By Bong, Philippines
I Struggle to Cast Off the Bonds of Money and Come to Appreciate the Authority of God
Not long afterward, God tested me. One day, the church leader asked me whether I was willing to spare several days to perform a duty. I knew that God was exalting me by giving me this duty and I really wanted to get started, but the time needed to perform my duty just happened to clash with my job. I thought of how my mortgage payments and my children’s school fees were fixed, and in two days I had to give my children their school fees. If I didn’t work for a few days, I wouldn’t have enough money to pay it all. I felt just then like I was in a somewhat awkward position and I didn’t know what to do for the best, and so I prayed to God and told Him of my difficulties. Afterward, I read in the piece of God’s words “God Himself, the Unique III”: “People live their lives within the laws of fate laid out for them by the Creator, and for any rational person with a conscience, coming to terms, over the decades of their life, with the Creator’s sovereignty and coming to know His authority is not a difficult thing to do. … If one views life as an opportunity to experience the Creator’s sovereignty and come to know His authority, if one sees one’s life as a rare chance to perform one’s duty as a created human being and to complete one’s mission, then one will surely have the correct outlook on life, will surely live a life blessed and guided by the Creator, will surely walk in the light of the Creator, will surely know the Creator’s sovereignty, will surely come under His dominion, and surely become a witness to His miraculous deeds, a witness to His authority” (The Word Appears in the Flesh).
After reading God’s words, I understood that God created mankind and gave us the breath of life, that He provides us with everything we need to survive and holds sovereignty over our destinies, and He expresses the truth to lead us onto the right path in life. As created beings, we should perform the duty of a created being before God in order to repay His love, we should experience His work in our real lives, and experience and know God’s authority. Thinking back, I was always relying on my own wild ambitions and subjective efforts to walk the path of worldly people in pursuit of money, and all I brought myself was pain, and I suffered loss in my life. Now, I could no longer be like I was back then—I should pursue the truth, seek God’s will in the situations I encountered every day, practice God’s words and submit to God’s sovereignty, for only this was the true way in life and only a pursuit like that could earn God’s praise. After coming to this understanding, I prayed to God: “O God! I now understand Your will. I wish to obey and perform my duty. I also wish to make a resolution in Your presence, that no matter what situations I may encounter in the future, I shall always seek the truth from within Your words, practice in accordance with Your requirements, submit to Your sovereignty and arrangements and perform my duty as a created being. I ask that You guide me.” After praying, my heart grew calm and I decided that I would entrust my difficulties in life to God and perform my duty in earnest.
Two days later, my wife told me that our son needed seven thousand pesos for his school fees, so I took a piece of jewelry I’d previously bought from a pawnshop back to the shop to pawn it. I never expected the shop manager to give me 18,000 pesos for it! It was inconceivable to me, as the manager of this pawnshop usually only ever paid out low amounts. I thought that piece of jewelry would only fetch 11,000 pesos at most, but now the manager had actually given me seven thousand pesos more than that and it was just enough for my son’s school fees. I truly came to appreciate that God’s authority ruled and administered all things, that God arranged all things for our lives and that we had no cause to worry or fret. I could but offer up my thanks and praise to God.
I Feel Great Gratitude for God’s Love and March Onward to a New Life
One day, I read these words of God: “What God wants to see is that man’s heart can be revived. These methods that He uses to work on man are a continual effort to awaken the heart of man, to awaken man’s spirit, to enable man to understand from where he came, who is guiding, supporting and providing for him, and who has allowed man to live until the present day; they are a means to enable man to understand who is the Creator, whom he should worship, what kind of road he should walk, and in what way man should come before God; they are a means to gradually revive the heart of man, so that man knows God’s heart, understands God’s heart, and comprehends the great care and thought behind His work to save man. When man’s heart is revived, man no longer wishes to live with a degenerate, corrupt disposition, but wishes instead to pursue the truth in order to satisfy God. When man’s heart has been awakened, man is then able to tear himself fully away from Satan. No longer will he be harmed by Satan, no longer controlled or fooled by it. Instead, man can proactively cooperate in God’s work and His words to satisfy the heart of God, thus attaining fear of God and shunning evil. This is the original purpose of God’s work” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Only after my experiences did I finally understand that God had arranged these situations to awaken my heart and my spirit, and to get me to follow the right path in life of obeying God, fearing God and shunning evil, and to live in God’s blessings—all this was God’s painstaking effort! I thought back to what I’d gone through, from sinking into the quagmire of money and getting a serious illness to having the fortune to hear God’s gospel of the last days and coming before God, then once again going in pursuit of money and getting caught in Satan’s net. My brothers and sisters gave me fellowship about God’s words, I came to have some knowledge of the fact of God’s sovereignty over mankind’s destiny, and I also came to have some knowledge of Satan’s wicked purpose in using heretical fallacies to corrupt people, and only then did I begin to let go of money little by little, and I understood that only practicing God’s words and submitting to God’s sovereignty was the right path to follow in life…. In order to awaken my heart and to save me from being harmed by Satan, God paid such a painstaking price for me and He showed me mercy. Every step I took, whether I listened and was obedient, or whether I rebelled against and shunned God, God always used the most suitable means to save me. I truly came to appreciate how real God’s love is and how beautiful and good God’s heart is! Were it not for God’s salvation, I’d still be living in Satan’s snare, caught in a whirlpool of money, completely unaware of what Satan’s harm was turning me into. Coming to this appreciation of God’s love, I had a deep sense of what a true honor and what good fortune it was for me to be able to come before God—God had graced me and showed me favor! I wished only to spend more time and energy in the future attending gatherings, reading God’s words and worshiping God, to arm myself more with the truth, and to perform my duty well to repay God’s love. Thank God and praise Him!
Source From: The Church of Almighty God
These testimonies of faith will show you the way of practice when you have problems and confusion in faith or life, so you can become resolved in your faith to follow God.
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