By Yin Ling
I’m 13. From the time I was little, I’ve followed my parents in believing in the Lord. At that time, I went to the church every week to sing hymns to praise the Lord. In February of 2018, my mother accepted God’s work of the last days and preached the gospel to my family. So I also began to attend meetings in The Church.
One day in June, I got a sudden illness that caused a fever. Four days later, my mother took me to a big hospital and I was diagnosed with dengue fever. After four days of hospitalization, I recovered from my illness. However, on July 3, I had a relapse. At the beginning, I just had a slight fever and cough, therefore my mother just took me to a clinic for injections. However, after I had injections for four days I not only did not recover but my illness got even worse. Finally, my mother took me to the big hospital again. I had thought that I would recover after several days like last time. But unexpectedly, on the first day my temperature reached 42ºC and my cough got worse and worse. Externally, my body was burning hot to the touch, and my mother felt uncomfortable being near to me. But I felt very cold, and had ice-cold hands and feet; moreover, I kept shivering all over. I was racked with a constant fever and cough, and sometimes I couldn’t help uncontrollably shedding tears of sadness.
When the doctor saw my condition didn’t improve at all but was becoming more serious, he drew some blood for a blood test and took an x-ray of me. Finally, he said that I had inflammation of my lungs and that I was in a bad state. When my parents got the diagnosis, they were very anxious for me and decided to transfer me to a hospital in Thailand. I thought: “Will my illness be cured quickly after transferring to a hospital there? But if not, what will happen?” I was really scared. At that time, my mother read some of God’s words to me: “Almighty God, the Head of all things, wields His kingly power from His throne. He rules over the universe and all things, and He is in the act of guiding us on the whole earth. … When sickness befalls, this is God’s love, and surely His kind intentions are harbored within. Though your body may undergo a bit of suffering, entertain no ideas from Satan. Praise God in the midst of illness and enjoy God in the midst of your praise. Do not lose heart in the face of illness, keep seeking again and again and do not give up, and God will illuminate you with His light. How was Job’s faith? Almighty God is an all-powerful physician! To dwell in sickness is to be sick, but to dwell in the spirit is to be well. So long as you still have one breath, God will not let you die.”
After reading God’s words, my mother fellowshiped this, “God is almighty. Everything is in His hands and our lives, deaths, blessings and misfortunes are all in His grasp. So our life and death are not up to us, and neither are they up to the doctors or science. Our illness is in God’s hands. Without His permission, even if we are at death’s door we won’t die. God’s good intention in any illness is to perfect our faith. We must learn to rely on God and not always be worried and afraid. Because fearful thoughts are ideas sent by Satan, and it wants to make us lose our faith in God.” Through God’s words and my mother’s fellowshiping and encouragement, although sometimes I still felt upset, I wasn’t as frightened as I’d just been. Because I knew God was by my side.
Later, I was admitted to a hospital in Thailand. The doctor there was more conscientious and responsible, and the nurses came to check on me every two hours. I thought: “Does this mean my illness will be cured very soon? If so, I’ll be back in time to take the final examination.” Afterward, three times a day, the nurses regularly gave me fluids and asked me to take medicine.
However, I didn’t get any better after three days. My fever continued from morning until night, and I had a frequent cough. While coughing, I also had a nosebleed. After the doctor checked my condition again, he said to my mother, “If your daughter only has dengue fever, her fever should recede after three days of treatment. But hers hasn’t receded at all. Such a case is rare.” At this, my mother said, “Please try your best and do whatever you can. Doctor, please, if her fever continues, I’m worried that her brain and internal organs will be damaged.” Then the doctor examined me quite thoroughly and said I might have tuberculosis.
Hearing this, I thought: “I must have gotten tuberculosis. If not, why haven’t I recovered from the illness after I have been hospitalized for so long?” On thinking that I might have gotten such an illness at such a young age, I became even more sad and upset and cried loudly. I thought, “Why is God not protecting me? Why has He allowed me to get such an illness?” After crying, I asked my mother, “Mom, if I really do have tuberculosis will I die?” She replied, “You won’t die. Our faith is in the God and He controls every aspect of our lives. So, we should just commit everything to God.” Hearing what she said, my fear was somewhat alleviated.
Then, my mother read me a passage of God’s words: “God does His work, God cares for a person, looks upon this person, and all the while Satan dogs His every step. Whomever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ploys to tempt, disrupt and wreck the work God does, all in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is this objective? It does not want God to gain anyone; all those that God wants it wants for itself, it wants to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they join it in committing evil acts. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive?”
After reading, she fellowshiped this with me, “The onset of illness is a spiritual battle and also the testing of Satan. Now Satan sees we’ve come before God, so it does everything to disturb and obstruct us from pursuing the truth and worshiping God. Its purpose is to cause us to misunderstand God, suspect God, lose faith in God and thus betray Him. We need to rely on God to see through Satan’s tricks. Let’s think back to when Job encountered his various disasters. He lost all of his sheep and cattle, enough to cover a mountain, all of his property, and had boils all over his body, but he didn’t even complain once about all this. No matter whether he enjoyed blessings or suffered misfortune, he was able to praise God’s name. That was because he believed God rules over everything, he didn’t make deals with God, nor did he make any demands of God in his faith in Him. Whatever he was faced with, he would praise and obey God. Finally, his faith was a testimony to God and Job gained His blessings. So we should also have faith in Him. I know you’re sad, but you have to be strong now. When you feel upset, pray to God and ask Him to give you faith.”
Hearing my mother’s fellowshiping, I understood that God required me to stand firm in my testimony during the illness and not to lose my faith in Him. The onset of illness was harm done to me by Satan, so I should detest and forsake Satan, instead of complaining about God and hurting God. Therefore, I prayed to God silently in my heart, “O God, I must see through Satan’s crafty schemes and not take its side and complain about You. May You give me faith.” Later, I often remembered this passage of God’s words: “Faith is like a single log bridge: Those who cling abjectly to life will have difficulty in crossing it, but those who are ready to sacrifice themselves can pass over, sure of foot and worry-free. If man harbors timid and fearful thoughts, it is because Satan has fooled them, afraid that we will cross the bridge of faith to enter into God.” Almost without realizing it, I too started to have a little faith in God.
To my surprise, after the doctor changed the liquid medicine and put me on a drip for one day, my fever receded. Only the cough wasn’t completely cured. By the third day on a drip, my fever was almost gone. On the fourth day, after the doctor examined me, he said, “Your inflammation of the lungs has been reduced and the chance of tuberculosis has been ruled out. So as long as you receive drip infusions for a full seven days, you can be discharged from the hospital.” When I heard this, I was very happy and kept praising God in my heart. I knew this was all the wonderful deeds of God. Thank God. All the glory be to God!
