I, who used to be an atheist, believed in the Lord Jesus because of God’s grace. God also bestowed to me a lot of blessings: A good wife, two clever children, the house, and the car. Much more luckily, our whole family was chosen by God and kept up with the work of the last days done by Almighty God. We lived under the supply and leading of God’s word every day, feeling enriched and peaceful. However, when I was immersed in the joy of meeting the return of the Lord Jesus, an unexpected thing broke the usual calm.
One day in October of 2015, when I was ready to go home after work, I picked up the phone to check the time and happened to see several missed calls from my wife. Without thinking, I immediately called her back. On the phone, I felt that she was in a great fluster and heard her say with anxiety, “Our daughter fell from the chair and her arm is out of shape. Now, we are in the hospital. Come quickly!” Hearing this, my heart ached as if being wrenched by something. I worried about my daughter so much, but I feared that I would bring more pressure and pain to my wife and I hadn’t yet seen the real condition of my daughter, so I pretended to be calm and comforted my wife, “Don’t be afraid. We are believers in God. God is by our side and everything in the universe is in His hand. Our daughter will be fine.” Unconsciously, however, my heart felt cold and throbbed and I couldn’t listen to what she said later. I was at sixes and sevens and kept thinking what if my daughter broke her arm.
Then I hurriedly drove to the hospital. When I arrived there and saw that my daughter, who used to be lively, lay in the sickbed waiting for the doctor, tired and helpless, and that her arm couldn’t move, the defenses in my heart collapsed and I felt so bad. I thought: Why does such a thing happen? Why is the injury to her arm so serious? She isn’t yet 2 years old but has to suffer so great a pain. Why doesn’t it happen to me? … Finally, a doctor came. She looked at the X-ray carefully, and said to us with a serious look, “Her condition is a bit serious. We can’t perform such an operation here. You’d better take her to the children’s hospital.” At her words, I was much more worried in my heart. Especially when I saw that they just gave a simple treatment to my daughter and that my daughter cried loudly for the pain, I felt a heart-piercing pain. My wife and I couldn’t help shedding tears and were weak in our hearts, feeling so helpless in front of my daughter’s pain. My brothers and sisters had been comforting us by our side, but my heart was in a terrible turmoil and I couldn’t listen to them at all. Seeing that we hadn’t had dinner yet, they bought us some hamburgers, but I didn’t want to eat anything.
That day, we sent our daughter to the children’s special hospital in downtown. The doctor performed the operation immediately. At that time, several brothers and sisters were accompanying us by our side. They encouraged and comforted us, saying, “Let’s pray to God. Quiet our hearts and commit all this into God’s hand. May God lead her through the crisis.” We prayed to God with one mind, giving my daughter’s condition to God. After the prayer, my heart calmed down a lot. Although my daughter’s cry still came from the operating room, I was no longer panicked and felt much more peaceful. The operation was very successful. At night, only two people were needed to accompany my daughter. Seeing that I was extremely exhausted, my brothers and sisters asked me to go home to have a rest, and my wife and a sister stayed in the hospital to take care of my daughter. Then, I went back home with my son.
It was 11 p.m. when I drove back home. Thinking back to what happened during the day, I felt mentally tired. The scenes of meeting my daughter in the hospital and her crying floated in my mind now and then, and I couldn’t help worrying about her condition. Turning on my phone, I saw many messages and missed calls from my brothers and sisters. After a short while, Sister Zhencheng called to comfort me. I couldn’t help crying out to her, “Why does such a thing come upon my daughter? She is less than 2 years old. Why doesn’t it happen to me?” I poured out all my depression to the sister. She comforted me and asked me not to fall into Satan’s scheme. She said that Satan just attacked and afflicted us by our weak points, so as to make us misunderstand God, complain against God, and lose faith in God. She then read to me two passages 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?” (“God Himself, the Unique IV”). “When disaster strikes you, Satan revels in this; when calamities befall you, when nothing goes right for you, when you become entangled in Satan’s web, Satan takes great enjoyment from these things. As for what God is doing, He is protecting you with each passing moment, steering you away from one misfortune after another and from one disaster after another. This is why I say that everything man has—peace and joy, blessings and personal safety—is in fact all under God’s control; He guides and decides the fate of every individual” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).
After that, she fellowshiped with me, “God seized us from the hands of Satan, making us return before Him, enjoy the watering and feeding of His word, and no longer be fooled and tormented by Satan. However, Satan doesn’t let us off but uses every means to tempt us, causing calamities and ailments to befall our family. All these are Satan’s schemes. Satan likes it when calamities befall us and its purpose is to make us complain against God and even lose faith in God and stray away from God. As for God, He cares for us and protects us silently all the time; He wants the best for us and hopes that we can have faith in Him in various environments and thus receive the peace and blessings from Him. Take Job in the Bible for example: He feared God and shunned evil in all his life, but Satan couldn’t bring itself to quit and thus tempted him, taking away his property and children and even making him have sore boils all over his body. However, Job didn’t fall into Satan’s scheme and still held his integrity and finally gained God’s blessing which was twice as much as he had before. From this, we see God’s love for us humans and His essence of beauty and goodness, and even more see Satan’s evil as well as its malicious substance. So, we should grow wise to Satan’s scheme, have faith in God and rely on God to get through this environment.” At her words, I suddenly understood a lot in my heart: Satan knows that what I love most is my children, so it wants to use them to topple my faith in God, and make me complain against God. When I truly saw the aspect of Satan’s evil, I felt it hateful and disgusting from the bottom of my heart. When I was enjoying the watering and supply of God’s word to my heart’s content and gradually knew what a real and meaningful life means, Satan did its utmost to harass and hinder me. How hateful it is!
Knowing these, I earnestly prayed to God, “O God! I almost fell into Satan’s scheme. I complained against You in my heart and also felt negative and weak. Now, I have understood that this is Satan’s temptation in the spiritual realm. May You lead me to stand firm in this environment and walk out from negativity and weakness, so that I won’t be caught by Satan’s scheme. I’m willing to entrust my daughter’s injury to You. When she will be fine is controlled by You.” Through reading God’s word and praying to God, I was comforted and steadfast in my heart, no longer feeling the panic I had before when I relied on myself. Later, I saw God’s words say: “Whenever Satan corrupts man or inflicts unbridled harm upon man, God does not stand idly by, and neither does He brush aside or turn a blind eye to those He has chosen. God understands with perfect clarity all that Satan does. No matter what Satan does … God knows all that Satan is trying to do, and God does not give up on those He has chosen. Instead, without attracting any attention—secretly, silently—God does everything that is necessary. When God begins work on someone, when He has chosen someone, He does not proclaim this news to anyone, nor does He proclaim it to Satan, much less make any grand gesture. He just very quietly, very naturally, does what is necessary” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”). Reading God’s words and recalling what happened during the day, I understood: My daughter broke her arm, but God’s love has been accompanying me all the time. In the beginning, God arranged for the brothers and sisters to encourage us by our side; when my wife and I lost heart, they led us to pray to God; when I felt exhausted, they offered to help my wife look after my daughter, letting me go home for a rest; and then God arranged for the sister to read His word to me, making me have faith and strength to face the difficulties I encountered and have more discernment about Satan’s scheme. If it were not for the company of my brothers and sisters, I would possibly suffer greater torment. What’s more, the operation of my daughter was very successful because of God’s protection. Thinking of these, I felt extremely grateful to God for His love and prayed to Him, “O God! I will never misunderstand or complain against You. No matter how the condition of my daughter will be, I’m willing to obey Your orchestration and arrangement.” That night, I fell asleep soundly under the consolation of God’s words.
Early next morning, after I said the morning prayer, there appeared a word in my mind, “Faith.” It was a simple word, but it made me full of strength. I believed that everything is under God’s sovereignty and control, feeling that God quietly cared for me and led me by my side all the time and that I had nothing to fear. With great confidence, I hurried to the hospital. Although I was stuck in a traffic jam for more than one hour, I didn’t feel any panic or anxiety for the leading of God’s word. When I arrived at the hospital, I saw that nothing unusual happened to my daughter and that she no longer blubbered but still slept soundly. The doctor told us that her arm healed nicely and that she could get out of the hospital the next day.
Through this experience, I have truly tasted that God’s love is true and everywhere. When things happened to me, God not only arranged for the people around me to help me, but used His word to make me know His will and understand that His wisdom is always exercised based on Satan’s schemes. These matters which looked bad made me gain enlightenment and guidance from God, see God’s leading and care for me in difficulties, and have more faith in following God. Amen!