What Should People Pursue in Life?

June 21, 2025

By Wang Yin, China

I was born into an ordinary rural family in the 1970s. I have many siblings, and we lived in poverty. In contrast, there were several families in our village who worked in the county town. They had wages, ate well, and dressed respectably. The people in the village were also extremely polite and respectful to them. When I saw all this, I started to think, “It’s just better to have money. You have a life of plenty and people look up to you.” My mother often urged me, “We don’t have any rich relatives, and we don’t have any ways to get a job. You have to study hard, get into college and find a job in the future. Once you succeed, I’ll feel relieved.” Therefore, I regarded getting into college as my only hope of changing my fate. However, just as the college entrance examination was coming up, something unexpected happened. My mother developed esophageal cancer and needed to be hospitalized for surgery, which required a lot of money. My family really didn’t have the money to send me to school. At that moment, I felt like the sky was falling in on me. In the days that followed, I accompanied my mother to the hospital for treatment and chemotherapy, but she still passed away. My dream of going to college had been shattered. Someone even ridiculed me to my face, saying, “You are destined to be like Qingwen in A Dream of Red Mansions. Your ambitions are higher than the sky, but your fate is thinner than paper. Accept your fate!” Faced with this ridicule, I felt how fickle and self-serving the ways of the world were. If you don’t have money, everyone will look down on you. At that time I made up my mind that I must have the backbone to fight for my dignity. I absolutely had to find a way to make money so that one day, I could make the people who had ridiculed me look at me in a new light!

After I got married, I saw that the medical profession was a good option, as you can earn good money and people respect you. Therefore, I asked my husband to use his connections to help me enroll in medical school. After completing my three-year medical training, I opened my own clinic. I was kind to others, and gradually, more and more people came to my clinic for treatment. I also continued to study medicine, getting various credentials. My medical skills got better and better, and soon I became a doctor of some renown in the local area. I earned more money running my clinic than my husband did at work, my patients respected me, and my relatives and friends admired me. My friend’s wife even praised me in person, saying, “You dress so elegantly now. Compared to a few years ago, you seem like a completely different person!” I had accumulated more and more friends almost without me realizing it, and more and more people asked me to do things for them. Even the person who ridiculed me before was all smiles and flattery when he saw me. It is so true that “Money makes the world go round,” and “When you’re poor in the city nobody cares about you, but when you’re rich in the mountains, you find relatives you never knew you had.” Opening a clinic brought me both fame and gain, and my vanity was greatly satisfied. Over the years, my medical skills continued to improve, and more and more people came to the clinic for treatment. Several teachers from a nearby school invited me to open a clinic at their school. Of course I did not pass up such a good opportunity to make money. I was running two clinics at once, and was getting busier and busier. My sister-in-law preached Almighty God’s gospel of the last days to me, but I had no time to investigate as I was dedicating all my time and energy to my business. Once, I finished work after giving an injection to a 2-year-old girl. While I was eating, her family called me, saying that she was foaming at the mouth and convulsing all over, and was being given emergency treatment at the Central Hospital. They asked me to get there as soon as possible. I was so scared that my face turned pale and I rushed to the hospital. The doctor on duty said, “It’s all right now. The little girl might have been allergic to the medicine.” Another time, one patient had a skin allergy test, which showed no reaction. However, during his infusion, he suddenly began to tremble all over. The whole bed was shaking, and my heart suddenly leaped into my throat. Only after emergency treatment did he slowly recover. After these two incidents, my nerves were tense every day, and I was on tenterhooks all day long, terrified that a medical accident would occur. Although I could earn some money by running the clinics, and the admiration and respect of others satisfied my vanity, after everyone left at the end of a long and busy day, all I felt was emptiness and confusion. I have believed in the Lord Jesus since I was a child, and before I opened the clinic, I often prayed and read the Bible. But now all I thought about all day long was how to practice medicine with caution, how to improve my medical skills, and triumph in competition with my peers. I no longer prayed or read the Bible; I was just like a disbeliever. My heart drifted further and further away from God, and I was living just like a nonbeliever. I wanted to change, but I was so busy all day that I had no strength to break free.

The turning point in my life as a believer in God was in 2008. I was 36 years old then, and pregnant with my second child. In the fourth month of pregnancy, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and by the sixth or seventh month, my whole body started to swell, my teeth started to loosen, and at some point, my hair also turned gray. I was hospitalized because my blood pressure continued to rise. One night, many of my teeth started bleeding, and my stomach started to hurt. The warning signs of a major hemorrhage appeared, and the doctor decided to perform a cesarean section immediately after an emergency consultation with multiple doctors. He also said that there was a possibility that both my child and I might not survive the operation. I lay on the operating table, listening to the clanking of surgical instruments, and my mind filled with tangled thoughts: “I am only 36 years old and have always pursued money, fame, and gain. If I lose my life, what use would all the money in the world be? No amount of money can save my life! Aren’t money, fame, gain, and admiration all fleeting?” During the operation, the doctor said in surprise, “The placenta is three-quarters of the way detached, and there is no heavy bleeding. You and your child are safe. What a blessing!” After being discharged from the hospital, I was very weak and had to recuperate at home. My sister-in-law testified to me about Almighty God’s work of the last days again. Listening to her fellowship, I understood that God has become flesh in the last days to express the truth and save people. Only by accepting the truth can people’s corrupt dispositions be cleansed and transformed; only then can they be protected by God in the catastrophes and survive to reach a wonderful destination. I looked back to the years when I dedicated all my time and energy to my business. I never sought to investigate God’s work of the last days. If I shut out the true God, I would be resisting God! This thought frightened me a little, and so I made up my mind to investigate the true way. In the days that followed, I read many of Almighty God’s words, and became certain that the Lord Jesus has returned as Almighty God. I then accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days and began to live a church life.

After gathering for a period of time, my body recovered, and soon I was chosen as the watering deacon. I was very grateful to God for exalting me so I could do a duty. I was often away from the clinics because I was attending a lot of gatherings, and fewer and fewer patients were coming in. I was very anxious, and thought, “What will happen if this continues?! If all my regular patients go elsewhere for treatment, how will I make money in the future? If this continues, won’t I have to close the clinics? That won’t do! I need to talk to the church leaders and ask them to let me be in charge of fewer gathering groups.” But then I thought: I am a created being and I should do my duty to the best of my ability; this is the conscience and reason I ought to possess. So, I didn’t say anything to the leaders. However, during gatherings, I felt extremely uncomfortable and uneasy, and I secretly calculated how much money I had lost by attending the gathering. I did not quiet my heart before God to ponder His words at all. I knew that my state was not right, so I came before God to pray and seek. One day, I read the words of God: “If you do not seek out opportunities to be perfected by God, and if you do not strive to be ahead of the pack in your seeking of perfection, then you will ultimately be filled with remorse. The best opportunity to attain perfection is the present; now is an extremely good time. If you do not earnestly seek to be perfected by God, once His work has concluded, it will be too late—you will have missed the opportunity. No matter how great your aspirations, if God is no longer performing work, then regardless of the effort you put in, you will never be able to attain perfection. You must seize this opportunity and cooperate while the Holy Spirit does His great work. If you miss this chance, you will not be given another one, no matter what efforts you make(The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Be Considerate of God’s Intentions in Order to Attain Perfection). “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 all of the struggles between positive and negative, black and white—between family and God, children and God, harmoniousness and rupture, wealth and poverty, status and ordinariness, being supported and being rejected, and so on—surely you’re not ignorant of the choices that you have made! Between a harmonious 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 still 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 incapable of being softened. The heart’s blood that I have expended for many years has surprisingly brought Me nothing more than your abandonment and resignation, 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?(The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. To Whom Are You Loyal?). From God’s words, I saw God’s urgent intention to save mankind. Now God’s work has reached the critical moment of determining people’s outcomes. Various catastrophes strike all around, including frequent earthquakes, famines, and plagues. God’s work is nearing its end, and following God and accepting His salvation is our only chance to be saved. If we miss this chance, we will regret it for the rest of our lives. God graced me by giving me the opportunity to do watering duty, and His intention was to allow me to obtain more truths by doing my duty. However, I was afraid that if I attended too many gatherings, I would miss out on making money and lose my prestige as a wealthy person. During gatherings, I could not quiet my heart to ponder God’s words, and I even wanted to ask my leaders to let me take charge of fewer gathering groups. Between money and duty, I still clung to external things like money, fame, and gain, unable to let them go. Once God’s work is finished and the great catastrophes come, if I haven’t attained the truth, I will perish in the catastrophes. At that point, however much I wail and gnash my teeth, or however bitterly I regret it, it will be too late. From God’s words I also understood that although the pursuit of money, fame, and gain can bring good enjoyment for the flesh and win you respect and admiration from others, it’s only a temporary satisfaction. When catastrophe strikes, money can’t save your life at all. I thought about how although I made a bit of money from running my clinics, I almost died of heavy bleeding during childbirth. If it hadn’t been for God’s care and protection, no amount of money could have saved my life. A friend’s wife was a teacher, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 30s. Even expensive imported medicines could not save her life, and she passed away at the age of 36. Also, one of my classmates ran an orthopedic hospital and was quite well-known in our county. Out of the blue, he was diagnosed with liver cancer and sadly passed away just six months later. I was reminded of the words of the Lord Jesus: “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). It’s true. Catastrophes have become more and more serious in recent years, with earthquakes, famines, and plagues occurring frequently around the world. So many people suddenly die in these catastrophes. No matter how much money you have, you are always powerless in the face of death. Money cannot save anyone’s life. Only by following God, pursuing the truth, and doing the duty of a created being well can you be saved by God and survive; only then can you have a good fate and destination. Now, God’s work of saving mankind has not yet ended. I should pursue the truth earnestly and cherish my current opportunity to do my duty. After that, I read God’s words more often when I had time, and I was able to quiet my heart during gatherings.

Later, the Health Bureau required that all community clinics be merged, put under unified management, and that the cooperative medical reimbursement system be implemented; patients could no longer claim medical expenses for treatment at private clinics. Some doctors who ran a clinic near my community approached me to discuss merging our clinics. I thought about how the clinics would expand in scale after the merger, and I would definitely make more money. The merger of the clinics held a great temptation for me. However, then I thought about how I was now doing watering duty, and I had gatherings almost every day. When I ran my own clinics, my schedule was relatively flexible, but if the clinics merged, my partners would certainly obstruct me from going to gatherings regularly for their own benefit, and I would no longer be as free to attend gatherings and do my duties. My life would certainly suffer. I definitely couldn’t merge the clinics without it getting in the way of going to gatherings and doing my duty. However, if I didn’t merge my clinics, then I would definitely receive fewer and fewer patients because they would see that they couldn’t get their medical expenses reimbursed at my clinics. Over time, the clinics would surely face bankruptcy, and then I would completely lose my means to make money. Faced with this choice, I hesitated and said to them, “Let me think about it some more.” Over the following days, my heart felt as heavy as if crushed by a huge boulder. I came before God to pray, “Dear Almighty God, my clinics are now facing this merger plan. I am very conflicted about this matter and don’t know what to do. May You lead me.”

Afterward, I read the words of God: “‘Money makes the world go round’; is this a trend? Compared to the fashion and gourmet trends you mentioned, is this not much worse? ‘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? Perhaps people do not have the same degree of experiential knowledge of this saying, but everyone has different degrees of interpretation and acknowledgment of this saying based on things that have happened around them and on their own personal experiences. Is that not the case? Regardless of how much experience someone has with this saying, what is the negative effect that it can have on someone’s heart? Something is revealed through the human disposition of the people in this world, including each and every one of you. What is it? It is the worship of money. Is it hard to remove this from someone’s heart? It is very hard! It seems that Satan’s corruption of man is deep indeed! 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 order to get 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?(The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique V). God’s words made me understand that whenever I had to make a choice between duty and money, I always chose money and benefits. The root cause of this was the harm caused by satanic thoughts and ideas. Since I was a kid, satanic thoughts and ideas such as “Money makes the world go round,” and “When you’re poor in the city nobody cares about you, but when you’re rich in the mountains, you find relatives you never knew you had” had been engraved on my heart. I believed that money gave you status in the eyes of others, and only with money could you conduct yourself with your head held high, live a life of luxury, and live a bright and glamorous life; if you didn’t have money, you would be inferior in the face of others. When I was a child, because my family was poor, I was determined to go to college and leave my life of poverty behind. However, my dream of going to college was shattered when my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness before the college entrance examination. The ridicule of worldly people further fueled my determination to become rich. When I saw that being a doctor could bring both fame and gain, I went to medical school, took the qualification exams and opened a clinic. A few years later, I had achieved some success, and people’s admiration and praise satisfied my vanity. I became even more convinced that having money made one’s life noble. I regarded money, fame, and gain as the goal of my pursuit in life. In those years, I dedicated all my time and energy to my business in the pursuit of wealth. Because I was under high levels of stress all day, I developed high blood pressure, and suffered the complication of pregnancy-induced hypertension during childbirth. If it hadn’t been for God’s protection, I would have died long ago. For eight years, my sister-in-law earnestly preached the gospel to me time and time again, but I was busy all day trying to make money. It was as if my soul had been clouded, and I had no interest in investigating the true way; I rejected God’s salvation again and again. I almost missed the great opportunity of God’s salvation. Even after I started believing in God, my perspective on things still did not change. I was afraid that if I did too much duty or attended too many gatherings, I would miss out on making money, so I didn’t want to be responsible for so many gathering groups. During gatherings, I couldn’t quiet my heart to ponder God’s words, and my life entry suffered. It is just as God exposed: “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?” I lived by satanic rules of existence, and took the mistaken path of pursuing money, fame, and gain. It brought suffering to my flesh and, even more, loss to my life. The facts demonstrate that “Money makes the world go round,” and “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing” are satanic fallacies that mislead, corrupt, and devour people. If I remained unable to see through the ways that Satan harms people, and continued to struggle for money, fame, and gain, then ultimately, I would certainly be captured by Satan and my chance of being saved would be ruined. When I understood this, I determined not to merge the clinics, and that when the rent fell due, I would close the clinics and focus on doing my duty. When my peers called me again, I made it clear that I would not merge the clinics. Although I earned less money, I was free to gather and do my duty. By practicing in this way, my heart felt very peaceful and at ease.

Soon the rent fell due, and I started to hesitate again. I thought about how it had taken me a full decade from studying medicine to opening clinics, and of all the hardships I had undergone and all of the painstaking efforts I had expended to open my clinics. I was really reluctant to let them go. I also thought that if I closed the clinics, not only would my material life be worse than before, but I would also lose the praise and admiration of others. A battle raged in my heart, and I did not know what to do, so I knelt down and prayed earnestly to God, “Dear Almighty God, I once said that I would close the clinics to properly do my duty when the rent fell due. But I still can’t completely let them go. May You enlighten and guide me, and give me faith and strength.” I went to work at the clinic that day. On the way there, I suddenly saw a jet-black coffin in front of a private hospital, with wreaths next to it. I could faintly hear the sound of crying, and I was shocked. There had been a medical accident! After inquiring, I learned that a woman and her baby had died in childbirth in this hospital. I couldn’t help but think back to how although there had been some minor accidents in my clinics over the years, they had all passed without serious harm. This was not because I had superb medical skills, nor was it because I practiced medicine with caution. It was all because of God’s care and protection! Without God’s care and protection, one medical accident would have been enough to bankrupt me. I was very grateful to God in my heart, and knew I had to repay God’s love. I thought about how God’s work is nearing its end, and my brothers and sisters are all rushing to do their duties so as to prepare enough good deeds for their own destinations. However, I was tangled up in the clinics, and couldn’t dedicate more time and energy to my duties. My lukewarm faith in God was not only affecting the results of my duty, but also impairing my own life. Afterward, I read “The Most Meaningful Life,” a hymn of God’s words: “You are a created being—you should of course worship God and pursue a life of meaning. Since you are a human being, you should expend yourself for God and endure all suffering! You should gladly and assuredly accept the little suffering you are subjected to today and live a meaningful life, like Job and Peter. You are people who pursue the right path, those who seek improvement. You are people who rise up in the nation of the great red dragon, those whom God calls righteous. Is that not the most meaningful life?(The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Practice (2)). Through reading the words of God, I understood that as a created being, if I can choose to follow God all my life and do my duty as a created being well, this is the most valuable and meaningful kind of life. I thought of Peter. When Jesus called upon him, he dropped his fishing nets and let go of the tools he used to make a living. He left everything behind to follow the Lord Jesus, and he ultimately obtained the truth and was perfected by God. In contrast, when I looked at myself, I saw I had lived by satanic thoughts and ideas, pursuing money, fame, and gain. Gradually, God lost His place in my heart and I degenerated into being a disbeliever. It was God’s mercy that brought me back to His house, and I should fully cherish the opportunity to do my duty now. I thought of what God said: “People come to earth and it is rare to encounter Me, and it is also rare to have the opportunity to seek and to gain the truth. Why would you not prize this beautiful time as the right path to pursue in this life?(The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Words for the Young and the Old). It’s true. This was my only chance to be saved. If I didn’t get serious right away about following God and pursuing the truth to be saved, then when the catastrophes struck I would lose my life. Then, even if I earned all the money in the world, what value or meaning would it have then? I was running my clinics while doing my duties, and didn’t have much time to read God’s words and seek the truth to resolve my own corrupt disposition. As someone who only believed in God in my spare time, when would I be able to understand the truth? Only by pursuing the truth and doing the duty of a created being well can we be saved and have a wonderful destination. This is the right path in life. I had to let go of the clinics and put all of my time into expending myself for God. Afterward, I closed the clinics.

It was the leadership and guidance of God’s words that gave me discernment of Satan’s sinister intention to mislead and corrupt people with money, fame, and gain, and helped me understand the value and meaning of pursuing the truth in life. I thank God for the leadership and guidance of His words, which allowed me to make a wise choice between business and duty. I have kept doing my duty in the church these past few years. While doing my duties, many of my corrupt dispositions have been revealed, and through praying and seeking the truth, my corrupt dispositions have undergone some changes and I have gradually started to live out some human likeness. The changes I have undergone are the results achieved by God’s words. Thank God for His salvation!

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