D
I’m an ordinary rural woman. After marriage, I often quarreled and had fights with my husband over trivial matters, living in agony every day. I considered dying many times, but at the thought of my young child I had to give up the idea of suicide. As such, my daughter became my only hope and support for survival.In November of 2007, one of my classmates preached the gospel of the kingdom to me. I saw these words of God: “Since the creation of the world I have begun to predestine and select this group of people, namely, you today. Your temperament, caliber, appearance, stature, family in which you were born, your job and your marriage, the entirety of you, even the color of your hair and your skin, and the time of your birth were all arranged by My hands. Even the things you do and the people you meet every single day are arranged by My hands, not to mention the fact that bringing you into My presence today is actually My arrangement. Do not throw yourself into disorder; you should proceed calmly. What I allow you to enjoy today is a share that you deserve, and it was predestined by Me at the creation of the world”. After reading God’s words, I understood that my marriage and family were both ordained by God, and that I was predestined to believe in God long ago. I didn’t complain anymore. Soon afterward, I began to live the church life, praying, reading God’s words, and singing hymns to praise God with my brothers and sisters. I felt especially liberated and was free from the painful life that I used to lead. Hopes rose in my heart.
Seven months after I believed in God, my daughter, who was a high school student, went home for the summer break. That day, I went out for a meeting. My daughter happened to discover a note I put in a pocket where I copied down some words of God. When I returned home from the meeting, she looked very unhappy and asked, “Are you believing in God?” “Yes. How did you know that?” I replied. Then my daughter said angrily, “Our principal said at a school meeting that belief in God is opposed by the national government. The students whose parents believe in God will be forbidden from taking the college entrance examination, their employment will also be affected. Make your own decision!” Hearing her say this, my heart sank. Believing in God is a good thing. How can it be this way? In confusion, I said, “God comes to save man and asks man to be good people. He doesn’t participate in the politics of man. How could believing in God affect your further education and employment?” My daughter was snappy, saying, “Anyway, our principal said such things. Even if you don’t care for yourself, you should consider me.” Then she left. I felt awful and pondered over my daughter’s words. Could what she said be true? What if she can’t find a good job in the future? Should this be the case, won’t her future prospects be ruined by me? Won’t she blame me forever? Inside me there was a fierce battle. I was torn between my daughter’s future prospects and God, who gave me the truth and life. I just can’t bear to give up my belief in God. Oh, what am I to do? The more I thought about it, the more upset I felt. I was unable to eat or sleep well. During the several days that followed, I had been indecisive about this matter.Just when I was at a loss and distressed, a sister in the church came to my home. I told her my difficulty. Then she said to me, “Man’s future and fate are in God’s hands. They are not decided by any person. Let’s see some of God’s words. God says, ‘From the moment you come crying into this world, you begin to perform your duty. You assume your role in the plan of God and in the ordination of God. You begin the journey of life. Whatever your background and whatever the journey ahead of you, none can escape the orchestration and arrangement that Heaven has in store, and none are in control of their destiny, for only He who rules over all things is capable of such work. Since the day man came into existence, God has been steady in His work, managing this universe and directing the change and movement of all things. Like all things, man quietly and unknowingly receives the nourishment of the sweetness and rain and dew from God. Like all things, man unknowingly lives under the orchestration of God’s hand’. From God’s words we can see that the destiny of every one of us was arranged by God. As to whether your daughter can attend college or what kind of job she may get in the future, God has the final word. They are not up to any man, or the government.” Then I thought: Man’s fate is indeed in God’s hands. It is not decided by any person. I wished to find a great partner and live a happy life in the first place, but things just didn’t turn out that way. God’s words are correct! At this time, the sister went on to say, “God is testing our faith by allowing such a situation to befall us. It is a battle in the spiritual realm. When Satan is carrying out its cunning schemes, God wants to see whether we can stand firm and bear witness in Satan’s attacks. Let’s look at another passage of God’s words. God says, ‘Because God has become flesh, Satan has employed all sorts of methods of accusation, wanting to attack God this way. However, God does not retreat because of this—He just speaks and works among mankind and allows people to know Him through His incarnate flesh. Satan is red-eyed with fury and has put forth a great deal of effort on God’s people to make them negative, retreat, and even lose their way. But because of the effect of God’s words Satan has failed, thus adding to its wantonness. This is why God has reminded everyone: “In your lives, there may come a day when you will meet with this kind of situation: Would you willingly allow yourselves to fall captive to Satan, or will you have Me obtain you?”’. God wants to save man and free them from the bondage of Satan so that they may live in the light. But on the other hand, Satan tries to disturb and tear down God’s work and cause man to lose the opportunity for God’s salvation. Satan knows that you love your daughter most, so it uses her to disturb you and attempts to make you reject and leave God. Once you leave God, you will be under Satan’s domain, and you’ll be taken to hell by Satan. This is the treacherous intention of Satan.”Through the sister’s fellowship, I understood it was Satan’s plot. I said to her, “It turns out that Satan was using my daughter’s words to disturb my mind and make me weak and push God away. I was almost fooled by Satan. It was so close! I can’t fall captive to Stan and allow it to take me to hell. I must stand on the side of God. No matter what my daughter says in the future, I will absolutely not waver. May God give me faith.” The sister nodded with a smile.
However, Satan was not willing to be defeated. It employed new tricks. One night less than a month later, knowing that I was still believing in God, my daughter said to me impatiently, “Mom, stop believing in God! I’m going to take the college entrance examination. If you insist on your belief in God, my school will not allow me to take the test. You should think of me. Don’t be too selfish.” Hearing these words, I thought: It is for your sake that I’ve made compromises and lived together with your father for all these years. Since I believed in God, I have been less depressed and distressed than I was before, and my mental outlook has been improved a lot. Don’t you see that? Then, I said to my daughter in a mild tone, “Haven’t you noticed that I’ve been in excellent spirits every day since I believed in God? I’ve come a long way to find the true God. Why don’t you understand me?” Seeing that I didn’t listen to her, my daughter walked off in a huff without another word. I hastened to ask, “It’s already dark out. Where are you going?” She didn’t respond and continued her way. At that time, my cousin was also there. She rushed to drag her back, but my daughter just wouldn’t come back no matter how hard she tried. After my daughter left, my heart was in turmoil: The day is dark already. Now the school is on summer vacation, she cannot go back there. And we have no relatives nearby. Where could she have gone? My cousin and I called her repeatedly, but she never answered the phone. We went out to look for her but to no avail. It was past ten o’clock at night. I send texts to her, but she didn’t reply. I was so agitated that I walked back and forth across the house, with my heart in my mouth. My cousin cried from worry, saying, “Sister, what if your daughter has any kind of accident?” Hearing this, I was even more anxious: Yes! She is a young girl aged about 18. How am I supposed to live if she meets with some accident? The more I thought, the more afraid I became. I waited in suspense for my daughter to reply to my texts. It was not until five minutes after midnight that I finally received her reply. I opened the text, only to see the following words: “I’m not going back until you promise what I told you.” Looking at her text, I was worried and fearful. So, I responded in a negotiating tone, “You may come back now. I’ll consider what you said and answer you later.” An hour later, however, my daughter replied, “If you do not agree to my request and persist in your belief, I’ll break up with you and put it in writing that I’ll never have contact with you for the rest of my life.” I was dumbfounded at my daughter’s text. What’s going on? I’m just believing in God; I’m not doing anything wrong. Yet my daughter is actually going to break up with me. It breaks my heart. She is my only child, my lifeblood. I’ve paid a great price for her during all these years. I never imagined that she could be so heartless to me because of my belief in God. At that moment, I wanted to cry but no tears came. Then I thought: I might as well not believe. Believing in God is too difficult. I put my hope completely on my daughter. I can’t lose her. My heart ached increasingly as I thought about it. I felt as if the sky were falling. I knelt down and cried out to God, “Oh God! What should I do? Please help me. My daughter is going to break up with me because of my faith. I’m afraid of losing my only daughter, and I don’t want to leave You. Oh God, I don’t know how to choose. I’m unable to overcome it. I really have no way out. God, what should I do?” Just when I was praying, I remembered God’s words: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men”. Through God’s words I suddenly saw the light. Oh! Am I not falling into Satan’s scheme? Is it not another spiritual war? I should stand witness for God and never make concessions to Satan. With God’s word supporting me, I had the courage inside to go to war with Satan. So, I sent a text to my daughter, “In any case, I cannot agree to your request.” Then I felt much more grounded inside my heart, and was no longer as worried as before.
Half an hour later, my daughter texted me again, saying, “Well, I’ll go to die.” I was shocked, thinking: Oh, she has actually said something like this. Maybe I should tell her that I’ll stop believing. Then she will not go to die, and I will not be refined as such. I picked up my phone and wanted to contact my daughter. Just at this moment, I recalled the happy time when I gathered with my brothers and sisters with my heart at ease and peaceful. If I didn’t believe in God, however, I would simply return to the dark and painful life I had lived in the past. Holding the phone, I thought of my daughter and the church life alternately, wavering back and forth inside. Should I compromise with my daughter? Feeling helpless, I put down my phone and prayed to God, “Oh God! What shall I do? Please help me …” At this point, I thought of God’s words: “The heart and spirit of man are held in the hand of God, and all the life of man is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things”. Yes, whether my daughter will end her life tonight is in God’s hands. It’s not up to her. Man’s life is controlled by God. The heart and spirit of my daughter are also controlled by God. Her thoughts will shift according to God’s thoughts. Is she not trying to persuade me out of my belief in God by threatening me with death? Under the guidance of God’s words, I had confidence again. So, I replied to my daughter, “I’ll insist on believing in God.” After a while, she sent a text back, saying, “I’m going to die!” This time I realized it was Satan’s sinister plot. It threatened me with the death of my daughter over and over again. It was too despicable! Being much calmer than I had been, I reminded myself that I should never fall for Satan’s tricks again. My daughter’s life was in God’s hands. It was not decided by Satan, let alone any man. When my thoughts went there, I replied to my daughter, “Do as you please.” Then, I said a prayer to God, “Oh God! I will entrust my daughter to You. Whether she will die or not is in Your hands. Without Your permission, she will not die even if she wants to. I’m willing to obey Your plans.” After I had prayed, my heart was at ease. It was two o’clock in the morning. I lay in bed and fell asleep unconsciously. After dawn, I was still a little worried when I thought back to what had happened last night. I stood on the street for a while, and didn’t hear any bad news. Then, my heart settled.One day, a week later, my phone rang. I was extremely excited when I saw it was my daughter calling. I picked up my phone immediately and said, “Hello!” “Mom, happy birthday!” I was pleasantly surprised, and said in tears, “Oh, today is my birthday! I forgot it myself.” My daughter also said she had bought a present for me. Hearing this, I kept giving thanks to God in my heart. When the call ended, I came before God at once and sincerely offered up a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God.Since then, my daughter has never again prevented me from believing in God. Besides, her career prospects were not affected at all, and she instead found a satisfactory job. She even encouraged me, saying, “Mom, I find that you have really changed since you believed in God. You are not the same as before. Just be a good believer in God, as long as you feel good.” My daughter’s attitude has changed. I know this is all God’s deeds. God used the real environments to let me see Satan’s meanness and evilness. It employs all sorts of methods to deceive and swallow man, trying to make all of them turn into its funerary objects. Through this experience, I have also realized that if we can rely on and look up to God and make God’s word have dominion with us, Satan will withdraw. It will forever be defeated in God’s hands. I have truly appreciated the power of God’s word and seen how difficult it is for God to save man. After experiencing this spiritual war, I have seen that God is right beside me helping and guiding me constantly. Thanks be to God! All the glory goes to God!The End.
Seven months after I believed in God, my daughter, who was a high school student, went home for the summer break. That day, I went out for a meeting. My daughter happened to discover a note I put in a pocket where I copied down some words of God. When I returned home from the meeting, she looked very unhappy and asked, “Are you believing in God?” “Yes. How did you know that?” I replied. Then my daughter said angrily, “Our principal said at a school meeting that belief in God is opposed by the national government. The students whose parents believe in God will be forbidden from taking the college entrance examination, their employment will also be affected. Make your own decision!” Hearing her say this, my heart sank. Believing in God is a good thing. How can it be this way? In confusion, I said, “God comes to save man and asks man to be good people. He doesn’t participate in the politics of man. How could believing in God affect your further education and employment?” My daughter was snappy, saying, “Anyway, our principal said such things. Even if you don’t care for yourself, you should consider me.” Then she left. I felt awful and pondered over my daughter’s words. Could what she said be true? What if she can’t find a good job in the future? Should this be the case, won’t her future prospects be ruined by me? Won’t she blame me forever? Inside me there was a fierce battle. I was torn between my daughter’s future prospects and God, who gave me the truth and life. I just can’t bear to give up my belief in God. Oh, what am I to do? The more I thought about it, the more upset I felt. I was unable to eat or sleep well. During the several days that followed, I had been indecisive about this matter.Just when I was at a loss and distressed, a sister in the church came to my home. I told her my difficulty. Then she said to me, “Man’s future and fate are in God’s hands. They are not decided by any person. Let’s see some of God’s words. God says, ‘From the moment you come crying into this world, you begin to perform your duty. You assume your role in the plan of God and in the ordination of God. You begin the journey of life. Whatever your background and whatever the journey ahead of you, none can escape the orchestration and arrangement that Heaven has in store, and none are in control of their destiny, for only He who rules over all things is capable of such work. Since the day man came into existence, God has been steady in His work, managing this universe and directing the change and movement of all things. Like all things, man quietly and unknowingly receives the nourishment of the sweetness and rain and dew from God. Like all things, man unknowingly lives under the orchestration of God’s hand’. From God’s words we can see that the destiny of every one of us was arranged by God. As to whether your daughter can attend college or what kind of job she may get in the future, God has the final word. They are not up to any man, or the government.” Then I thought: Man’s fate is indeed in God’s hands. It is not decided by any person. I wished to find a great partner and live a happy life in the first place, but things just didn’t turn out that way. God’s words are correct! At this time, the sister went on to say, “God is testing our faith by allowing such a situation to befall us. It is a battle in the spiritual realm. When Satan is carrying out its cunning schemes, God wants to see whether we can stand firm and bear witness in Satan’s attacks. Let’s look at another passage of God’s words. God says, ‘Because God has become flesh, Satan has employed all sorts of methods of accusation, wanting to attack God this way. However, God does not retreat because of this—He just speaks and works among mankind and allows people to know Him through His incarnate flesh. Satan is red-eyed with fury and has put forth a great deal of effort on God’s people to make them negative, retreat, and even lose their way. But because of the effect of God’s words Satan has failed, thus adding to its wantonness. This is why God has reminded everyone: “In your lives, there may come a day when you will meet with this kind of situation: Would you willingly allow yourselves to fall captive to Satan, or will you have Me obtain you?”’. God wants to save man and free them from the bondage of Satan so that they may live in the light. But on the other hand, Satan tries to disturb and tear down God’s work and cause man to lose the opportunity for God’s salvation. Satan knows that you love your daughter most, so it uses her to disturb you and attempts to make you reject and leave God. Once you leave God, you will be under Satan’s domain, and you’ll be taken to hell by Satan. This is the treacherous intention of Satan.”Through the sister’s fellowship, I understood it was Satan’s plot. I said to her, “It turns out that Satan was using my daughter’s words to disturb my mind and make me weak and push God away. I was almost fooled by Satan. It was so close! I can’t fall captive to Stan and allow it to take me to hell. I must stand on the side of God. No matter what my daughter says in the future, I will absolutely not waver. May God give me faith.” The sister nodded with a smile.
However, Satan was not willing to be defeated. It employed new tricks. One night less than a month later, knowing that I was still believing in God, my daughter said to me impatiently, “Mom, stop believing in God! I’m going to take the college entrance examination. If you insist on your belief in God, my school will not allow me to take the test. You should think of me. Don’t be too selfish.” Hearing these words, I thought: It is for your sake that I’ve made compromises and lived together with your father for all these years. Since I believed in God, I have been less depressed and distressed than I was before, and my mental outlook has been improved a lot. Don’t you see that? Then, I said to my daughter in a mild tone, “Haven’t you noticed that I’ve been in excellent spirits every day since I believed in God? I’ve come a long way to find the true God. Why don’t you understand me?” Seeing that I didn’t listen to her, my daughter walked off in a huff without another word. I hastened to ask, “It’s already dark out. Where are you going?” She didn’t respond and continued her way. At that time, my cousin was also there. She rushed to drag her back, but my daughter just wouldn’t come back no matter how hard she tried. After my daughter left, my heart was in turmoil: The day is dark already. Now the school is on summer vacation, she cannot go back there. And we have no relatives nearby. Where could she have gone? My cousin and I called her repeatedly, but she never answered the phone. We went out to look for her but to no avail. It was past ten o’clock at night. I send texts to her, but she didn’t reply. I was so agitated that I walked back and forth across the house, with my heart in my mouth. My cousin cried from worry, saying, “Sister, what if your daughter has any kind of accident?” Hearing this, I was even more anxious: Yes! She is a young girl aged about 18. How am I supposed to live if she meets with some accident? The more I thought, the more afraid I became. I waited in suspense for my daughter to reply to my texts. It was not until five minutes after midnight that I finally received her reply. I opened the text, only to see the following words: “I’m not going back until you promise what I told you.” Looking at her text, I was worried and fearful. So, I responded in a negotiating tone, “You may come back now. I’ll consider what you said and answer you later.” An hour later, however, my daughter replied, “If you do not agree to my request and persist in your belief, I’ll break up with you and put it in writing that I’ll never have contact with you for the rest of my life.” I was dumbfounded at my daughter’s text. What’s going on? I’m just believing in God; I’m not doing anything wrong. Yet my daughter is actually going to break up with me. It breaks my heart. She is my only child, my lifeblood. I’ve paid a great price for her during all these years. I never imagined that she could be so heartless to me because of my belief in God. At that moment, I wanted to cry but no tears came. Then I thought: I might as well not believe. Believing in God is too difficult. I put my hope completely on my daughter. I can’t lose her. My heart ached increasingly as I thought about it. I felt as if the sky were falling. I knelt down and cried out to God, “Oh God! What should I do? Please help me. My daughter is going to break up with me because of my faith. I’m afraid of losing my only daughter, and I don’t want to leave You. Oh God, I don’t know how to choose. I’m unable to overcome it. I really have no way out. God, what should I do?” Just when I was praying, I remembered God’s words: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men”. Through God’s words I suddenly saw the light. Oh! Am I not falling into Satan’s scheme? Is it not another spiritual war? I should stand witness for God and never make concessions to Satan. With God’s word supporting me, I had the courage inside to go to war with Satan. So, I sent a text to my daughter, “In any case, I cannot agree to your request.” Then I felt much more grounded inside my heart, and was no longer as worried as before.
