By Xiaoting
Guided by God’s Words, Seeing Through the Evil Trends
One morning in the early winter, the soft sunshine slanted in through the balcony railings, and the warm air pervaded the living room. Zhu Yan lay back against the sofa, her face looking rosier. Touching the screen of her off-white tablet computer lightly, she saw a passage of God’s words, “Satan uses one of these social trends after another to corrupt man’s what? (Conscience, reason, humanity, morals, and view on life.) Do they cause a gradual degeneration in people? Satan uses these social trends to lure people one step at a time into a nest of devils, so that people caught up in social trends unknowingly advocate money and material desires, as well as advocate wickedness and violence. Once these things have entered man’s heart, what then does man become? Man becomes the devil Satan! This is because of what psychological leaning in the heart of man? What does man advocate? Man begins to like wickedness and violence. They do not like beauty or goodness, much less peace. People are not willing to live the simple life of normal humanity, but instead wish to enjoy high status and great wealth, to revel in the pleasures of the flesh, sparing no effort to satisfy their own flesh, with no restrictions, no bonds to hold them back, in other words doing whatever they desire. … In this way, man becomes more and more evil, arrogant, condescending, selfish, and malicious. There is no longer any affection between people, no longer any love between family members, no longer any understanding between relatives and friends; human relations have become full of violence.”
God’s words resolved Zhu Yan’s confusion. In the past, she never understood why her considerate husband became so degenerate and cool. Now she knew that it was because he was influenced and deceived by the evil thoughts of Satan, such as “Having a wife or husband at home but also taking a lover,” “Life is short. Enjoy it while you can,” “Seize the day for pleasure, for life is short,” and so on. These ideas twisted his views on life, with the result that he didn’t feel ashamed of himself for having an affair but even thought he was seeking “fashion.” Zhu Yan thought of how Yan Xia had shown her consideration in every conceivable way and had been a good husband who treated their family well. But through the influence of Satan’s evil thoughts, when seeing his friends all find mistresses, he also sank into the evil trends. He began to have an affair and pursue a life of indulging in the flesh, becoming cool and heartless. He even said the words “It’s normal to find a mistress. Aren’t my friends like this?” When saying that, Yan Xia wasn’t ashamed of himself at all but was even proud of having a mistress. Was this not because of the influence of the evil trends of Satan? Zhu Yan thought, “In the past, I always considered Yan Xia as my only support, but thinking about this now, I’m so foolish and ignorant. In this evil age, each of us has been thoroughly corrupted by Satan and filled with its poisons; what we encounter is evil and negative things, and we don’t know the difference between good and evil, beauty and ugliness. So our views are very easy to be assimilated under the influence of the evil trends. In this society there are so many people who get divorced due to marital infidelity. Yan Xia is just one of the victims of the evil trends.” Thinking of this, Zhu Yan felt great release in her heart, and she no longer hated Yan Xia and his mistress.
Afterward, Zhu Yan heard that Yan Xia and that woman’s life wasn’t happy.
Only God Is Love
One afternoon, the sunlight shone through the creepers clustering about the window, quietly falling into the room. Zhu Yan poured herself a cup of green tea. The delicate fragrance slowly filled the room, soothing and refreshing.
The off-white tablet computer was playing a video of recitation of God’s words, in which one passage of God’s words moved her, “God’s treatment of each and every person is earnest and responsible, more responsible even than you are to yourself. Is this not so? God does not speak idly, neither does He stand on high putting on airs nor does He make do with fooling people. Instead He is honestly and silently doing the things He Himself needs to do. … There is no deceit in God, no falsity. God is faithful and everything He does is real. He is the only One that people can count on and the God that people can entrust their lives and their all to. … We see none of Satan’s evil revealed in God. All that God does and reveals is wholly beneficial and helpful for man, is wholly done to provide for man, is full of life and gives man a road to follow and a direction to take.”
Zhu Yan’s heart was much moved by God’s words. Thinking of all those days, due to her broken marriage, she was washing her face with tears every day and even wanted to die. Just as she felt the most pain and helpless, God arranged for her mother to read God’s words to her, fellowship about His intentions and testify to His salvation, so that Zhu Yan, who had fallen into darkness, again developed hope in life. Through reading God’s words, she gained some discernment on Satan’s tactics and methods of corrupting man, and knew how Satan uses the evil trends to deceive and corrupt mankind, and thus she was no longer hurt by her husband’s betrayal. If not for God’s love, she would have killed herself in this condition. Now, she realized even more that God’s love is practical, and that only God was her support and the only One whom she could rely on. It was because of the guidance of God’s words that she’d truly got rid of the suffering of her ruined marriage.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yan sighed with emotion: Though Satan keeps corrupting and harming mankind, God is beside us all the time. In order to save us from Satan’s harm, God has been incarnated in human form to express the truth, enabling us to gain discernment regarding Satan’s evil essence and break free from its traps. God loves man so very much.
Then Zhu Yan thought of other people she knew who had also suffered the breakup of marriages. Some of them went to court, throwing their families into confusion; some wallowed in degeneracy, living debased lives; some was unable to withstand the pain, thus killing themselves. … However, thanks to coming before God and enjoying the sustenance and nurturing of God’s words, Zhu Yan obtained more and more release and freedom in her spirit, and walked onto the true path of life.
God is the One who is worthy to be entrusted with our whole life and only God’s love is truest and most precious. Feeling God’s love, Zhu Yan put down the computer and came before God to set a resolve: In the rest of her life, she was willing to follow God and spend her life pursuing the truth, performing duties well and repaying God’s love.
The sunlight flooding every corner of the room, Zhu Yan was feeling the warmth of sunlight with her eyes closed.
The End.
