I was born in the countryside and envied the rich since childhood. To my mind, money was everything. After I got married in 1988, in order to live a better life and not to be looked down upon, I always immersed myself in how to make more money. When I saw that bean sprouts could earn me money easily, I began to deal in bean sprouts. Day in and day out, I carried my child and worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk, regardless of how hard the job was. As I saw my wealth was gathered increasingly, I forgot the hardship I had endured before and strived harder. In our spare time, my husband and I would work as pork butchers. And my husband would go to unload the cargo for others as a part-time job. During those days, we would devote ourselves to whatever job could earn us much money. Before long, we bought an electronic ignition farm tricycle to buy and sell grains, vegetables, and fruits to and fro between the city and the countryside. After we saw such business was more profitable, we bought a big pick-up truck. Then, I became one of the richest people among my relatives and friends. But I was not satisfied enough and coveted a larger fortune.

Afterward, we bought a 141 truck and a tipper car, starting to transport building materials to construction sites. Gradually, we went into the real estate industry. Our first project, unexpectedly, earned us more than 300,000 yuan. This made me think that I couldn’t miss such a good chance to make more money. Previously when I was poor, my husband’s relatives looked down on me and their tones were usually sardonic, and I had to tiptoe around. Now I was rich, and they would greet me with smile every time they saw me. It was so good to be rich; my back straightened and my word became weighty. Under the reign of the desire for money, my husband and I began to put all our heart into the development of real estate.

Once a crane incident, which caused a sensation throughout the city, resulted in 13 injuries and 3 deaths. When I heard of it, I thought to myself: Though I can make big money in this industry, the risk is too high. One death can make a whole project fruitless. So, I was particularly cautious about the safety of the base of crane. From the time the crane was bedded in the ground, I would get tensed up, because once the base was not settled properly, the crane would be in danger of collapse. When the third floor of the building was being built, I began to pay more attention to the safety of the workers. My heart would rise up to my throat whenever the crane moved and lifted materials. I fixed my eyes on it for fear that something would be wrong. Especially when the crane lifted the timber, I went to supervise the process myself, lest the timber would be insecurely tied and thus fall halfway and hit anyone. As the building got higher, I became more nervous, and was afraid that there would be someone injured or dead. Even when I wanted to buy some food, I had to get up early in the morning to do it. In the daytime, I dared not step out of the construction site. Then because I ran more projects and didn’t have enough money to operate, I borrowed 1.3 million from my second sister-in-law. This brought me more pressure and made me feel extremely nervous all the time.

No matter how carefully I looked after my project, accident still came one day. A worker fell from the ninth floor to the seventh floor, where he was obstructed by the safety net, and then fell into the fifth floor. When I saw that worker, his face was covered in blood with his jacket broken and right leg bone exposed. It scared me so much that I almost lost my bearings and shuddered with terror, and I didn’t recover myself until the ambulance arrived. I was afraid that if he died, I would have to pay 300,000 yuan in recompense and a fine of 100,000 yuan; moreover, every department (including the supervision bureau, the safety agency, and the quality control station) involved in this project would be fined, and all the fine would be paid by me. Then what I had done would come to nothing. Not only would I become debt-laden, but also I would owe him a life, and then my whole life would be finished … The medical treatment of this worker did cost me a lot. However, it was lucky that he was discharged from the hospital without any sequelae. For given too much scare, I got heart disease in this accident. Since then, every time there seemed to be something wrong on the construction site, I would think there was another accident and become very scared so that I had to take heart-saving pills to settle down. Especially on seeing the crane or the high building, I would tremble, and I would feel weak at the knees whenever there was the slightest sign of trouble. Under such pressure all day, my heart disease became worse and worse.

With the project payment withdrawn gradually, I paid off the debt, then bought the best house, car, and got funds in hand. From then on, there was no need in business for me to borrow money from others. My initial wish of making big money was finally fulfilled. However, when I relaxed from a long period of tense state, I began to suffer from cranial nerve disorder, and it at last became so serious as to lead to my daily insomnia. Even if I was so sleepy that I yawned and shed tears incessantly, when I closed my eyes, I couldn’t stop thinking, and what I had experienced before was replayed in my mind scene after scene. Suffering from the long-term sleeplessness, I felt listless throughout my body, with my head drooping all day, and I didn’t want to talk to anyone, becoming fretful on seeing anybody, let alone going downstairs. So I always stayed at home. In order to be cured, I searched around many places, and almost became a herbal medicine pot. However, I didn’t see the slightest improvement in my illness no matter how many medicines I took. I thought: I possess so much money at present, but suffer from illness because of earning money. What is the use of money? It cannot save me no matter how much money I own. I felt that it was better to die than to live in such great pain. I cried and said to my daughter, “My life is like a living hell. I’d better die.” From then on, being afraid that I would commit suicide, my daughter watched me all day long. Sometimes when I stood at the window and stared blankly, she became worried about that I would jump off the building. I felt as if my life was drawing to an end. Later, my daughter had no other choice but to go to the hospital to buy sleeping pills controlling dementia to help me fall asleep. The doctor told my daughter that this pill at most could only be taken one every time. But one pill didn’t work at all, so I took two. Even like this, I could only sleep for three or four hours a day and a night, and this situation lasted for three years. Because of the sleeping pills, my brain often shut down. Nevertheless, there was no other solution to this. I lived amid extreme pain.

When I was most painful and helpless, in the end of September 2011, I accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days. I saw that the word of God says, “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience. As a result, man is ever more distant from God” (“To Have an Unchanged Disposition Is to Be in Enmity to God” ). “In truth, out of the myriad things in God’s creation, man is the lowest. Though he is the master of all things, man is the only one among them that is subject to Satan’s trickery, the only one that falls prey in endless ways to its corruption. Man has never had sovereignty over himself. Most people live in the foul place of Satan, and suffer its derision; it teases them this way and that till they are half alive, enduring every vicissitude, every hardship in the human world. After toying with them, Satan puts an end to their destiny. And so people go through their whole lives in a daze of confusion, never once enjoying the good things that God has prepared for them, but instead being damaged by Satan and left in tatters. Today they have become so enervated and listless that they simply have no inclination to take notice of God’s work” (“Work and Entry (1)”). From God’s words, I finally realized that all the pain I had suffered was Satan’s affliction. Satan confused me, bound me, and controlled me with “money” to make me lose sight of the direction of life. In retrospect, wasn’t I living in the torment of Satan these years? For face and status, for my own vanity, and for a life towering above others, I occupied myself in working on the construction site, could not eat or sleep well, and suffered from high mental pressure. Each day I was in a state of high-level anxiety without any control of life. Even after I possessed money, I could not have a good sleep and entirely lost myself, living in the torment of disease, and struggling in living death. From the words of God, I understood that pursuing money, fame, and status is a means by which Satan corrupts and harms man. It is a wrong view of life given by Satan to teach man to tread the wrong path, making man stray farther from God and man’s life more distressed. When I understood all these, I prayed to God with a thankful heart, “God! Thank You! Without the revelation of Your words, I wouldn’t have known that I’m living amidst the suffering of Satan, and I would still be blinded by Satan. God! Thanks for Your salvation. From now on, I am going to live well according to Your words, pursue the truth, and no longer live for money.”

From then on, I began to focus on reading God’s words and do my best to pursue the truth. My heart settled and I felt brightened within. I was free in spirit and bade farewell to that painful, hellish life.

One day, I read these words of God, “These are the things people envy. If people had no work of the Holy Spirit, had no oppressive environment, no one to lead them, no one to coerce them, then everyone would follow the trends of the world and no one would believe in God. … Through dissecting these things within people we will discover that the things they yearn for are not righteous, are not of the light, not of the truth and do not conform to facts. Instead, they yearn for those things that are worldly, for things that belong to Satan, and for things that people consider to be good. … Within these things that people worship, which of them brings God joy? None of them! Knowledge, status, fame and gain, wealth, power—which of these does God like? Which of them are positive things? Which of them conform to the truth? None of them! … Why has it been said previously that everything that exists in the heart of man is evil, and is not in conformity with the will of God? Man’s heart is filled with the eating of food, the wearing of clothes, enjoyment and fun. But to what do these things belong? They belong to the world; they belong to the devil” (“The Elements of Faithlessness Within Man and Man’s Nature That Betrays God” in Records of Christ’s Talks). God’s words thoroughly revealed what existed deep in my heart. What I pursued before was money, power, and a life towering above all as well as to be looked up to and admired by others. I got rich indeed, and had won admiration from my relatives and friends at last, but what these empty fame and gain had brought was the torment of troublesome illness. I was severely afflicted by these satanic toxins such as “The wages of avarice is death,” and “One can have anything but illness, and one can be without anything but money.” Thinking back, so many people worked their guts out for money, but some of them didn’t even recover their capital, some lost all their property. Some chose to drown themselves in a river; some had earned millions but still felt hopeless before a fatal illness; some felt too empty and committed suicide. Now I understood the reason why God hates money and fame so much is that Satan wants to use money and fame to corrupt man, occupy man, and devour man, and at last make man die with it. These poisons and wrong pursuit of life had afflicted me till today and made me unable to extricate myself. How evil and contemptible Satan is! Previously because of pursuing fame and gain, I even didn’t have the life a normal man should have. It was God’s words that saved me from Satan’s snare. I felt indebted to God. So I knelt down before God and prayed, “Almighty God! Thank You! Your words have taught me how to discern positive things from negative things, and also let me understand what man should pursue and what man should not pursue. In addition, You make me know that only by pursuing the truth can man see through Satan’s scheme and live in God’s care and protection. Yet if we live by Satan’s poisons, we will only walk toward death.”

Under the guidance of God’s words, I understood what was the most valuable thing one should pursue in his life. Man was created by God, and it is God who nurtures and provides for man. The breath we live by is given by God, and it should be breathed for God. We are supposed to pursue the truth to satisfy God. Only living this way is the most meaningful life. Since then, I was not subject to money and fame that much. I attended meetings with brothers and sisters, read the words of God, and pursued the truth. In the Church of Almighty God, I saw the brightness brought by the sovereignty of the truth, and that before the truth, everyone is equal regardless of being rich or poor, having status or not. My heart felt especially released. Thanks God for His salvation!

Later, Satan’s temptation came to me. After the construction project my husband contracted for was fully completed at the end of the year, the 17 million project payment was always unforthcoming. I was especially anxious when I saw this. I thought: 17 million, it is not a small number. If we cannot get it back, all we did will be in vain along with our principal. Then how can we continue to live? I kept thinking about this day and night, and couldn’t eat or sleep again, living in great sorrow. So I came before God and called upon Him. Then I thought of His words, “What occupation one pursues, what one does for a living, and how much wealth one amasses in life are not decided by one’s parents, one’s talents, one’s efforts or one’s ambitions, but are predetermined by the Creator” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). I suddenly became aware that everything in this world is under the dominion of God, that how much wealth we can possess is not decided by us, but predetermined by God. How much wealth we can possess in our life depends on God’s predetermination, and none of us can obtain what God doesn’t give us no matter how hard we try. So many people around me worked their guts out for money, but they still remain empty-handed. What God gave me is already enough; we don’t have to worry about food or clothes, and we have already owned the car and the house. I cannot be deceived by Satan anymore. Still thinking about this all day, do I want to go back to the time when I lived in the torment of illness and preferred to die? This is absolutely not God’s intention. I began to let go of it little by little and commit my state and difficulty to the control and arrangement of God. After a period of time, we received a call consulting with us about using the completed building to cover the back project payment. In the end, they transferred more than twenty apartments to us. Then we sold out each of the apartments at a price 20,000 to 30,000 yuan lower than the market value and gradually withdrew the money. From this experience, I saw that all was ruled and arranged by God. God’s words guided me to break free from the affliction and torment of Satan. Ever since then, I handed over all my projects to the hands of God. When there was difficulty or problem in the project, I would not be as anxious as before, because I knew that everything is controlled by the hands of God. And no matter what I encountered, I prayed to God, relied on Him and was willing to face the difficulty according to His will. I didn’t think about how much money I’d make but rather let things be and obeyed God’s orchestration.

One day, when I was reading the words of God attentively, my daughter asked me, “Mom, how many sleeping pills are left?” I blurted out, “There’re still many.” My daughter said, “Such a few pills, it’s so long since I bought them, but you haven’t finished them?” At that time, I had a sudden realization, as if waking up from a long dream, and said to my daughter in surprise, “Wow! I haven’t taken the pills for such a long time, but I can fall asleep now!” My daughter asked surprisedly, “Are you sure, Mom? Is that true?” I said positively, “Yes! I can fall asleep like a normal person now!” My daughter said in tears happily, “Mom! Finally you don’t need to take the pills and can live like a normal person.” Tears ran down my face as if I was a child drifting on the street for many years who finally found her own parents and received their love. I felt incomparably joyful in my heart and said to my daughter in tears, “I spent so much money and took so many pills these years, but my illness wasn’t cured. Today, a book of God’s words saved me from the affliction of illness, and made me see God’s love, see hope, and have the courage to live on. Come and believe in Him! This is the true God!” My daughter said excitedly, “I’m willing to believe!”

Before long, my son also accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days. We attended meetings with brothers and sisters, sang hymns and danced to praise God. Almighty God’s words helped me give up all the worldly entanglements, and God saved me from the hellish life. One day, I saw God’s words say, “In a day when you completely obtain liberation and freedom and no longer have any sort of burden nor bondage, you will become a free person—you will become a person like Job. Why could Job say what he did? Why could he so easily utter those words? Was it a matter of a single day? It was not a matter of a single day. It was the result of day after day, year after year of refinement, and letting go, bit by bit. The more you set aside the more relaxed you will be—the more set aside the more relaxed. You will become free and liberated. In the day when you become free and liberated, you will feel that the things you have forsaken are entanglements, and the things you have truly obtained are most precious to you. You will feel that those are the most valuable things and most worthy of your treasuring. Those things you liked—material pleasures, fame and fortune, status, money, face, and the honor of others—will seem worthless to you. Those things caused you great suffering, and you will want them no more. You won’t want them even if they are given to you. You don’t need them!” (“You Can Obtain Truth After Turning Your True Heart Over to God” in Records of Christ’s Talks).

After reading these words of God, I realized that just as God’s words talk about, I had regarded money and fame as a life-saving straw, and believed that one could possess everything if he owned money. But in my experiences, I saw that no matter how much money we had, we could not solve the matter of birth, death, illness and old age. Just as God’s words say, “But only when they are close to dying do they realize … They realize that life cannot be bought with money or fame, that no matter how wealthy a person is, no matter how lofty his or her position is, all people are equally poor and inconsequential in the face of death. They realize that money cannot buy life, that fame cannot erase death, that neither money nor fame can lengthen a person’s life by a single minute, a single second” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). God’s word is the truth and can be our life. When I was not constrained by money and fame and lived completely by the words of God, I felt the fulfillment with unspeakable sweetness and happiness. And this cannot be bought no matter how rich one is. This made me deeply feel that only the truth expressed by Almighty God can save man, purify man, and change man. Thank God for saving me from the whirlpool of fame and money, and guiding me to take the right path of life. Now my life is full of sunshine.

You may be interested in this article:

No Longer Pursuing Money, I Really Live in Plenty – Spiritual Awakening