By Cheng Nuo, China

In April 2023, I was responsible for the gospel work in the church. After a period of time, the leader held a gathering with us and fellowshipped some truths on preaching the gospel. I thought they were wonderful. If I thoroughly fellowshipped those truths with the gospel preachers, it would be easier to solve the religious people’s notions, which would be very beneficial for the gospel work. Afterward, I quickly planned gatherings to fellowship with the gospel preachers. However, at that time, many brothers and sisters from a church I was responsible for were arrested. Among the brothers and sisters I needed to meet, some lost contact, while some had security concerns and could not come. Reluctantly, I had to arrange gatherings with the brothers and sisters from other churches. When I tried to arrange it with a brother, he replied that he had an emergency to handle and couldn’t attend the gathering in the next two days. I thought, “Why am I so unlucky? Even arranging people to attend a gathering is so difficult. Every time there’s a critical moment, various problems come up. Why can’t things go smoothly?” Soon after, I received a letter from the leader, saying that the churches in other places had already finished fellowshipping and started implementation. They inquired about the progress on my end. I was envious and worried, thinking, “Why are they so lucky? Their work is going so smoothly, while the churches in my scope haven’t made any progress yet. Will the leader think that I am incapable and dragging my feet in the work?” With these thoughts, I became very irritated, thinking, “I also want to do my work well. Why doesn’t God let me work smoothly? If it is not this person with safety concerns, then it is another person too busy to find time. Everything seems to pile up all at once!” Faced with this situation, I felt helpless and demotivated about my duty. Afterward, I wrote to a sister from another church, asking her to arrange for a gathering and inform me of the time. But unexpectedly, the messenger was delayed on the way. By the time I received her reply, I had missed the scheduled meeting time. I thought, “Why am I so unlucky? Just when I managed to arrange with people to attend the gathering, I missed the gathering time. The gathering will be postponed for a few more days.” In those two days, I felt very anxious, thinking, “I’ve made a strong commitment to a work plan. But now, after such a long time, I haven’t even met with anyone. How will I respond to the leader when they ask about my work progress? Will they think I am dragging my feet in the work if they find out that I haven’t started implementation yet?” Unexpectedly, two days later, the leader sent me a letter saying that the CCP had launched a new round of nationwide roundup, resulting in the arrests of many church leaders and workers. I was told not to arrange gatherings with anyone for the time being. I complained in my heart, “I’ve just managed to arrange with some people to come, and now I can’t convene the gathering. This makes the work even harder to carry out!” Facing all this, I felt very frustrated, thinking, “I also want to do a good job, but why did everything go wrong when I implemented the work? Why did God not provide protection? It seems that my luck is just not good.” The more I thought about it, the more I felt I was unlucky, with everything going wrong. That night, I tossed and turned in bed and couldn’t sleep. I prayed to God and sought His intention. I thought of God’s words about exposing people’s pursuit of good luck, so I found and read that chapter of God’s words.

Almighty God says: “What is the problem with people who always think that they are unlucky? They always use the standard of luck to measure whether their actions are right or wrong, and to weigh up which path they should take, the things that they should experience, and any problems that they face. Is that right or wrong? (Wrong.) They describe bad things as unlucky and good things as lucky or advantageous. Is this perspective right or wrong? (Wrong.) Measuring things from this kind of perspective is wrong. It is an extreme and incorrect method and standard for measuring things. This kind of method often leads people to sink into depression, and it often makes them feel uneasy, and that nothing ever goes their way, and that they never get what they want, which eventually leads them to feel constantly anxious, irritable, and uneasy. When these negative emotions go unresolved, these people constantly sink into depression and feel that God does not favor them. They think that God treats others with grace but not them, and that God takes care of others but not them. ‘Why do I always feel uneasy and anxious? Why do bad things always happen to me? Why do good things never come my way? Just once is all I’m asking for!’ When you view things with this kind of erroneous way of thinking and perspective, you will fall into the trap of good and bad luck. When you are continually falling into this trap, you will constantly feel depressed. In the midst of this depression, you will be particularly sensitive to whether the things that befall you are lucky or unlucky. When this happens, it proves that this perspective and idea of good and bad luck has taken control of you. When you are controlled by this kind of perspective, your views and attitude toward people, events, and things are no longer within the range of the conscience and reason of normal humanity, but have fallen into a sort of extreme. When you fall into this extreme, you will not emerge from your depression. You will keep getting depressed time and time again, and even if you do not normally feel depressed, as soon as something goes wrong, as soon as you feel that something unlucky has happened, you will immediately sink into depression. This depression will affect your normal judgment and decision-making, and even your happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy. When it affects your happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy, it will disturb and destroy the performance of your duty, as well as your will and desire to follow God. When these positive things are destroyed, the few truths you have come to understand will vanish into thin air and be of no help to you at all. That is why, when you fall into this vicious cycle, it will be hard for you to put the few truth principles that you understand into practice” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth I. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). After reading God’s words, I realized that my recent feelings of agitation and frustration were due to my incorrect viewpoint regarding matters. I had been measuring and dealing with everything that befell me by considering whether my luck was good or bad. Whenever various interruptions would constantly occur during the implementation of work, and whenever arranging gatherings with people didn’t go smoothly and hit an obstacle, I had felt incredibly unlucky, and that my luck was bad. Especially when I had seen that the work in other churches was progressing normally, while on my end, nothing went right in arranging for people to attend gatherings—either the brothers and sisters had safety concerns, or were too busy to find the time, and I had missed the gathering even when I’d finally managed to arrange it—all these happenings had made me think even more that I was unlucky, and that my luck was bad, and so I had felt frustrated and distressed. I had even complained that God was not protecting me, such that I had lost the motivation to do my duty. Now I understood that God had allowed various unfavorable situations to come about in order for me to seek the truth and learn lessons, which was beneficial for my life. I couldn’t live in negative emotions. Realizing this, my heart became calm. I wanted to seek the truth to resolve my problems and correctly approach the environments arranged by God.

During my devotionals, I read these words of God: “The fact is that whether a person feels good or bad about something is based on their own selfish motives, desires, and self-interest, rather than on the essence of the thing itself. So, the basis on which people gauge whether something is good or bad is inaccurate. Because the basis is inaccurate, the final conclusions that they draw are also inaccurate. Returning to the subject of good luck and bad luck, now everyone knows that this saying of luck does not hold water, and that it is neither good nor bad. The people, events, and things that you encounter, whether good or bad, are all determined by God’s sovereignty and arrangements, so you should face them properly. Accept what is good from God, and accept what is bad from God as well. Do not say that you’re lucky when good things happen, and that you’re unlucky when bad things happen. It can only be said that there are lessons for people to learn within all these things, and they should not reject or avoid them. Thank God for the good things, but also thank God for the bad things, because all of them are arranged by Him. Good people, events, things, and environments provide lessons that they should learn, but there is even more to be learned from bad people, events, things, and environments. These are all experiences and episodes that should be part of one’s life. People should not use the idea of luck to measure them. So, what are the thoughts and perspectives of people who use luck to measure whether things are good or bad? What is the essence of such people? Why do they pay so much attention to good luck and bad luck? Do people who focus a lot on luck hope that their luck is good, or do they hope that it is bad? (They hope that it is good.) That is right. In fact, they pursue good luck and for good things to happen to them, and they just take advantage of them and profit from them. They do not care how much others suffer, or how many hardships or difficulties others have to endure. They do not want anything that they perceive as unlucky to happen to them. In other words, they do not want any bad things to happen to them: no setbacks, no failures or embarrassments, no being pruned, no losing things, no losing out, and no being deceived. If any of that happens, they regard it as bad luck. No matter who arranges it, if bad things happen, it is unlucky. They hope that all good things—from being promoted, standing out from the crowd, and benefiting at others’ expense, to profiting from something, making lots of money, or becoming a high-ranking official—happen to them, and they think that is good luck. They always measure the people, events, and things that they encounter based on luck. They are pursuing good luck, not bad luck. As soon as the slightest thing goes wrong, they get angry, annoyed, and dissatisfied. To put it bluntly, these types of people are selfish. They pursue benefiting themselves at other people’s expense, making a profit for themselves, coming out on top, and standing out from the crowd. They would be satisfied if every good thing happened to them alone. This is their nature essence; it is their true face” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth I. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). After reading God’s words, I understood that things cannot be described as good or bad based on whether they go smoothly or not. It has nothing to do with luck. The environments we encounter each day are under God’s sovereignty and arrangement. They are all beneficial for our lives. Thinking about nonbelievers who do not believe in God, whatever happens to them, they won’t accept it from God, only considering their own interests and losses. When faced with adversity, they complain about heaven and blame others, thinking they are unlucky and that their luck is bad. Wasn’t I the same? In the past, whenever I had seen someone for whom everything seemed to go smoothly at work—constantly getting promoted, gaining the favor of the boss, or being highly regarded by others—I couldn’t help but feel that their luck was exceptionally good, and that they always seemed to encounter favorable situations, whereas I wasn’t as fortunate as them, despite working just as hard, and constantly faced various difficulties, and couldn’t stand out or get noticed, and often faced reprimands from the boss. So I would believe that everything unlucky was happening to me, and complain about heaven and blame others. Even after I had come to believe in God, I was still the same. Whenever I had seen brothers and sisters who had good caliber and were effective in their duties, and who were valued by the leaders and highly regarded by others, I had felt envy in my heart, feeling that they were so lucky while I was just so unlucky, frequently encountering obstacles and adversity in my duties. I had believed it was down to my bad luck. I now saw that my perspective was absurd. What I had considered as adversity and bad luck, I had determined as such based on my own interests. I reflected that if my implementation of the work had been smooth from the beginning, and the effects had improved, and I’d been able to get myself noticed, I would definitely have been happy. I had professed with my lips that I was considerate of God’s intentions, and that I would try hard at my duty to improve the effectiveness of my work. However, in reality, I had only been concerned with my own reputation and status, and how the leader viewed me. I didn’t truly have a place for God in my heart. I really had been too selfish! Whenever my personal interests were at stake, I had complained about heaven and blamed others, and hadn’t accepted it from God at all. Wasn’t this the same viewpoint as nonbelievers?

Later, I read more of God’s words: “Everyone has to go through many setbacks and failures in life. Who has a life filled with nothing but satisfaction? Who never experiences any failures or setbacks? When sometimes things don’t go right for you, or you come across setbacks and failures, this isn’t bad luck, it’s what you ought to experience. It’s like eating food—you have to eat the sour, the sweet, the bitter, and the spicy alike. People cannot do without salt and must eat some salty foods, but if you eat too much salt, it’ll harm your kidneys. You have to eat some sour foods in some seasons, but it won’t do to eat too much, as it’s not good for your teeth or your stomach. Everything has to be eaten in moderation. You eat sour foods, salty foods and sweet foods, and you have to eat some bitter foods, too. Bitter foods are good for some internal organs, so you have to eat a little. A person’s life is the same. Most of the people, events, and things you come across in every stage of your life won’t be to your liking. Why is this? It’s because people pursue different things. If you pursue fame and fortune, status, and wealth, to be superior to others and achieve great success, and so on, then 99 percent of things won’t be to your liking. It’s just as people say: It’s all bad luck and misfortune. However, if you give up on the idea of how lucky or unlucky you are, and treat these things calmly and correctly, you will find that most things are not so unfavorable or difficult to deal with. When you let go of your ambitions and desires, when you stop rejecting or avoiding whatever misfortune befalls you, and you stop measuring such things by how lucky or unlucky you are, many of the things that you used to see as unfortunate and bad, you will now think of as good—the bad things will turn into good things. Your mentality and the way that you view things will change, which will enable you to feel differently about your life experiences, and at the same time reap different rewards. This is an extraordinary experience, one which will bring you unimagined rewards. It is a good thing, not a bad thing” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth I. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). After reading the words of God, I understood that every person must go through many things in life, experiencing numerous setbacks and failures, as well as moments of joy and sorrow. This way, our life experiences are enriched. Oftentimes we experience things that don’t go our way and although this causes us anguish and upset, it is only in this way that we can become stronger and our humanity gradually becomes more mature and steadier. It’s like when we experience some failures and are revealed in our duties, by later reflecting on ourselves and seeking the truth, we come to understand our own corruption and shortcomings. This benefits our life entry. Without these experiences, we are like flowers in a greenhouse, unable to withstand even the slightest storm, being very fragile. I reflected on some brothers and sisters I’d interacted with in the past, some had good caliber and were effective in their duties, and were highly regarded by others. On the surface, it had appeared that everything was smooth sailing for them, and that they didn’t experience any setbacks or failures. However, they didn’t pursue the truth. They had boasted about themselves and flaunted their seniority whenever their work was somewhat effective. They had acted on their own volition in doing their duties, which had led to serious disruptions and disturbances in the church’s work. In the end, they had been expelled for walking the path of antichrists and not repenting. From this I realized that doing duties smoothly and receiving high regard from others aren’t necessarily good things or signs of good luck. What matters most is whether a person is walking the path of pursuing the truth and whether they focus on seeking the truth to resolve their corrupt disposition in the face of various things. I also understood that every environment that conflicts with human notions is beneficial to people’s lives, as long as they seek the truth and learn lessons from it. Taking me as an example, if I hadn’t encountered obstacles and setbacks in my duties recently, I wouldn’t have realized that in doing my duty, I had been merely doing it for show in front of others, working for reputation and status, and that I was on the wrong path. Even if I completed my duty this way in the end, I would not be practicing the truth or doing my duty as a created being. Eventually, I would be loathed and eliminated by God due to the lack of change in my corrupt disposition. I realized that behind these unfavorable situations, there was God’s good intention, which was to enable me to know myself, and this was God’s love.

Afterward, I read another passage of God’s words and gained some further understanding of myself. Almighty God says: “People live and pursue from within their notions and imaginings. Thus, they inevitably view everything, and judge and delimit everything, based on these notions and imaginings. So, no matter how God provides the truth and tells people what views they should hold and what path they should take, as long as people do not let go of their notions and imaginings, they will continue to live by them, and these notions and imaginings will naturally become people’s life and the laws by which they survive, and they will inevitably become the ways and methods by which people deal with all kinds of events and things. Once people’s notions and imaginings become the principles and criteria by which they view people and things and comport themselves and act, then no matter how they believe in God, or how they pursue, and no matter how much hardship they suffer and how much of a price they pay, it will all be futile. As long as someone lives by their notions and imaginings, then this person is resisting God and is hostile to Him; they do not have true submission to the environments arranged by God or to His requirements, and ultimately their outcome will be a very tragic one” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth II. How to Pursue the Truth (2)). After reading God’s words, I understood that human notions and imaginings are obstacles and stumbling blocks that hinder people from practicing and gaining the truth. When we encounter things, it is not easy to submit if we judge them based on our own notions and imaginings. During this period, I lived in my notions and imaginings. I thought that when implementing the work, I also wanted to improve the effectiveness and considered the work. So I believed that God should have protected me and ensured everything would go smoothly. Now I saw that my thoughts were very unreasonable. Behind the environments arranged by God, there are God’s meticulous arrangements and good intentions. They are also tailored to human needs. Even though some environments may seem contrary to human notions, they all contain God’s goodwill. We should not judge things merely by their surface. I should stand in the position of a created being and submit to God’s orchestration and arrangements. I reflected that this time, my failure to arrange the gathering and implement the work actually contained God’s protection. This is because I later learned that the house I planned to use as a gathering venue was put under police surveillance. Fortunately, we didn’t go there. Otherwise, we might have been arrested or monitored, which could have involved more people and caused more serious consequences. Pondering on this carefully later, I saw that this situation not only allowed me to see God’s sovereignty and arrangement, but also helped me have some understanding of myself. I saw that my motivation in doing my duties was for my own benefit, not to practice the truth to satisfy God. When God arranged environments that did not fit my notions, I demanded and complained about God without reason, revealing my rebellion and resistance against God. If it weren’t for such circumstances, I wouldn’t have had any understanding of myself, let alone repent and change. I realized that all this is God’s salvation for me. Considering that many churches in different places were now facing police roundups, in such an environment, I could only follow up on the work from behind the scenes. Although the work I could do was limited, I had to do my best with all my strength, seek ways to achieve better work results, and fulfill my responsibilities in this context. Just as God says: “Some say, ‘In certain places with harsh environments, we cannot interact with people face-to-face. How can we carry out checks on them?’ No matter how harsh the environment is, there are still methods and approaches to handle these matters. It depends on whether you are responsible and genuinely committed. Isn’t that so? (Yes.) If you offer your loyalty and responsibility, then even if the outcome is not ideal, God scrutinizes and knows it, and the responsibility won’t be on you. But if you don’t offer your loyalty and responsibility, then even if nothing goes wrong and it doesn’t lead to any consequences in the end, God will scrutinize it. The nature of these two approaches is different, and God will treat them differently” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Two)). Considering that currently, the brothers and sisters mainly couldn’t provide clear answers regarding certain religious notions, I focused on a few key notions and searched for relevant words of God, then wrote to them, communicating with them in detail based on my own understanding. When the brothers and sisters encountered problems and difficulties in preaching the gospel, I promptly corresponded to fellowship with them. Through some time of cooperation, the effectiveness of our gospel preaching had somewhat improved compared to before. Although there are still many problems in the work, I have faith to cooperate. Thank God for His guidance!