By Chen Zhi
I used to firmly believe the views that “Money makes the mare go” and “Money is first,” thinking that having money meant having everything, and that with money I could enjoy a better life. So I attached much significance to money and only liked making money. As long as I heard someone say where money could be easily made, I would catch at every opportunity to go there for money.
Afterward, I accepted the kingdom gospel of Almighty God. But I didn’t treat having faith in God as a serious matter, because my mind was full of the ideas of how to make much money. However, the more I wanted to earn money, the less I could earn. There was one time I was engaged in the road-works. I worked for two months, but in the end, the labor contractor ran away without paying me even a cent. Then I went to another place to dig foundations for houses. I worked hard for one week, but the contractor also ran away before I was paid for my work. After that, I began to work in a coal mine, and in my free time I would go and carry bricks, sand or cement. From dawn to dusk, I worked unceasingly like a spinning top, sparing little time to attend meetings. My brothers and sisters said to me many times, “You’ll never make enough money. We should be satisfied with having food and clothes. And pursuing life is the most important to us.” However, their kind words didn’t touch my heart. Outwardly, I nodded with a smile, but inwardly, I had my own plan. I thought: “What you’re fellowshiping is right, but I’m still young and need to make much money to make my family richer and richer. Who will be dissatisfied with having much money?” I shut my ears to their exhortation and still followed my plan.
Later, I found that my fellow villager, a demolisher, could make a little more money, so I began to knock down houses with him in my free time. My fellow villager and I took charge of the demolition of concrete slabs. On the sixth day, when we were about to knock off work, there was still one slab left to be demolished. I felt tired and so packed up with my fellow villager and went back to rest. The next morning when I got up at 6 o’clock, I suddenly felt dizzy and felt like vomiting, but I still wanted to get back to work. The moment I tried to stand up, I was so giddy that I couldn’t even stand but had to lay on the bed. About eight o’clock in the morning, there was a phone call from the place where we knocked down the houses. Immediately, the dispatcher’s office buzzed. My colleagues all said that my fellow villager died from his fall while knocking down houses. At that moment, I was paralyzed with shock and fear, thinking: “Yesterday he talked and laughed with us when doing work, but today he died. Human life is too fragile. Even though we can get much money, what use will it be?” My fellow villager’s death touched me, who was benumbed. I was awoken by that sudden accident, so I hurried to pray to God, “God! I have my heart set on making money. Now I’ve seen such an outcome of my fellow, and I come to feel that life is much precious than money. From now on, I will do my best to believe in God and perform my duty as a created being to repay Your love.”
Thereafter, I no longer played with my life to earn money like I did before. Aside from going to work regularly, whenever I got time I would go to attend meetings. As I attended meetings more and more often, I understood some truth and felt release and freedom in my heart. I saw that the words of God said: “‘Money makes the world go round’ is the philosophy of Satan and it prevails among the whole of mankind, among every human society. You could say that it is a trend because it has been imparted to everyone and is now affixed in their heart. People went from not accepting this saying to growing used to it so that when they came into contact with real life, they gradually gave tacit approval to it, acknowledged its existence and finally, they gave it their own seal of approval. … Don’t many people sacrifice their dignity and integrity in the pursuit of more money? Don’t many more people lose the opportunity to perform their duty and follow God for the sake of money? Isn’t this a loss for people? (Yes.) Isn’t Satan sinister to use this method and this saying to corrupt man to such a degree? Isn’t this a malicious trick? As you progress from objecting to this popular saying to finally accepting it as truth, your heart falls completely under Satan’s grasp, and therefore you unwittingly come to live by it. … People do this, they are controlled by this saying and manipulated by it. Isn’t this the effect of Satan corrupting man? Isn’t this the philosophy and corrupt disposition of Satan taking root in your heart? If you do this, hasn’t Satan achieved its goal?”
I pondered over God’s words carefully, feeling that these words reached deep into my heart. Influenced and controlled by such ideas and views as “Money makes the mare go,” “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” and “Money is first,” I had always placed money and fortune high above all things, thinking that the more money I could earn the better. As long as I could earn much money, I would go out of my way to struggle for it from dawn to dusk. I was engaged in building roads, laying foundations and working in the coal mine. Meanwhile, to make more money, I carried bricks and sand in my spare time. When I saw that my fellow villager knocked down houses and could make more money than I did, I began to work with him in my spare time. Although brothers and sisters fellowshiped with me many times, I couldn’t let go of my greedy desire. … Thinking back, I truly was so corrupted by Satan that I even looked upon money as life. In order to make money, I had no thought to attend meetings or read God’s words, further and further away from God. If it had not been for my fellow villager’s death so that I was awoken from my numb disillusion and saw clearly that money is nothing but dung before death, I would still have been addicted to it, unable to pull myself out. I thought more about people around and saw this: For the sake of money, many of them would rather risk losing their lives to do dangerous work; many fight with and kill each other; many betray their personality and dignity to steal, rob, swindle and deceive; many work day and night until they are struck by diseases and live in torment. We have our heart fully occupied with money and throw away our conscience and life, bringing ourselves and our family endless pain. These are all the results of Satan employing money to harm us.
How can we cast off the affliction of this satanic viewpoint? At that time, I remembered the words of God that the brothers and sisters had fellowshiped with me in a gathering, “The fate of man is controlled by the hands of God. You are incapable of controlling yourself: Despite always rushing and busying about for himself, man remains incapable of controlling himself. If you could know your own prospects, if you could control your own fate, would you still be a creature?”
“When you repeatedly investigate and carefully dissect the various goals of life that people pursue and their various different ways of living, you will find that not one of them fits the Creator’s original intention when He created humanity. All of them draw people away from the Creator’s sovereignty and care; they are all pits into which humanity falls, and which lead them to hell. After you recognize this, your task is to lay aside your old view of life, stay far from various traps, let God take charge of your life and make arrangements for you, try only to submit to God’s orchestrations and guidance, to have no choice, and to become a person who worships God.”
The words of God illuminated my heart. I knew that whether we are rich or poor throughout our lives and how much money we can earn are all destined by God and can’t be changed through our own hard work. I thought it over and was convinced of this fact: All these years, I’ve struggled to make money—laying foundations, working in the coal mine, knocking down houses, and doing some other dangerous jobs. However, no matter how hard I worked, I still didn’t live a rich life. Now God’s words have pointed out the way for me. I should change my previous lifestyle, hand my heart over to God, just obey God’s orchestration and arrangements, and let God take charge of my life and arrange everything for me.
Later, I performed my duty in the church. Although I didn’t busy myself toiling like before, when I obeyed God’s sovereignty, I saw God’s deeds: With God’s blessings, my life now is not worse than before. The most important is that, through this experience, my previous wrong viewpoint of pursuit has been turned around. I have known that only by coming before the Creator to worship Him and pursuing the truth to gain life can we live the most valuable and meaningful life.
