What Is the Greatest Blessing Job Obtained?

What Is the Greatest Blessing Job Obtained?

By Xiaobo

the Glory Story/FreeBibleimages.org

Each time when I read the Book of Job and saw the words, “So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters” (Job 42:12-13), “And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations” (Job 42:15-16), I admired Job in my heart, thinking he was really blessed with the property, the children, and the prolonged life that God bestowed on him. Therefore I determined to follow the example of Job: If I encounter trials, I would like to calm down and pray to God, seek His will, and obey His orchestrations and arrangements, so that I could stand witness to satisfy Him and receive His blessings.

However, one day, having seen a passage of words on a gospel website, I got a new understanding and view of the greatest blessing Job obtained.

These words said, “How did Job understand what happened to him? … ‘I must understand God, I must act reasonably and be a reasonable man. All this was bestowed by God. Whenever He wants to take it away He may help Himself. I must not argue with Him, for that would be rebellious. If I reject God then that will cause Him grief, and that is not being a truly good man or a genuine created being.’ What happened in the end? He practiced in this way, and so what effect, what achievement did his practice bring to him? In actual fact, the real result was not that he became even richer or that he had more cows and sheep than before, or that his sons and daughters were more beautiful than those he had before; these are graces incidentally given to man by God. That which God really allows man to gain is that, through this matter, you gain a better understanding of Him, have a closer relationship with Him and your heart draws closer to God’s heart, and when God does something else, you will understand, and you won’t say rebellious things or blasphemous things or things that cause God to grieve. Isn’t this casting off your corrupt disposition? This is a complete change. (The things within my nature are no longer able to control me.) They are not able to control you anymore, you are not under their jurisdiction anymore but you are under God’s jurisdiction, for God is able to orchestrate you no matter what He does, and you belong to God. At that time, Job had this state and he had this attitude, and he also acted this way, he entered this kind of reality and, in the end, God appeared to him. When God appeared to Job, whether He showed His face or His back to Job, was Job’s understanding of God deepened, or was it lessened? (It was deepened.) It certainly was; it couldn’t go backward. So with man being able to see God, that is, from previous times when man heard there was a God by the hearing of the ear in legends, and the mentality of this vague ‘He seems to exist’ and ‘Does He exist,’ to where man sees God, and establishes and confirms God’s existence—compared with the grace God bestows on man, which is more of a blessing to man? (Seeing God is more of a blessing.) This is for sure. So what do people always think when they believe in God but they don’t understand the truth? ‘God protect me and be kind to me; think highly of me, God, and elevate me from the crowd. God bless my whole family so that we live in bliss, joy and safety. God allow me to be able to preach wherever I go so that other people are envious of me and admire me….’ You want to gain these things but you don’t know what is real or what God wants to bestow on you and give to you. You just ask for these external things, and what happens when this is all you do? You become further and further from God. You are unable to gain knowledge of God, and so your relationship with God won’t be as close as your relationship with God would be if you knew God, right?” (“What Practicing the Truth Is”).

the Glory Story/FreeBibleimages.org

After reading these words, I understood that the property, the children, and the prolonged life that Job obtained were not the greatest blessings. Instead, it is that after he stood witness in the face of trials, God appeared and spoke to him, which made him have a more profound knowledge and understanding of God and his heart come closer to God, and finally he lived out a valuable and meaningful life. From this we can see, Job ordinarily paid attention to walking the way of fearing God and shunning evil, and he had already had some knowledge of God’s sovereignty when he was stripped of his property and children, so he could obey God unconditionally: Not only did he not sin with his lips, but he did not curse the enemies, much less spoke of the negative words or words of complaint against God. It can be seen that what he loved dearly was not the material blessings, which had no place in his heart. The things that he treasured most were his relationship with God, his true faith in God, his reverence for God, and God’s trials of him. And he believed in God’s sovereignty and pursued to obey and satisfy Him, being deeply afraid of straying from Him and hurting His heart. So when Job bore witness and God appeared to him, he felt delighted and excited for he could see the Creator’s back and hear His voice. Meanwhile, he also understood the kind intentions of God’s testing of him, and knew that whatever God did was for the sake of perfecting him. Afterward, Job saw God’s almightiness through the blessings from God. God said that He would bestow upon Job fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. And what Job gained was in accordance with what God had promised, and was accomplished all according to God’s words, which allowed Job to better see that all living beings are mobilized in God’s hands and His promise is fulfilled without the slightest disparity. At that time, Job felt happy not because he had more property, but because he could make progress in knowing God’s almightiness and sovereignty, and God’s omnipotence and omniscience. Job’s knowledge and understanding made his heart get closer to God, and let him feel the Creator’s beauty, goodness, and loveliness even more. For this reason, he also gained great comfort and satisfaction in his spirit. This is the greatest blessing that he obtained.

After realizing all of this, to be honest, I really admired Job. Though in the midst of trials he suffered greatly, and lost all of his property, and even his wife attacked him, yet after he stood witness, God appeared and spoke to him, which allowed him to have a deeper understanding of God. This is the greatest blessing that God bestowed upon him. Then how should we pursue to stand testimony and glorify God, achieving more understanding of God, like Job, when we encounter trials?

I also saw these words on the website: “Job’s practice was detailed, was it not? What details did it have? First let us talk about how he treated his children. His objective was to submit to God’s orchestration and arrangements in all things. He did not forcibly take the initiative to do anything God did not do, nor did he make any plans or calculations based on human ideas. In all things, he complied with and waited for God’s orchestration and arrangements. This was his general principle. As for his detailed methods of practice, in what ways did he treat his children? (The first was that he neither interfered with nor participated in his children’s feasting and merrymaking; he distanced himself from it.) He distanced himself, and offered burnt offerings for them. What else? (He did not try to force them into believing in God, nor did he try to drag them into doing so against their will. He did not pray for them, and he drew clear boundaries between him and them.) This is his principle of practice. Is this not a detailed practice? … As for how to treat his children, while they were still alive, Job’s attitude was to not try to drag them into believing in God against their will; he did not try to force them to believe, and he did not interfere, because they were walking a different path. He did not interfere with what they did, and did not interfere with what sort of path they were taking. Did Job seldom speak to his children about believing in God? He certainly would have had enough words with them about this, but they did not accept them, and refused to listen. What was Job’s attitude? He said, ‘I have fulfilled my responsibility; as for what kind of path they are able to take, that is up to God, and it is up to God’s guidance. If God does not work, or move them, I will not try to force them.’ Therefore, Job had one other method of practice: He did not pray for them before God, or cry tears of anguish over them, or fast for them or suffer in any way at all. He did not do these things. Why did Job not do any of these things? None of these were ways of submitting to God’s rule and arrangements; they all came out of human ideas and were ways of actively forcing one’s way to the forefront. This was to do with his treatment of his children; this was the sort of attitude he had, given that his children would not take the same path as he. So when his children died, what was Job’s attitude? Did he cry or not? Did he vent his feelings? Did he feel hurt? (No.) So did he say it served them right, or not? There is no record of any of these things. So when Job saw his children die, did he feel heartbroken or sad? (He did.) What was he sad about? Did he feel regret for not having urged them to work hard at believing in God, and over their having been punished for not doing so? Speaking in terms of the affection he felt for his children, he certainly did feel that little bit of sadness, but he still submitted. How was his submission expressed? ‘These children were given to me by God. Whether or not they believed in God, the lives of humans are in God’s hands. If they had believed in God, then if God wanted to take them away, He would still have done so; if they had not believed in God, they still would have been taken away if God had said they would be taken away. All of this is in God’s hands; otherwise, who could take people’s lives away?’ What line sums all of these words up? ‘The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD’(Job 1:21). This is why he maintained this attitude in the way he treated his children. Whether they were alive or dead, he continued to have this attitude. His method of practice was correct; in every way he practiced, in his views with which he treated everything, in his attitude, and in his state, he always submitted and waited, and then he achieved knowledge. This attitude is very important. If people never have this kind of attitude in anything they do, and have especially strong personal ideas and place personal motives and benefit before all else, then are they really submitting? In such people genuine submission cannot be seen; they are unable to achieve genuine submission” (“Principles of Carrying Out One’s Submission to God”).

After reading these words, I felt my heart brighten. As it turned out, the reason why Job had such testimony and gained these things was because he usually sought to obey and know God’s sovereignty: In all things he could let go of his own plans, considerations, and intentions, and then wait for and seek God’s will. Since he had such attitude and pursuit, he was always able to see God’s deeds in his life. Through these true experiences, not only did he have a real understanding of the authority by which God controls all things, but also knew that whatever God does is good, and he should accept and obey it. Particularly, when faced with trials, he clearly knew that everything is in God’s hands, and God allowed him to encounter these matters, so he could obey God without conditions and praise God’s name, standing witness for God. After the trails, he received the blessings and approval from God.

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Turn Left? Turn Right?: How Can We Find the Way to Happiness?

Xuesong

If we compare the course of a man’s life to a journey in this material world, then each journey is surely different in the length and direction. Anyway, all of us wish it to be a journey of bliss and significance. However, after going through various hardships in life, many of us become aware that reality doesn’t always meet our wishes and that our wishes are merely a sort of thought or belief. When arriving at a crossing, we are always full of anticipation and hesitation, as we are ignorant of which path leads to happiness, how to make the journey meaningful, and even more ignorant of what is waiting for us at the end of the path. At the intersection of your life, which do you choose, to turn left or turn right?

In the beginning, when we stepped onto the path of life, all of us roamed in the ocean of knowledge, because in it there were footprints and teachings left by our predecessors and through it we could understand the mysterious and unfathomable world. After all preparations were made, we came to the first intersection of our life officially, and then we chose different directions to seek happiness according to the knowledge we had learned. When we turned left, the world told us, “With money, you are able to obtain all material enjoyments, and only then is your life the happiest.” Thus, in order to gain happiness, we struggled hard and did our utmost to chase after money. In order to make money, we even lost our conscience and morality, learned to deceive, and moreover, learned to vie with each other. Ultimately, some gained money while others obtained nothing. But we were similar in that all of us were unhappy, because we felt empty in our heart as if we were staying in a desert waste and nothing could fill the emptiness. In confusion, we turned right. This time the world told us, “Only when you gain status can you be truly happy. This path leads to true happiness, because it will enable you to gain not only money but also others’ support and admiration.” Thereupon, we started to intrigue against each other and deceive mutually. At last, we trampled others underfoot and scrambled to the high peak that we yearned for. However, when we rode on the crest of success and earned others’ flowers and applause, we were still not so happy and joyful as imagined, because all of us held all that we had possessed tightly, worried about their gains and losses. Exhaustion and pain came over us, and we seemed to have been thrown into a prison cell. At this moment, we were disappointed and weary, and even wanted to finish our life journey soon. We were puzzled: Where on earth is happiness? Why didn’t I get it as expected, no matter whether I turned left or turned right?

We felt very anxious yet could do nothing. I didn’t know why we were so distressed in this journey until I heard the utterances of the Creator. Almighty God says, “People think that once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them to enjoy high status and great wealth, and to enjoy life. Once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them in their pleasure-seeking and unscrupulous enjoyment of the flesh. People willingly, albeit unknowingly, take their bodies, minds, all that they have, their futures and their destinies and hand them all over to Satan in order to attain the fame and gain they desire. People do this without ever a moment’s hesitation, ever ignorant of the need to recover it all. Can people still have any control over themselves once they go over to the side of Satan in this way and become loyal to it? Certainly not. They are completely and utterly controlled by Satan. They are also completely and utterly unable to free themselves from the quagmire they have sunk down into”. “In other words, people who have not been saved are prisoners to Satan, they have no freedom, they have not been relinquished by Satan, they are not qualified or entitled to worship God, and they are closely pursued and viciously attacked by Satan. Such people have no happiness to speak of, they have no right to a normal existence to speak of, and moreover they have no dignity to speak of”.

I realized that our minds had already been poisoned by Satan, and beguiled by it, we had taken the wrong path at the start of our life journey. Therefore, regardless of whether we turned left or right, we were all like prisoners in shackles. We rushed about painstakingly for fame and gain and status. We gave up our youth and expended everything, but in the end, we simply became increasingly corrupted. We lost our conscience, morality, and the bottom line of being a man in face of the enticement of fame and gain and status. In order to attain fame and gain, we fought against each other to such an extent that we were exhausted and incapable of freeing ourselves from it. … We got lost, had difficulty controlling ourselves, and were trapped in sins, living in increasing agony. Even though we obtained everything we wanted, emptiness and perplexity occupied our heart, making us have no idea of where to go. In this way, we had been corrupted by Satan to such a degree that we had less and less human likeness and strayed further and further from God’s care and keeping. We simply didn’t have any happiness to speak of.

Then, how could we find the path to happiness? Now a soft voice resounded in my ears, “At the moment when a person is born, one lonely soul begins its experience of life on earth, its experience of the Creator’s authority which the Creator has arranged for it. Needless to say, for the person, the soul, this is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge of the Creator’s sovereignty, to come to know His authority and to experience it personally. … 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 fulfill one’s mission, then one will necessarily have the correct outlook on life, will live a life blessed and guided by the Creator, will walk in the light of the Creator, know the Creator’s sovereignty, come under His dominion, become a witness to His miraculous deeds and to His authority”. “When your heart truly opens up to God, you will see that His heart is such an infinite world, and you will enter into a realm you have never experienced before. In this realm there is no cheating, there is no deception, there is no darkness, and no evil. There is only sincerity and faithfulness; only light and rectitude; only righteousness and kindness. It is full of love and care, full of compassion and tolerance, and through it you feel the happiness and joy of being alive. These things are what He will reveal to you when you open up your heart to God”.

God’s words dispelled our confusion and clearly showed us the path for a human life. How much wealth we will amass and what kind of status we will have in our life have long been predestined by the Creator. But Satan made use of fame, gain, and status to seduce us into opposing God for its vicious purpose of corrupting and devouring mankind. We were made to strive and struggle ceaselessly, attempting to escape from the Creator’s authority and change our fate. We did not realize that money is just as transient as fleeting clouds, which we cannot bring at birth or take at death, and status is insignificant and valueless as well. No matter how high our prestige is, we can never break free of the suffering of illness, the threat of death, as well as the consequent void and pain. What fame, gain, and status bring to us is only temporary satisfaction of fleshly desires, which is just a flash in the pan. They cannot bring us even the slightest spiritual consolation, but instead cause us intolerable emptiness and unendurable suffering.

The arrival of Almighty God is exactly an end to our wandering, painful life. He is the Creator of the heavens, earth, and all things, and also our one and only God. He is incarnated to speak among us, expressing the truth to provide us with life and to save us out of Satan’s net. Only by following His footsteps and submitting to His sovereignty and arrangement, will we not get lost in the course of our life. And only when we come before the Creator and open up our hearts to Him, commit everything of us to Him, obey His sovereignty and arrangement, and under God’s personal guidance, truly break free of Satan’s influence of darkness and walk onto the way of fearing God and shunning evil, can we be in the way for happiness. And only those who are willing to put God’s words into practice from now on will finally achieve happiness.

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The Sorrow of the Eraser

The Sorrow of the Eraser

Yang Yang

I once read a parable of a pair of good friends of an eraser and a candle. The candle always wins praise from people, which makes the eraser feels imbalanced. One day, the eraser says, “We both serve humans. You’re dolled up every day, and people compare the drips you produce while burning to tears and regard your flames as the symbol of light. Whereas my body gets dirtier and the crumbles I produce are thrown away as waste. It’s unfair!”

The candle says sincerely, “You remove wrong writing for children every day. You’re a good help for them to do their homework, and a behind-the-scenes contributor to their bright future.”

However, the eraser is not satisfied with its role as a behind-the-scenes contributor, saying, “I must give off light and heat like you!”

Then the eraser throws itself on the candle. As a result, it gleams slightly, and a foul stench thickens the air.

The eraser is left charred all over. With a shake of his head, the young owner tosses it into a garbage can.

What can we learn from this parable? Much of the time we are just like the eraser. We are not satisfied with what we’ve already owned and always want to get what we lack. Some people resent being short and are envious of those tall; some with a tall and slim body structure feel pained about their ordinary appearance; some have gained a certain position and yet long for a higher status; some covet power though they have owned enough wealth. …

As a matter of fact, in our lifetime, what and how much we have, what our career is, what role we play, whether we are rich or poor—all of this is ordained by God. Some people who don’t expect to manage something achieve success in the end, while some others finally fail despite their meticulous planning and arrangement for achieving the goal. Some people lead an affluent life without paying much price, while some others spend their lives struggling and yet are still unable to move out of poverty. … Countless facts prove that we have no control over our fates and that God presides over our fates as well as the fates of all things. There is a saying prevailing among the farmers who have worked on the farms for their lifetime and experienced the vicissitudes of life, “Man works the land, but the yields depend on Heaven.” To take another example: Zhuge Liang, a chancellor and regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, was skilled at strategy and running wars. Yet in the face of a war in which he almost succeeded, he couldn’t help but sigh, “Man proposes, but Heaven disposes!” Regardless of whether we believe it or not, no one can change the fact of God ruling over all things, or contend with God’s sovereignty and predestination.

God’s word says: “Mankind does not know who is the Sovereign of all things in the universe, much less does he know the beginning and future of mankind. Mankind merely lives, perforce, amidst this law. None can escape it and none can change it, for among all things and in the heavens there is but One from everlasting to everlasting who holds sovereignty over everything. … Regardless of whether you are able to recognize the deed of God, and irrespective of whether you believe in the existence of God, there is no doubt that your fate lies within the ordination of God, and there is no doubt that God will always hold sovereignty over all things.”

“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.”

God’s words are so true! We do not recognize God’s ordination and sovereignty, nor do we know what we truly need for our lives. Greed and extravagant desires cause us to never be content with our present circumstances and always rely on our own efforts to strive, which in turn invites a lot of trouble and distress for ourselves. Some people commit many evil deeds against the law, ruining their own prospects and even paying the price with their life. By contrast, those who can submit to their fates spend their lives, though unremarkable, in peace and joy. … In fact, as we humans were created by God, only God knows our real needs, and what God bestows upon us is the most appropriate.

We now are in the last days when God has come to do His work and expressed all the truths we human beings need. After reading God’s word, we will come to fully realize and confirm this fact: We will be able to shake off pain, live under God’s care and blessing, and become truly free and liberated if we can come before God to accept His word as our life, practice according to the truth, and obey God’s orchestration and arrangements, rather than cling to our excessive desires and rely on our own will and abilities to resist fate.

Watch the Video: The Sorrow of the Eraser – Inspiring Story

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Hardship Is the Best Blessing God Bestows on Us

Hardship Is the Best Blessing God Bestows on Us

Xiang Yang

One day, by chance, I read such a parable: There once was a farmer whose wheat was ravaged by a plague of locusts and then by flooding. He entreated God to let there be enough sunshine and sunny days so that his wheat would not be exposed to cruel winds or deep cold. Moreover, he pled with God to protect his wheat from insect attacks. Afterward, everything went the way he hoped. The wheat grew tall and ripened into golden grain. The farmer couldn’t help but express his gratitude to God. Just then, however, his wife wailed in the distance: She separated the wheat berries from the husks, only to find they were totally empty. As it turns out, if the wheat only experiences sunny, breezy days as it grows and lacks the tempering of harsh environments like extreme cold weather and strong winds, there cannot be a bumper wheat harvest.

The growth of the wheat triggered this thought in me: We also need to temper ourselves through hardships as we grow, or we will be as vulnerable as hothouse flowers, unable to adapt to various tough circumstances and grim realities. The Bible says, “the prosperity of fools shall destroy them” (Proverbs 1:32). For one to mature, he has to suffer some frustrations and tribulations. As he undergoes more hardships and solves more problems, he will become stronger, more mature and resilient, with greater will and perseverance, and his ability to see through things and deal with difficulties will improve. So, only suffering and ordeals are beneficial to our growth; if everything goes smoothly for us, it’s not a good thing.

As far as we Christians are concerned, hardship and refinement are the best blessings from God, for they are essential for us to gain life. It is written in the Bible, “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried” (Daniel 12:10). “My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:2-4). There are many other similar scriptures in the Bible. These scriptures tell us that only through hardship and refinement can we be made complete by God. For example, throughout the ages, the saints and prophets who are after God’s heart have all suffered hardships before they are fit for God’s use and receive God’s blessing. When asked to offer Isaac, Abraham was trapped in refinement, but he finally chose to satisfy God and sacrifice his beloved only son. Only then did God bless him with the promise of making his offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the sea shore. Moses experienced forty years of hardship in the wilderness and then cast off his naturalness. After that, he was obedient to God and suitable for God’s use, and hence undertook the heavy responsibility of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. In the misery of his property and children being taken, Job maintained true faith in God and was thus perfected into a righteous man who feared God and shunned evil. As Peter followed the Lord, he experienced tribulations and refinement hundreds of times, and in the end was nailed upside down on the cross, achieving obedience unto death and love for God to the utmost. The Lord Jesus said, “Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). For thousands of years, the path of faith in God has been fraught with difficulty and hardship. We all have truly come to this realization: Hardship is the best blessing God bestows on us! Only by experiencing hardships and ordeals can we have a change in life disposition; only after there is a change in our life disposition can we be qualified to receive God’s inheritance and His promise.

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Treating Gains and Losses Composedly

Treating Gains and Losses Composedly

Ma Na    the United States

During a person’s life, facing success and failure is unavoidable. There are many people who are happy when they have success, and who are frustrated and pained when they face failure. There are even many people who stake all their efforts in wanting to reach a point at which all their hopes are fulfilled, but things are often not how people would like them to be. Because of this, many people think that this life is not as they want it to be. Previously, I also always relied on my own ability in the work I did, and all that I got from that was the pain of failure. But afterward, through experiencing some things, my perspective had a bit of a transformation: Tranquility in success, and calmness in failure—obeying the sovereignty and arrangements of God is the best, and one can also be liberated and free in life that way.

Because I stood out in the realm of sports, there was one time that I represented my school in participating in a city-wide sprinting competition. Before, when I took part in sports at school, I always won every gold medal in the sprint event. So I was full of confidence about this race, and showed disdain for all others just as if I were some great sports hero. In my training before the race, I was undisciplined, and thought to myself: Anyway, with my ability it’s all but guaranteed that I will win the trophy, and the race is simply running, that’s it. But mom always said to me: “The most important thing isn’t what place you get; what’s most important is learning to rely on God and being able to experience God’s work. Entrust everything to God, for only by obeying God’s sovereignty will you be able to be calm and liberated. If you rely on yourself, you will certainly fail.” In theory, I knew that what my mom said was right, but I thought in my heart: “God is the one true God who created the universe and everything in it. Does God need to be bothered about a competition as small as this?” Besides, the result of this competition isn’t of any concern at all, since the prize was essentially something I could have just reached out my hand and taken.”

In the blink of an eye, the day of the competition had arrived. I strode into the stadium and saw athletes who had come from a variety of school districts, each of them rubbing their hands together with anticipation, eager to give it a shot. Looking at their professional and matching uniforms, and the orderly and disciplined way they did their warm-up movements, it made me nervous about a competition for the first time. This was especially so when I saw there were some physiques which were clearly far beyond those of the athletes in our age group, and just their legs were a great deal more developed than mine. When I found out that I was to compete together with them, the confidence that “I have the power to pull up the mountains and the might that surpasses the world; I will bravely seize first place and will not give up” as well as the “primeval power” stored in my body vanished without a trace in an instant. But at that time I already could not back out, and I could only summon up my resolve and enter the playing field. There were eight teams altogether in the men’s 100 meters sprint, and in the first round only the top two members of each team would qualify to go to the semifinals. Finally, the eight athletes with the best results would compete for the trophy, for second place, and other prizes. I was placed in group seven, and looking at the other athletes in my group, they all had dark skin and a sturdy build, and this made me feel the greatest kind of pressure for the first time. The first six teams had already finished running, and soon it was our turn to take the field. With a nervous heart, I took my place on the track. At that moment, I realized that in doing my warm-up exercises I still had not stretched. Flustered, I quickly stretched a few muscles, but there was already not enough time for me to get ready, so I put my feet into the starting marks, and stretched my palms out over the line, and waited for the referee to call out. “Everyone…on your mark…get set…” In the few seconds waiting for the sound of the starting gun, it was like a century had passed. The sun was scorching my skin and my fingers were aching from supporting my body, but what I felt most deeply was the unforgettable anxiety and sound of my heartbeat. My coach once said that anxiety before a match can help one’s performance, but I felt like this kind of anxiety would be fatal for me. It was as if the whole world was calm, and the only thing I could hear was the beating of my heart as it went “thump thump, thump thump…” At last, the starting gun sounded, and instinctively I shifted my legs, moved my arms, and charged forward. But somehow, a tendon in my left thigh seemed to be intentionally making things difficult for me. I clearly felt that my steps lacked that grace and fleet-footedness that I had had before on the racetrack. Soon I saw in my field of vision that two athletes alongside me had passed me by several lengths, and I quickly became agitated. I sprinted forward with all my might but I couldn’t catch up to them. Usually, I was the only one passing people, so how could it be that there were others beating me? In that moment, the confidence I had before the match collapsed and disappeared in an instant. Looking back, I have no idea how I finished running the remaining few dozen meters. I just remember that after running I immediately gathered up my things and left the field.

Because I got third place in my team, there was no way for me to continue on to compete in the semifinals. I was enveloped in frustration and dismay, and sat alone on the bleachers lost in thought, thinking back over every scene of when I entered the field. I complained to myself about why I hadn’t prepared better and had been beaten by them like that. At the same time, I also blamed God somewhere deep in my heart, and thought: “God! Why, when I believe in You, did I not receive any special care from You? How did You let me be eliminated in the first round? …” After feeling depressed for some time, I suddenly thought of what my mom had said to me that morning: “The result isn’t the most important thing; what is most important is to learn to obey God…” Yes! God requires people to obey Him in their faith. Now, my reproachful heart faded away in a flash, and I sat on the bleachers thinking: I didn’t get any of the prizes I had originally expected, so hadn’t I come here today in vain? Actually, that’s not entirely so. Looking at it from another perspective, being able to come and participate in the municipal track and field competition broadened my perspective and gave me some more life experience. Wasn’t all of this arranged by God, and wasn’t it God who added character to my journey in life? What’s even more important is that this experience caused me to understand the true meaning of God’s statement: “If you rely on your knowledge and ability in your undertakings, then you shall always be a failure.” Isn’t all of this quite a rare benefit? Isn’t it all God’s blessing for me? So I whispered to God in my heart: “God! Even though this result today went against my expectations, and I suffered a bit of a loss, I’m still grateful to You and want to obey You. I know that everything You arrange is good, and it is only because I don’t know You that I came up with misunderstandings and complaints about You. I was wrong.” In a few short phrases, even though it wasn’t in the form of a prayer, it still made my heart tranquil and there was a great deal of calm and steadiness in my heart.

The fantastic thing was that when my heart was willing to obey, the environment around me also changed, and God’s words truly came to fruition: “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” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life”). Before long, a student ran by and said to me, “Your name showed up on the semifinals board.” After I heard it, I simply didn’t believe it. I hurriedly ran over to see the results. I discovered to my surprise that I had broken through third place on the team on an exception and entered the semifinals! (Later, I learned that the athlete who got first place had participated in another competition, he had been disqualified from taking part in the semifinals.) I was very tranquil in my heart, because I became clearly aware that all this was ordered by God. In the following races, I learned to look up to God and entrusted the results of the match to God. I obeyed God’s sovereignty and in the end obtained fifth place.

At that time, the results of the competition already were not the most important thing to me. What was important was that after the experience my faith in God increased greatly. I clearly came to know that if a person relies on one’s own strength in his struggles, he is bound to face defeat. The sovereignty and arrangement of everything is in the hands of God. As long as one maintains dependence on God and keeps inside himself a heart that obeys God in all that he does, he can remain calm and tranquil in the face of success and defeat. He can also receive God’s blessing. It is 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. …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” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). Looking back on myself before and after the competition, when I didn’t know God’s sovereignty and wanted to rely on my own strength to strive for first place, there was a disparity between what I expected and the results that showed up. I had an indescribable pain in my heart; but when I realized that God is the sovereign of everything, and when I wanted to obey God, I understood God’s intention by seeking to figure it out and my viewpoint also changed. I no longer lived within the pain of losing the prize and the glory, but instead had a real understanding and experience of God’s word through this defeat. I gained something that was true, and obtained relaxation and liberation in my heart. After this, I practiced obedience to God in many matters, and discovered more and more that when I myself obey God, even if sometimes things didn’t actually turn out how I wanted, I still had in my heart a totally different kind of feeling of tranquility and liberation. Even more so in victory and defeat, I tasted God’s authority and sovereignty for myself and saw God’s marvelous deeds. I felt deeply that obeying God was truly precious!

The word of God says: “At all times God wields His authority, shows His might, continues His management work as always; at all times He rules all things, provides for all things, orchestrates all things, just as He always did. No one can change this. It is fact; it has been the unchanging truth since time immemorial! … All things under God’s arrangements and sovereignty obey natural laws, and if you resolve to let God arrange and dictate everything for you, you should learn to wait, you should learn to seek, you should learn to submit. This is the attitude that every person who wants to submit to God’s authority must take, the basic quality that every person who wants to accept God’s sovereignty and arrangements must possess” (“God Himself, the Unique III”).

“That you can submit to each day’s environment that God prepares and each day of life He gives you, letting Him lead you, that you can most happily and peacefully live in His presence, allow Him to lead you, and are able to submit to His sovereignty. If you have this kind of attitude, you will then come to see without conscious effort that all this is under God’s command” (“A Person Can Live Life With Dignity Only by Submitting to and Revering God”). The more I experienced, the more I have learned that obeying God is a most excellent endeavor, much better than all subjects in school. It is what is most worthy of every person learning and entering into carefully. No matter if the things a person encounters are great or small, they are all under the sovereignty of God’s authority. No matter if you can feel it, God is with us controlling everything. As long as we can have faith in God’s sovereignty in everything we encounter, and can obey all that God controls and arranges, we will be able to see that everything God arranges for us is for the best. We will be able to calmly confront all people and things that we are faced with, and live happily in the presence of God. Thanks be to God! All honor and glory be unto God!

Recommended:
The Losses and Gains in the Meetings
My Painful Experience of Struggling Against Fate
Blessed Through Illness: Experiencing God’s Love

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