Does God answer your prayer❓

Does God answer your prayer❓

I have been working overtime recently. I can't get up in the morning and I don't insist on normal devotion. I didn’t work overtime last night and I’d like to get up early the next morning. But I was afraid that I would snooze and could not get up, So I prayed to God and hope God could wake me up to take morning devotion. At 6:44am the next morning I suddenly woke up, I thought, let me sleep for another 6 minutes and then get up. After when I lay down, I felt hot behind and I could not sleep. I felt that the hot was not normal, and I realized that the room's geothermal heat had been turned on. After I got up and switched off the heat, I thought about why the ground heat would be turned on while I was sitting on the bed. At this time, I suddenly thought of the prayer I made to God last night, This is God wake me up in this way. Later I got to know it is the guests who came last night turned on the heat. In my understanding, I understood God's intention. It was God who listened to my prayers because my prayer was to satisfy God, not to satisfy my own body-flesh. I saw this passage when I doing morning devotion, "Personal prayer life is based upon understanding the significance of prayer and the basic knowledge of prayer. Man must often pray for his shortcomings in his daily life and must pray upon the foundation of the knowledge of God’s words in order to achieve changes in his life disposition. Everyone should establish their own prayer life, they should pray for the knowledge based upon God’s words, should pray in order to seek the knowledge of God’s work. Lay your actual circumstances before God, and be pragmatic, and don’t pay attention to method; the key is to attain a true knowledge, and to actually experience God’s words. " I truly feel God's holiness and God's wisdom, I understand the true meaning of prayer. The Lord Jesus said, "But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33) As long as what you ask for is inorder to satisfy God and is after God's heart. God will answer your prayer. If what your asked for is to satisfy flesh and satisfy Satan, God will hide His face from you. 

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Knowing God Can Help Us Shake Off Worries

Knowing God Can Help Us Shake Off Worries

By Lin Lin

Photo by Giorgio Montersino – CC BY-SA 2.0

Worries are the invisible ties with which Satan bind our heart. Once we get ensnared in Satan’s net, we would lose faith in God and finally be shoved into the abyss of death.

In today’s rapidly changing and competitive society, we are assailed by various kinds of worries without release.

Worrying that we can’t win others’ affection, we have cosmetic surgery and lose weight at the expense of our health and money. Worrying about the children’s prospect, we make them attend all kinds of remedial classes, which leads to enormous pressure on them. Worrying that the work can’t go well, apart from doing the job carefully, we also need to deal with the guards and attacks from colleagues. Worries about the quality of life cause us to apply for various loans and become mortgage slaves; worries about our children’s living conditions keep us laboring even at an old age; worries about sudden sickness and disasters impel us to buy various kinds of insurance. … Because of these worries, we have no God’s place in our heart, living in a world without light.

God says: “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” (Matthew 6:27).“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34). However, who will truly believe and submit to God’s words, and come before God to enjoy His promise without any worries?

In fact, worries come from our arrogance, greed, and ignorance. They are the expressions of our distrust and disobedience of, and resistance to God. The root of worries is that we don’t know God. Only when we know God’s authority and sovereignty, can we gain the true freedom and release, and no longer feel worried.

Just as God’s word says: “Because people do not recognize God’s orchestrations and God’s sovereignty, they always face fate defiantly, with a rebellious attitude, and always want to cast off God’s authority and sovereignty and the things fate has in store, hoping in vain to change their current circumstances and alter their fate. But they can never succeed; they are thwarted at every turn. This struggle, which takes place deep in one’s soul, is painful; the pain is unforgettable; and all the while one is frittering away one’s life. What is the cause of this pain? Is it because of God’s sovereignty, or because a person was born unlucky? Obviously neither is true. At bottom, it is because of the paths people take, the ways people choose to live their lives. Some people may not have realized these things. But when you truly know, when you truly come to recognize that God has sovereignty over human fate, when you truly understand that everything God has planned for and decided for you is a great benefit, and is a great protection, then you feel your pain gradually lighten, and the whole of you become relaxed, free, liberated.”

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How to Improve Your Mother-Daughter Relationship

Photo credit: CameliaTWU on Best Running / CC BY-NC-ND

Dong Xin and her daughter Tingting were going out. When she saw Tingting was rolling up her pant legs before the mirror, Dong Xin asked confusedly: “Come now, why are you rolling them up?” Tingting didn’t pay attention to her mom’s question. She looked at her rolled-up pant legs and smiled with satisfaction, thinking: Hum, after rolling them up, I really look different. My legs look thin and long, and I look tall. Nice! As she enjoyed her beauty, she responded to her mom, “Dressing like this I’ll look slimming and pretty.” At Tingting’s words, Dong Xin felt that teenagers’ thoughts were strange today. She said frowning at her daughter, “Look at you. Rolling up your pant legs, you look like a hoodlum. It’s strange. Let them down.” At the moment, Tingting’s smile froze in a flash and a big question mark appeared before her eyes: Oh, my gosh! How can my mom have this thought? Don’t my contemporaries all dress this way? It’s normal. How can my mom describe me like this? She is really outdated. I wouldn’t like to listen to her. So she said, “No. I like this style. It’s in fashion.” Dong Xin saw Tingting didn’t give in, so she played her trump card, saying, “If you don’t let them down, I won’t take you to go shopping.” Tingting thought gloomily: If I don’t meet her requirement, my buying clothes will fall through. Ah, it seems the older the wiser. For the sake of my beloved clothes, I have to be aggrieved and listen to my mom. So she unwillingly let down her pant legs. As a result, Dong Xin was satisfied while Tingting wasn’t content in her heart. She thought: My mom’s so outdated. She doesn’t understand fashion nor can she keep pace with social trends closely. It seems as if she and I belong to different worlds, and we can’t simply communicate with each other.

From food, clothing and shelter to their networks of friends, it seemed that Tingting’s opinions about them were never in tune with Dong Xin’s. As long as they talked about something, they would argue and they each would insist on their own opinions, ending up parting unhappily. Therefore, even if Tingting had something on her mind, she would rather suppress it in her heart or tell others than tell Dong Xin. Although they lived under the same roof, sometimes they even wouldn’t say a word to each other in a day, so that the distance between them increased and they became the most familiar strangers. Dong Xin said Tingting didn’t understand how to do her a favor nor was she willing to be near to her. There was the saying, “The daughter is the apple of the mother’s eyes,” but Tingting fell far short. After she heard this, Tingting felt very uncomfortable and thought to herself: Don’t blame me. Regardless of what I say and what I do, they are all wrong in my mom’s eyes. Since there is no common language, then we have nothing to communicate with each other. Just like this, they complained against one another and wouldn’t put themselves aside, and thus they were always locked in this kind of stalemate.

The generation gap between them didn’t disappear but was even widening. When Tingting hit the market, she met a boy student and said hello to him. Seeing this, Dong Xin would ask her who the boy was, and warn her against calf love; when Tingting sometimes made a facial mask, Dong Xin would also say she was pursuing world trends; every time when Tingting went to shop for clothes with her mother, Dong Xin would be unsatisfied with each dress Tingting picked out, either saying the clothes were too tight, or had plunging neckline, or saying they were offbeat and didn’t fit a girl. In short, Dong Xin’s opinions were all different from Tingting’s, so Tingting felt very wronged and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she didn’t dare argue with Dong Xin, because she never spoke but Dong Xin scolded her by saying that all she knew was to seek the trends of the world all day and that she wasn’t engaged in honest work. In the aspect of life, she was a bit picky and she liked vegetarian foods and hated meat. For this, Dong Xin often kept dinning in her ears: “It’s more difficult to feed you than feed ten children. If you visit others, will you act like this? If a famine occurs, you’ll absolutely starve to death.…” At these words, Tingting felt like she had a headache. So, what Dong Xin said often went in at one ear and out at the other.

Until that day, under the guidance of God’s words, their relationship began to change silently.…

One day, Dong Xin came to Tingting and said, “Tingting, let’s have a meeting together.” Hearing this, Tingting agreed reluctantly. She thought: Well, in any case, everything is for you to decide. If I don’t listen to you, you’ll nag me again. Then, they sat together and began to read God’s words, “Parents raise their children from infancy to adulthood, nagging them and looking after them throughout. How do parents see time? Whether twenty or thirty years later, their attitude toward their children is the same as when they were born, it doesn’t change. The child has, in fact, long since grown up, he’s long since established his own way of thinking, state of mind, insight, and viewpoints—he’s long since had these things—yet the adults never realize this, they can never keep up, they always talk and interact with the child as if he’d just been born. So what issue does the child have? As soon as the parents start nagging, the child objects. He stays away from them, he avoids them, saying to himself, ‘How I wish there was no nagging, how I wish that no one nagged me, then I’d be free.’ He doesn’t know how to open up to them, or look for the chance to tell them what’s in his heart, which would allow his parents to understand him, and know what he needs, what he’s thinking in his heart, whether there is any problem with what’s in his mind, or anything erroneous about it; whether, if he carries on thinking like this, it will make him do something wrong. He suppresses these things, he doesn’t know how to have a heart-to-heart talk, with the result that the two generations reach an impasse.”

Having finished reading God’s word, Dong Xin looked at Tingting and said, “Tingting, by reading God’s words, I know I’m wrong. I think it’s necessary for me to say I’m sorry. Since you believed in God, in order to let you believe in God properly, for fear that you are attracted by various evil worldly trends and keep far away from God, I, in accordance with my own will, have controlled you and obstructed you from doing this and that. I thought I was doing this for your own good, but I have never expected our relationship becomes more strained for this. Now, through God’s words, I came to realize I’m too arrogant. I regard what I believe is right as the standard and control you in my position as a parent all the time. I always treat you as a child and want you to live in line with my thoughts. When you don’t listen to me, I’m angry with you and still complain about your not understanding things. In hindsight, there’s such great estrangement between us and I should bear much of the blame. In fact, just as what God says, you’ve grown up. You have your own way of thinking and your free space. I shouldn’t always impose my thoughts on you. I ought to talk with you more and understand your ideas. When we understand each other and know what the other think of, can’t we know each other? Then there won’t be such great estrangement between us.”

At Dong Xin’s words, Tingting was lost in thought: Things have progressed to this point today. It wasn’t all my mother’s fault and I was also wrong. If I was supposed to see every matter I encountered from the perspective of the truth, always acted in accordance with God’s words in everything, learned to chat with my mother, and said what was in my heart so that we understood each other, then there wouldn’t happen these things.

Tingting bowed her head and right saw a passage of God’s words, “When some young people are talking, they keep rolling their eyes, they hold everyone in contempt, and everything they say is filled with a note of disdain. If you have a word with them but it’s not to their liking, they will just ignore you. It is rather hard to be a parent nowadays and very hard to get to know the mentality of young people. If they say one wrong word, their child will throw a tantrum and storm off, and it is very difficult for them to communicate with adults. This is to say that there are problems with the thinking of many young people today. Is this situation not created by evil trends and this evil society? The things of people’s normal humanity are becoming fewer and fewer. … Then there is ‘they can’t tell a four from a six.’ This is a dialect expression. Have you heard it before? (Yes.) Explain to Me the literal meaning of these words. (It means that they cannot discern between good or bad. Whatever they think is good is always good. Whatever they think is bad is always bad. No matter how you explain something to them, they don’t listen.) (It means that they are unable to know what is good for them, they have no discernment, they have no understanding about anything and are all mixed up.) This is roughly the literal meaning, that is, not being able to know what is good for them, not knowing what is positive or what is negative and not being able to tell good from bad. Because they are young, brash and arrogant, they don’t listen to anything anyone says. ‘Anything anyone else says is wrong, what I say is right. Don’t anyone try to say anything to me, I won’t take anything in. I know I’m right. Even if I am wrong, I’ll still stick to my guns. Though I know perfectly well that I’m wrong, I’ll still persist with my opinions.’ They have this kind of disposition, of not being able to tell a four from a six. From the outside it is hard to tell whether the child is being clever or stupid; they can put forward ordered arguments. When arguing something, they know better than anyone and they understand more than anyone else, so how come they always do things in such a befuddled way? Though they know perfectly well that a certain way of doing something is right, they don’t listen, they do as they wish and do things however they want—they are willful and muddled.”

After reading God’s words, Tingting felt shamed and humiliated. She thought: All along, although I’m a child believing in God, many of my thoughts and actions were no different from that of nonbelievers. Just as God said, “They are young, brash and arrogant, and they can’t tell a four from a six.” Every time my mother pointed out my mistakes, I either retorted or opposed her with silence; each time she did something that wasn’t to my liking, though I didn’t throw a tantrum, I pulled a long face and gave a dirty look to her. In fact, I obviously didn’t change my views on pursuing, paying much attention to following the trends of the world, but instead I put all the blame on my mother. I think it was my mother who was autocratic and her thoughts were outdated and she always tried to control me. So I was unwilling to communicate with her and opened up to her. As a result, we became the most familiar strangers. In fact, although my mother always tried to control me, that was because she was afraid my heart was attracted by the world, for the evil world is full of sensual pleasures, and we young people will face too many and too great temptations. If we stop paying attention for a moment, we will be seized by Satan. Then she recalled: Each time I went shopping with my classmates, they would talk about how to eat, drink, and have fun and which two classmates fell in love. Every time after I listened to what they said, I would descend into negativity and didn’t thirst for God’s words as before. Didn’t my mother control me because she feared that I kept far away from God and that I was seized by Satan? But I was often muddled and misunderstood her intention. I was really unable to know what was good for me.

After Tingting understood this, she began to apologize to Dong Xin, “Mom, this is not your fault. I should say I’m sorry. I myself follow the trends of the world, even saying you’re outdated. I oughtn’t to put all the blame on you.”

At her words, Dong Xin gently said, “Tingting, I’m wrong, too. I shouldn’t always try to control you. Your growing in life has a process and I shouldn’t ask too much of you. I haven’t considered your feelings, nor have I expected that I brought you such hurt.”

Tingting said, a little embarrassed, “Mom, in the past I didn’t understand your heart and regarded your concern as controlling me. What’s more, I always blamed you for nagging me, ignored you and didn’t know how to get on with you. Now thinking this over, before, I really couldn’t tell a four from a six and didn’t know you doing this was good for me. Mom, I see this passage of God’s word is very good and shows us the path of how to get along. Let’s read it together.”

Dong Xin responded happily, “Okay! Read it.”

Tingting carefully read, “You must endeavor to take the initiative in changing. Put yourself aside, don’t pit yourself against them, don’t contradict them. Don’t always say to yourself, ‘I’m their child, I can do whatever I want.’ When you act from this perspective, such an attitude is inherently wrong. You must put this attitude aside, it must be changed. When you interact with your parents like you would with an ordinary brother or sister, their attitude toward you will most certainly change. … If parents don’t act high and mighty, and the children can open up to them, and treat them as intimates, could there still be the estrangement between them?” “Tell them this: ‘It’s actually very simple. You don’t always think of yourselves as my parents, and I won’t think of myself as your child. The relationship between us will be that of ordinary brothers and sisters. If something’s up with you, tell me. Don’t suppress it or hide it. I won’t laugh at you. If you see something wrong with me, you can point it out to me. Tell me what you understand, so that I can put it into practice and not walk the wrong path.’ What’s it called when two people confer in this way? It’s called speaking heart-to-heart. And what is the purpose of speaking heart-to-heart? Is it to maintain a proper relationship between parents and children? Let Me tell you, narrowly speaking, the purpose of speaking heart-to-heart is for there to be normal human communication, having an exchange of minds. That’s narrowly speaking. Broadly speaking, it is for people to understand each other’s state, learn from each other, support each other, and help one another—that’s the effect. And thus, isn’t the relationship by which people interact with each other normal? … In short, the most proper relationship between children and parents is for them to understand each other, support each other, help each other, and make up for each other’s shortcomings. If you can practice this and achieve this, the conflicts between you and your parents will surely be resolved, and there will be no longer any problems.”

Having finished reading God’s word and pondering for a moment, Tingting said, “Mom, through God’s word, I know why I couldn’t communicate with you before. I always thought since you’re my mom, I could do what I wanted. When what you said wasn’t to my liking, I would be unreasonable before you without the slightest consideration for your feelings. Sometimes I would rather tell what’s in my heart to my brothers and sisters than tell you, and always pitted myself against you, with the result that we reached an impasse. I think about when my brothers and sisters communicated to me, sometimes though their communication didn’t accord with my will, I still could accept it from God and learn a lesson. Nonetheless, with regard to you, I thought your thoughts were too outdated and you were too nagging. Even if what you communicated was right, I wouldn’t like to accept it, and I’m really that kind of a child who sticks to his guns in God’s words. Mom, through this passage of God’s word, I have found the path to practice. Afterward, I just treat you as an ordinary sister. When we have different viewpoints, I’ll no longer suppress my viewpoint in my heart. I’ll have a heart-to-heart talk with you to have an exchange of our thoughts. As a result, we two will understand each other.”

When Dong Xin heard what Tingting said, she felt very gratified. With nodding, she said, “I’ll no longer control you later on consciously. Afterward, when my opinion is different from yours, let’s seek the truth, communicate about the truth and act according to God’s words. In our family, we should let Christ and God’s words reign and shouldn’t stick to ourselves.”

Hereafter, when encountering the matters, they both practiced implementing God’s word. When Dong Xin wanted to make demands on Tingting in accordance with her own will, she would consciously come before God to pray, put herself aside and no longer acted high and mighty in her position of a mother. On the contrary, she would place her in Tingting’s place and try to understand what she thought, and gradually, she wouldn’t control Tingting with intention; when Dong Xin discussed something with her, Tingting would learn to regard her mom as a sister and respect her opinion instead of being unreasonable as before. When she had a different viewpoint, she would open up and speak heart-to-heart to let her mom know her genuine thoughts, in order that they understood each other.

Later, Tingting went shopping with her mother. When choosing the clothes, Tingting no longer held to her viewpoints as before but learned to listen to her mom’s opinion and allowed her mom to give her some advice. Once, an assistant said to Dong Xin, “Present-day young people are of character and assertive. Your daughter is already this big. When she goes shopping with you, she still can listen to your advice. It’s not easy and your daughter is really obedient.” At these words, Tingting and her mom looked at each other and smiled, and they both clearly knew it was God’s words that changed them. They tasted the sweetness in practicing in accordance with God’s word and experienced a happiness they had never felt before in their hearts.

Gradually, their relationship has changed obviously. They dispute less and speak hear-to-heart more; they worry less and smile more; besides, their hearts are closer. Through the true experience, Tingting has tasted that only by practicing according to God’s word can she truly be the apple of her mom’s eyes. She has even more experienced the feelings between her and her mom should be based on practicing God’s words. This kind of affection between them, though without the fragrance of carnations, was simple and genuine like fruits, bringing them the tang of happiness.

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Learn Forgiveness: A Surprising Gain Brought by a Hard Knot – Spiritual Awakening

👓The Perspective of ChristianLearn Forgiveness: A Surprising Gain Brought by a Hard Knot – Spiritual Awakening

Qin Ya and Xiaorui have been close friends since high school. Qin Ya’s family lives in favorable conditions and she is the only daughter. Growing up in her parents’ tender love, Qin Ya has formed a domineering and open character, yet she treated Xiaorui wholeheartedly. During the three years in high school, they studied together, had meals together, went shopping together, and played together. Feeling happy, they laughed with each other; feeling sad, they cried with each other. And in the holidays, Qin Ya would invite Xiaorui to live in her house. They were just like peas and carrots. After high school, even though they weren’t at the same college, their friendship had never been affected. They chatted on QQ every day and hung out together during the holidays. Qin Ya treasured their friendship very much, and she believed that such friendship would never change in their whole life.

When Qin Ya and Xiaorui were about to graduate from college, they decided to apply to university, for they didn’t resign themselves to be associates. In order to achieve this goal, registered to attend test-preparation courses for university admission, and then moved to the student dormitory as the remedial school was far from their homes. Unexpectedly, something that Qin Ya had never thought about happened since then …

After living in the dormitory for a month, Qin Ya sensed that the relationship between her and Xiaorui was undergoing a subtle change. She found that Xiaorui treated other roommates better, which made her rather unhappy. Then she asked Xiaorui why she no longer treated her well as before, and told Xiaorui if it was because she had done something wrong, she would correct it. But Xiaorui said Qin Ya had thought too much, and that in her heart, Qin Ya was the most important person and also her best friend. Qin Ya was convinced, thinking maybe it was only that Xiaorui had paid much attention to studying and making friends with her new roommates and thus neglected her feelings.

However, what happened next proved that their friendship was indeed in trouble. Qin Ya noticed that Xiaorui had never told anyone that they were bosom friends; on the way to the canteen, Xiaorui always walked with other girls; when the roommates wanted to eat something but couldn’t be bothered to buy, Xiaorui would voluntarily go to buy it for them. What’s more, Xiaorui often bought snacks for them with her own money, and spoke what was in her heart to them instead of to Qin Ya, treating Qin Ya in a cold and indifferent manner. All of this made Qin Ya very distressed. Recalling every moment they spent together, Qin Ya couldn’t figure out what she had done wrong that reduced their friendship to such condition.

One day, Qin Ya learned on the phone that her mother had a little accident when driving. She was very anxious, and told Xiaorui this thing. But Xiaorui behaved as though she didn’t hear that. When Qin Ya just turned her back, she heard Xiaorui saying to another classmate happily, “I’ve figured out this problem!” Qin Ya was badly hurt, and she simply couldn’t accept it. Besides, Xiaorui felt the dormitory was too noisy and she couldn’t focus on study. So she applied to the teacher for a vacant dormitory. Qin Ya asked Xiaorui if she could move in with her, yet Xiaorui refused her politely. Later, however, Xiaorui invited a girl of another major to live with her.

Thinking of what had happened between her and Xiaorui, Qin Ya felt very distressed. She couldn’t understand why Xiaorui cared more about the roommates she had just met than about her, who had been her friend for five years. Filled with distress, anger, and loneliness, she said to Xiaorui angrily, “Since I’m no longer important to you, we should make a clean break.” Xiaorui stalled her off with an evasive answer, yet after that she still treated Qin Ya with a lukewarm attitude. At that time, a desire of revenge stole over Qin Ya. At that time, a desire of revenge stole over Qin Ya. She wanted to post on her WeChat Moments what Xiaorui had done to her, enabling those around them to know what kind of person Xiaorui was, so as to make her lose all her reputation. But on the other hand, her rationality told her she shouldn’t do that.

Troubled and tormented by this matter, Qin Ya found it impossible for her to concentrate on study. After getting home on weekend, Qin Ya poured out all her sadness and confusion to her mother. Then her mother played her the musical Xiaozhen’s Story. Xiaozhen treated her friends with a true heart, only to be repaid with their betrayal because of money and interests. Watching the musical, Qin Ya felt it was like the story about her and Xiaorui. In the past five years, she had regarded Xiaorui as her best friend, giving her all her true heart. She had never expected that Xiaorui would ignore the friendship they had built for five years after going to the remedial school. Qin Ya couldn’t understand why the sincerity and affection between them were so fragile and vulnerable.

Then her mother told her, “We humans all have been corrupted by Satan. Through instilling into us the poisons like, ‘Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,’ Satan made us become selfish and self-interested. As a result, we all live for our own benefit without exception. Our interpersonal relationships are also established on the basis of interests and there is no true affection at all. Even the relationship of best friends will easily change when money, fame, fortune, status, or future prospect are concerned. What happened between you and Xiaorui is just a typical example. When you two are attending courses before transferring to a university, there are many subjects you haven’t encountered. She will naturally communicate more with other students who can help her and neglect you. Consequently, the relationship between you two becomes ever more estranged. Then how about you yourself? Your desire for revenge also comes from your selfish nature. You think Xiaorui no longer treats you well like before and your feelings are hurt. To alleviate your pain, you choose to ignore your friendship. You see, both you and Xiaorui have been corrupted by Satan, so you are no better than she. Actually, there is no true love among people, and only God loves man most. Only when you come before God, accept His word as your life, distinguish people and situations by God’s word, and treat people according to God’s requirement, can you let go of your hatred and get rid of such suffering like Xiaozhen, who finally received the true comfort and happiness after returning before God.” Qin Ya felt her mother’s fellowship quite reasonable. Then she returned to the remedial school with the book of God’s word.

But when meeting Xiaorui at school, Qin Ya still felt it hard to calm down and still had the desire to take revenge on her. Then she recalled her mother’s words: “Only God can help you out of the suffering and hatred.” So she prayed to God silently in her heart, “Oh God, I’m so distressed. Every time I see Xiaorui, I get so angry and want to get back at her. I don’t know what to do. May You lead me to put this matter aside.”

One night, Qin Ya saw these words: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said to him, I say not to you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22).

“The purpose achieved by the number in this expression is to allow people to understand the Lord Jesus’ intention at the time that He said this. His intention was that people should forgive others—not once or twice, and not even seven times, but seventy times seven. What kind of idea is this ‘seventy times seven’? It is to get people to make forgiveness their own responsibility, something they must learn, and a way they must keep. Even though this was just an expression, it served as a crucial point. It helped people deeply appreciate what He meant and find the proper ways of practice and the principles and standards in practice. This expression helped people understand clearly and gave them an accurate concept that they should learn forgiveness—to forgive without conditions and without limitations, but with an attitude of tolerance and understanding for others” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”). Qin Ya was strongly shocked by the words of God. Even though she didn’t quite understand these words, she knew that learning forgiveness was God’s requirement of mankind. She felt it was a great spirit that one could come out of hatred and learn to forgive. Qin Ya came to know how she should treat Xiaorui. And she even felt that the hatred and suffering in her heart were relieved little by little. Gradually, Qin Ya found God’s words were exactly the direction she was moving in as well as the principle of her conduct, and that she was too much in need of God’s words.

After a period of time, Qin Ya got in touch with the Church of Almighty God and began to live the church life. In the church, she found that brothers and sisters didn’t need to cautiously maintain the relationship with each other by means of human effort. Instead, they all pursued to establish a normal relationship with God, pursued to be innocent, candid and honest, and loved one anther according to the requirement of God’s word. In her association with brothers and sisters, Qin Ya felt especially released and free without any depression or pain. She enjoyed such kind of life very much.

Later Qin Ya read a passage of God’s word: “Among all the people, matters, and things you can sense in this world, only God’s selflessness is real and concrete, because only God’s love for you is unconditional and unblemished. Apart from God, anyone else’s so-called unselfishness is all fake, superficial, disingenuous; it has a purpose, certain intentions, carries a tradeoff, and cannot stand to be tested. You could even say that it is filthy, contemptible” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I”). After reading these words, Qin Ya came to understand that only God’s love for man is selfless and unadulterated, that man is so selfish that they have no true love for others but all take advantage of and cheat each other. She thought: The problem that God’s word has revealed exists in all men. But these days, I always measured Xiaorui against God’s words and have never examined myself. Reflecting on myself, isn’t my kindness to her impure and built on the basis of tradeoff?

Then Qin Ya recalled: Before, no matter what I said or did, Xiaorui never opposed me but agreed with me all the time, which greatly satisfied my haughty and arrogant nature; while nowadays she no longer treats me that way. I feel distressed and even want to get back at her. This is not only because I have lost our friendship, but even more because I think she makes me lose my dignity and face and hurts my vanity. In addition, that I want to live with her is also in order to get her help in case I encounter any problems. … Aren’t these the intentions hidden in me when I associate with her? Turns out my doing the good things for her is also for the sake of my own interest. Then how is this any different from her shunning me for the sake of advantage? Like Xiaorui, I’m also a corrupt person. She is selfish, and so am I. Then what qualifies me to hate her? At this thought, the distress and hatred inside Qin Ya completely vanished. And she felt relieved and joyful deep in her heart.

After putting aside the hatred, Qin Ya appreciated that indeed only God’s word could change people. She couldn’t imagine how long such suffering and resentment would still haunt her without God’s word. More importantly, because of this matter, Qin Ya had accepted God’s work of the last days and received God’s salvation, which is something she has never dreamed of. This surprising gain is so precious!

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