By Chen Lin
I couldn’t help but sigh with emotion when I saw that, conflicts caused by fighting over wealth occurred around me one after another, thus the relationship between family members broke down, and they were even either bruised or bleeding. I thought: If they had been accommodating to each other, couldn’t these tragedies have been avoided? Not until I personally experienced a disturbance from a demolition did I finally see that without the guidance of God’s words, I would also get into fighting over money and be unable to extricate myself from it, living in pain and not feeling relief.
My niece and I bought a four-floor condominium. The first floor was a storefront; the second and third floor were for living; the top floor was an attic. Half of the storefront and the second floor belonged to me; the other half of the storefront and the third floor belonged to her; the attic was divided evenly. In a flash, two years went by. The government notified us that our house was scheduled to be torn down.
One night, two months later, my niece’s son had dinner at my house and he said his family would get two big houses in the future. Hearing what he said, I prosaically said, “The area of your houses is merely 140 square meters or so. At most, you’ll get a big one and a small one.” But he said, “We have the attic, and thus the area of our houses is over 200 square meters.” At these words, I thought: It turns out that you want to keep the attic all to yourselves. No, I must talk to my niece and find out. But then I thought: We’ve been acquainted with each other for several decades and never fussed over things. She won’t do this, she will give me the compensation that belongs to me. But then it occurred to me: If they won’t, what should I do? I don’t care. I’m going to take back the things that belong to me. When buying the house, we agreed that we would divide the attic evenly if it was slated for demolition. So, it’s impossible for them to keep it for themselves.
The next day early in the morning, I went to my niece’s house and said to her, “At that time we agreed that the attic was our community property. Today, since it’s scheduled to be torn down, half of it should belong to me.” I never thought that her husband would stand up and said indignantly, “It’s my family’s. We live on the third floor, so the attic undoubtedly belongs to us.” I strongly suppressed my anger to say, “But we bought this house together. Moreover, we had agreed that we would share the attic.” He said, “The verbal agreement is of no use, unless you have written proof; otherwise, whatever you say is useless.” After hearing what he said, I became unspeakably angry. Then, suppressing my anger, I said, “I just want to take back the things that belong to me. You must give half the money to me based on market price.” After saying this I turned around and left. On my way home, I raged inwardly, thinking: I’ve treated you as if you were my own children over these years. It was because I trusted you that I didn’t sign the agreement then. But I never thought that today you were actually contradicting yourself. It’s really true that I may know your exteriors but not your hearts. I hate that I trusted you too much at the start. If I had signed the agreement, today you couldn’t have denied it even though you wanted to. But now it’s too late no matter what I say. Even if I go to court with you, I won’t win, because I have no proof. At that point, my heart became extremely pained as if a big rock had weighed on me. I couldn’t eat and couldn’t sleep well at night, being melancholy every day. I had no inclination to read God’s words nor did I want to pray.
I couldn’t bring myself to quit, so I went to ask my eldest brother and sister to persuade them. But my niece and her husband didn’t listen to them at all. Seeing my niece and her husband like this, I really couldn’t bear it. Several days later, when my third oldest sister came to my house, I told her about this situation. She fellowshiped with me, “The world today is dark and evil, and there are no normal interpersonal relationships between people. For interests, people fight and scheme against each other, and have become selfish, mean, cruel, and heartless. This is all because man has been corrupted by Satan. Let’s read a passage of God’s words and it’ll become clear. God’s words say, ‘For example, if you ask some evildoers why they committed evil, they will answer, “Because it’s every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost.” This single phrase expresses the very root of the problem. Satan’s logic has become people’s lives. They may do things for this purpose or that, but they are only doing it for themselves. Everyone thinks that since it is every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost, people should live for their own sakes, and do everything in their power to secure a good position for the sake of food and fine clothing. “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost”—this is the life and the philosophy of man, and it also represents human nature. These words of Satan are precisely the poison of Satan, and when people internalize it, it becomes their nature. Satan’s nature is exposed through these words; they represent it completely. This poison becomes people’s lives as well as the foundation of their existence, and corrupted humanity has been consistently dominated by this poison for thousands of years.’” After reading God’s words, she continued to fellowship, “God’s words are so clear. From the moment that mankind was corrupted by Satan, it has instilled the philosophies for living in us from a young age, such as ‘Heaven destroys those who are not for themselves,’ ‘Fight for every inch of land and seize every bit you can get,’ and so on. These philosophies and principles have been planted deep within our hearts, causing us to place profit above everything else no matter what we do. For the sake of our own self-interests, we humans have become selfish, mean, and self-seeking. There’s no familial affection or love between people. We all outwit and fight with each other. Both relatives and friends, in order to scramble for profit, even fight with each other fiercely. Now there are many such things on television and websites. For example, brothers go to court for money and property, and they ultimately part on bad terms, to the extent that they break up with each other, don’t interact with each other, and even kill each other. That’s how people have become increasingly greedy and evil. These satanic philosophies of life are just a poison that deceives people, causing people to lose their reason and conscience. In fact, we are all victims under Satan’s domain. For interests, we’re all unwilling to let go. When we can’t get them, we want to contend. The more we can’t obtain them, the more miserable we’ll be. Just like this, our relationships with others will fall apart and we will also live with so much pain.”
God’s words and my sister’s fellowship allowed me to see and think clearly. I realized: It turns out that these days, I’ve been falling for Satan’s trick, so I’ve been bound by this thing, living in agony. And my heart also has gradually moved away from God. Actually, in the past, the relationship between my niece and I was very good, and we never argued with each other over anything, but now a demolition has made our relationship reach an impasse. As it turns out, affected by satanic philosophies and rules like ‘Heaven destroys those who are not for themselves,’ and ‘Fight for every inch of land and seize every bit you can get,’ I just care about my own interests in all things. Once my interests suffer losses, I’ll involuntarily contend. And when I fail to obtain them, I’ll sink into pain.
Later, my sister read to me a passage of the Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life, “From Job’s testimony we can see that if people have God’s care, protection, and blessings, they’ll obtain all the wealth. Actually, all that a man possesses in his whole life is granted by God. If God doesn’t bestow it upon you, you won’t get it even if you exhaust yourself. Therefore, many people in the world toil their whole life but get nothing in the end, while some people don’t work so hard but what they gain is so rich. What does this mean? It means that everything is up to God. Job knew this very well. When many unbelievers reach the age of 50 or 60 they will often say this: ‘Oh! It’s all preordained by God. No one can deprive you of that which is predestined in your life, and you cannot yourself obtain whatever does not belong to you. Each one has his destiny.’” She continued to fellowship, “The fate of every living person is in God’s hands. God has predetermined how long one can live and how many assets one can gain during his lifetime. Job’s attitude toward his wealth was that he believed all he possessed had been held in God’s hands, and had not been the fruit of his own labor. When his flocks and herds were taken by the robbers, he didn’t chase after them to snatch his cattle and sheep back depending on his hot blood. He believed in God’s sovereignty and arrangement, so he could submit and seek God’s intentions. And it was also because of his knowledge of God’s sovereignty that he could stand witness in the trials and shame Satan. In the end, he received God’s blessings—double the fortune. In this matter of the attic, we should imitate the faith of Job, obey God’s sovereignty and arrangement, stand firmly to witness for God, and not bring shame upon God’s name.”
Listening to this, I felt ashamed. I saw that when things happened to me, I first thought of getting what belonged to me back, and I even considered going to court with my niece. What I lived out had not the slightest bit of the likeness of a Christian. I had no true knowledge of God’s sovereignty, so when my interests were affected, I still wanted to rely on myself to scramble. Ultimately, I got my nose rubbed in the dirt, feeling extremely miserable in my heart. When my thoughts reached this point, I then prayed to God in my heart, “Oh God! Now I don’t want to rely on myself to fight over the property. I’m willing to entrust this thing to Your hands. May You lead me so that I can stand witness and shame Satan.” When I thought like this, I felt a bit calmer in my heart and no longer felt so bad. However, when I was faced with temptation, my heart was still unable to rest.
When my second brother learned of this thing, he said that he would go to stick up for me and help me get that money which belonged to me back. I thought, “It’ll be better if he goes to get all the money back which belongs to me. It’s better getting a part of it back than getting nothing.” When I was just about to nod and agree with him, I suddenly realized I was ensnared in Satan’s temptation again. I thought: “I don’t know what will happen if this time he goes to my niece’s house. If this really becomes a big thing due to these money, not only will I not have the familial relationship with my niece, but I will dishonor God’s name.” Consequently, I immediately prayed to God, “O God! I no longer want to live according to Satan’s axioms. I want to act in accordance with Your words. But my stature is so small that I can’t get over it. May You lead me to obey Your sovereignty and arrangement.” After praying, I thought of a passage of God’s words, “Everything that happens to people happens when God needs them to stand firm in their testimony to Him. Though nothing major is happening to you at the moment and you do not bear great testimony, every detail of your daily life is a matter of testimony to God. If you can win the admiration of your brothers and sisters, your family members, and everyone around you; if, one day, the unbelievers come, and admire all that you do, and see that all that God does is wonderful, then you will have borne testimony. Although you have no insight and your caliber is poor, through God’s perfection of you, you are able to satisfy Him and be mindful of His will, showing others what great work He has done in people of the poorest caliber. When people come to know God and become overcomers before Satan, loyal to God to a great extent, then none has more backbone than this group of people, and this is the greatest testimony.” From God’s words I understood: As a Christian, in real life, I should live out the likeness of a Christian to glorify God, bear witness to God and disgrace Satan. This is God’s requirement of me and even more the way I should keep to. If I still struggle for interests as before, won’t I be fooled by Satan? Then I thought: Due to this demolition, many brothers and sisters made enemies. A father and his son who are near my home went to court for the compensation, and later they terminated their relationship. Today, if I also argue furiously with my niece about the compensation, won’t I become a laughingstock to others? Satan uses gain to lure me to vie and rob. Outwardly, it seems that my second brother wants to help me and speak for me, but actually, it’s a battle in the spiritual world and Satan’s temptation of me. Satan wants to let me lose witness for profit and live without dignity and integrity. I can’t fall prey to Satan’s tricks. I must practice the truth to satisfy God. Thinking of this, I rejected my second brother. After I practiced in this way, I felt liberated and a lot lighter.
In the blink of an eye, two years passed, and the houses which were assigned to us had been built. What I didn’t expect was that the house I got by lot had an attic. Besides, the attic was very large. My heart was full of gratitude to God. I thought of the past when I didn’t recognize God’s sovereignty, I always wanted to struggle for money and benefits on my own. Following satanic philosophies like ‘Heaven destroys those who are not for themselves,’ and ‘Fight for every inch of land and seize every bit you can get,’ I tired myself out. When I submitted to God’s sovereignty and predestination and didn’t contend, what God bestowed on me really was more than what I asked for. I truly experienced that God is the One who holds sovereignty over everything. Thank God! All the glory be to God!
