By Xiaocheng, China
I Failed to See Through the Essence of Money and Fell Into Temptation Again
In a blink, several months passed. In a gathering, as for my situation where I always emphasized earning money, brothers and sisters read a passage of God’s words for me: “‘Money makes the world go round’ is a philosophy of Satan, and it prevails among the whole of mankind, in every human society. You could say that it is a trend because it has been instilled in the heart of every single person. From the very beginning, people did not accept this saying, but then they gave it tacit acceptance when they came into contact with real life, and began to feel that these words were in fact true. Is this not a process of Satan corrupting man? Perhaps people do not understand this saying to the same degree, but everyone has different degrees of interpretation and acknowledgment of this saying based on things that have happened around them and on their own personal experiences. Is that not the case? Regardless of how much experience someone has with this saying, what is the negative effect that it can have on someone’s heart? Something is revealed through the human disposition of the people in this world, including each and every one of you. How is this thing that is revealed to be interpreted? It is the worship of money. Is it hard to remove this from someone’s heart? It is very hard! It seems that Satan’s corruption of man is deep indeed! So after Satan uses this trend to corrupt people, how is it manifested in them? Do you feel that you could not survive in this world without any money, that even one day without money would be impossible? People’s status is based on how much money they have, as is the respect they command. The backs of the poor are bent in shame, while the rich enjoy their high status. They stand tall and proud, speaking loudly and living arrogantly. What does this saying and trend bring to people? Is it not true that many people make any sacrifice in the pursuit of money? Do many people not lose their dignity and integrity in the pursuit of more money? Moreover, do many people not lose the opportunity to perform their duty and follow God for the sake of money? Is this not a loss for people? (Yes.) Is Satan not sinister to use this method and this saying to corrupt man to such a degree? Is this not a malicious trick? As you progress from objecting to this popular saying to finally accepting it as truth, your heart falls completely into Satan’s grasp, and therefore you inadvertently come to live by the saying.”
Then my brothers and sisters fellowshiped a lot with me. Their fellowship made me finally understand a bit clearer: It turns out that “Money makes the world go round,” “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” “Money is first,” and so on, are the satanic laws of survival and the methods that Satan entices and corrupts us. Once we accept these thoughts and views, our hearts will become occupied by money and we’ll regard money as our all and place money above all else. We cry and laugh because of money and we are ready and willing to pay any price for money, and even pay with our lives. Thinking more, wasn’t I exactly like this? From my childhood, I had been under the influence of Satan’s thoughts and views such as “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” so I placed more importance on money than anything. In order to make more money, I was busy running around struggling and even used my sleeping time to work. It was already 1am when I finished the late shift, but I still insisted on staying there alone to work overtime. And I worked until the people who did the early shift came. In order to earn more money, on the third day after my surgery, I then went back to work. In the end, I was afraid that I would spend more money if my nose was infected, so I had to stop working to recuperate at home. In order to make more money, although I was so exhausted that I couldn’t straighten my back, I still forced myself to make money. I could indeed be said to value money above my own life. God couldn’t bear watching me harmed by Satan so He brought me before Him and allowed me to accept His salvation through my parents and brothers and sisters preaching the gospel to me many times. However, because the satanic philosophies had deeply taken root in my heart, I involuntarily struggled to earn money again and even competed with my colleagues for more tasks, making me have no heart to gather together and read God’s words. Now I finally realized: It turns out that Satan uses money to entice me to shun God and will ultimately swallow me, letting me perish together with it. Satan really is so insidious and vicious!
After understanding these, I then constantly prayed to God and persisted in reading God’s words every day. Gradually, I could quiet my heart in the meetings. I thought I had escaped from the bondage of money this time and would no longer be fooled by Satan again. But because I had no true knowledge of the essence of money, when there was the advent of facts, I was involuntarily sucked into a whirlpool of money again.
At the end of 2015, when I saw my oldest sister’s husband buy a house and my colleague buy a car, my heart leaped in anticipation. I thought: I can’t fall behind them and I should quickly work overtime to make more money when there is so much work to do now, and moreover I have some savings, so I could also buy a house and a car before long. Therefore, I recovered my previous life of struggling to make money. Due to overworking, my illnesses recurred on and off, which made me live in pain again.
I Understood the Truth and Was No Longer a Money Grubber
Not too long afterward, when one of my colleagues worked overtime to operate a lathe, he cut his finger accidentally because he was overly tired. At that point, his finger was gushing blood and the bone in his finger could be seen clearly. It cost him over 30,000 yuan in two days to be treated in hospital. Right after that, I heard that my uncle who worked in a coal mine died from gas poisoning when he, in order to earn more money, finished his work and then took his colleague’s turn on duty. These two things moved me so much and I couldn’t help but think deeply: I put such emphasis on money and wholeheartedly want to work overtime to earn more money to buy a house and a car and to be a cut above others. But if I continue working overtime like this, will I really have my wish granted? I remembered what the Lord Jesus once said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). I thought: Yes! If one lose his life, what’s the point of having so much money? Money isn’t important while our life is most important. What a basic principle it is! However, facing money, why did we always take life lightly but attach importance to money? My colleague and my uncle thought like this, so did I. If I was in a state of exhaustion for a long time, would I not face disaster or lose my life like them sooner or later? The more I thought of this, the more I was terrified. What was even more unfathomable to me was why I was involuntarily tempted by money even though I had known from God’s words that Satan uses money to harm mankind.
I saw God’s words say, “When people have property, they think that money is one’s mainstay, that it is the means by which one lives; when people have status, they cling tightly to it and would risk their lives for its sake. Only when people are about to let go of this world do they realize that the things they spent their lives pursuing are nothing but fleeting clouds, none of which they can hold onto, none of which they can take with them, none of which can exempt them from death, none of which can provide company or consolation to a lonely soul on its journey back; least of all, none of these things can save a person and enable them to transcend death.”
Every word of God is truth. From God’s words, I understood that the reason why I involuntarily did my utmost for money was because I didn’t see through the essence of money. So I always thought that if I had enough money I would win fame and fortune, obtain the high regard of others, be superior to others, live by holding my head high, and live a high-quality lifestyle. However, I didn’t know that what money brings to us is just temporary satisfaction and fleshly enjoyments while our heart still feels emptiness and pain, and that money cannot allow us to live a meaningful life. I then thought of some famous singers and stars: Even though they have much money and great prestige and gain people’s esteem and admiration, they still feel miserable and empty in their hearts, so they go looking for excitement and fill the emptiness in their hearts by gambling and taking drugs. In the end, they go bankrupt and their families are shattered, and some of them even choose to commit suicide to conclude their lives. Only then did I truly see that fame and fortune aren’t our everlasting reliance and can’t allow us to live better and more happily than others. It is nothing but a device employed by Satan to bind and afflict us, letting us unknowingly become a slave to money, and fail to enjoy life’s happiness, much less know the meaning of life.
Then I saw God’s words say, “Regardless of differences in ability, intelligence, and willpower, people are all equal before fate, which does not distinguish between the great and the small, the high and the low, the exalted and the mean. What occupation one pursues, what one does for a living, and how much wealth one amasses in life are not decided by one’s parents, one’s talents, one’s efforts or one’s ambitions, but are predetermined by the Creator.” “Only when one accepts the Creator’s sovereignty, submits to His orchestrations and arrangements, and seeks true human life will one gradually begin to break free from all heartbreak and suffering, and to be rid of all the emptiness of life.”
From God’s words, I understood: How much wealth everyone will possess in life isn’t decided by his ability and efforts, but is predetermined by God. Moreover, what God bestows upon everyone is enough, but our desires and ambitions are so strong that we never know to be content. What God gave me was enough, but I was not content with my current situation and always wanted to gain even more. When I spent the money which I earned at the expense of my health to cure my illness, I deeply felt that how much wealth I would amass really was predetermined by God. After understanding these, I secretly set a resolution: I must lay down my desires and ambitions, no longer regard money as my goal to pursue, and won’t be a slave to money again. Instead, I’m willing to treat money rationally and accept and obey the Creator’s dominion over me and His arrangements for me. This is the wisest choice.
The Enlightenment From God’s Words Made Me Stand Witness
There was little work we could do in the factory for a time, so my colleagues and I took turns to work. One morning, I was going to take my turn working, only to find that my work had been stolen by my colleague. This meant that the paycheck of this piece of work was stolen by him so I couldn’t get it. At that moment, I was so angry that I wanted to rush to argue with him and take my work back, but then I thought that doing so didn’t conform with God’s will. So I prayed to God silently in my heart and asked Him to protect me not to fight with my colleague over the paycheck. Then I thought of the following words of God: “Job’s attitude toward his property reveals to people his true humanity: Firstly, Job was not a greedy man, and was undemanding in his material life. Secondly, Job never worried or feared that God would take away all that he had, which was his attitude of obedience toward God in his heart; that is, he had no demands or complaints about when or whether God would take from him, and did not ask the reason why, but only sought to obey the arrangements of God. Thirdly, he never believed that his assets came from his own labors, but that they were bestowed unto him by God. This was Job’s faith in God, and is an indication of his conviction.”
Pondering God’s words, I suddenly realized: Yes, when Job was faced with the major trial—An entire mountain of his cattle and sheep was taken away by bandits—he didn’t make a word of complaint to God but chose to obey. When God bestowed so much wealth upon him, he didn’t take pleasure on account of these things. Job always firmly believed, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away;” so he wasn’t afraid what God would take away from his hands, but he could prostrate on the ground and entirely obey in the environment God had created for him. And he relied on his perfect submission to God to strike back against Satan’s cunning scheme. However, when I was facing this insignificant interest, I then wanted to argue with my colleague. And wasn’t I still confined by money? Did I have any testimony at all? At the thought of this, I felt ashamed. The anger in my heart gradually subsided and I didn’t feel heartsick. After that, when I chatted with my colleagues, I finally knew that the colleague took out a mortgage to buy a house and had to meet his monthly loan repayments of more than 2,000 yuan. He felt under pressure and looked anxious every day. So, in order to make more money to pay back the loan, he always competed with other colleagues for more tasks, living in so much pain.
From then on, I no longer always lived for money but sought God’s will in all things and practiced according to God’s words and obeyed God’s sovereignty and arrangements. I went back and forth to the factory normally and no longer competed with my colleagues, so I concentrated on my work and the efficiency and quality of my work improved. Many of my colleagues curiously asked me, “You used to compete with us for more tasks and struggle to work overtime. Why have you changed now? You’ve become a completely different person. Who has changed you from valuing money above your life? We really envy you. You work normally but the salary is rather high.” When I returned home, my wife no longer argued with me because I was overworking. In my spare time, I would lay my heart bare to her and communicate with her and I would also help to cook, do some laundry, mop the floor, etc. Gradually, our relationship became harmonious. She said happily, “You’ve changed. You don’t only have eyes for money anymore and you start to take care of our child and me. Now you can also help me do some housework.” After hearing my wife’s words and what my colleagues said, I constantly thanked God for His salvation for me. It was God’s words that changed me and allowed me to see through the essence of money, farewell to the life of being a slave to money, and no longer be fooled by Satan. Later, I completely recovered from lumbago and my mental outlook became rather good. Now, I live according to my life course preordained by the Creator, obey the Creator’s dominion and arrangements, and perform my duty as a created being. I feel particularly at ease and peaceful every day. Thank God. May all the glory be to God!
The End.
Part one: Escaping From the Bondage of Money, I Live a Happy Life (I)
