I

Whether you encounter a major illness or a minor one, the moment your illness gets serious or you're facing death, just remember one thing: Do not fear death. Even if you're in the final stages of cancer, even if the death rate for your particular illness is very high, do not fear death. Regardless of how great your suffering is, if you fear death then you won't submit. What should you think in your heart? "I must not fear death, everyone dies in the end. Submitting to God, however, is something most people can't do, and I can use this illness to practice submitting to God. I should have the thinking and the attitude of submitting to God's orchestrations and arrangements, and I must not fear death." This is one attitude to adopt.

II

You mustn't worry whether your illness will get worse, or whether you will die if you cannot be cured, or how long it will be until you die, or what pain you will be in when it comes time to die. You mustn't worry about these things; these are not things you should be worrying about. This is because the day must come, and it must come in some year, some month, and on some particular day. You cannot hide from it and you cannot escape it—it is your fate. Your so-called fate has been predestined by God and already arranged by Him. The span of your years and the age and time at which you die are already set by God. You can worry about it but that won't change anything; you can worry about it, but you cannot prevent it from happening; you can worry about it, but you cannot stop that day from arriving. Therefore, your worry is superfluous, and all it does is make the burden of your illness even heavier.

from The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth I. How to Pursue the Truth (3)