

Through my experience, I have realized that no matter what duty you do, you can pursue the truth. By doing general affairs duty, I have learned to be quiet before God, to train to seek the truth principles in everything, and to do my duty in accordance with God’s requirements. I feel at ease and peaceful. Gradually, I stopped being bound by the view that my fate is bad, and my state is getting better and better. These are the results that God’s words have had on me. Thanks be to Almighty God!