Eastern Lightning|Seeking God in Prayer Enables One to Remain Standing and Bear Witness During Trials
Regardless of whatever trials you may encounter, remember the following three most critical rules: First, you ought to submit absolutely to all sorts of disasters and trials since they are sanctioned by God. Do not try to rationalize a disaster. Human reason or conception doesn’t work. You won’t figure it out if you insist on handling matters according to human conceptions. You ought to submit to them since they are sanctioned by God and entail God’s good intentions.
You ought to say nothing, and submit to them at once. Do not declare rashly where you stand, but submit to them at once. If you do so, there will be a witness. Second, you should seek ways to bear true witness by your actions in order to satisfy God. Third, remember that regardless of how great your sufferings may be, pray earnestly to God, and don’t complain. God’s actions entail His good intentions. They are all planned by God, and pertain to specific purposes. Even if people fail to realize this, they should at least submit to God’s arrangements with fear. If you carry out these three things, you are likely to remain standing and able to bear testimony. Otherwise, you are likely to fail. God’s good intentions and His arrangements are found in all things you experience and in all disasters you encounter. You ought to have a heart that is obedient to God and seek to understand His will. Before fully understanding the situation, you should restrain from devising responses or arguments so that you don’t offend God. Without the truth, people often see and judge things according to their notions and imaginations. As a result, they are most likely to say and do ridiculous things. Wouldn’t you say that these three rules are rather crucial? Have you memorized them already? The first rule, you must be certain that no matter what things befall, God’s good intentions and arrangements are found in them, and you ought to seek God’s will by submitting to God. Do not argue or pass judgment. Do not say anything rash when you have not figured out things. Second, seek the truth in prayer at once. Try to find the path of practice and know how to respond is a witness. Third, regardless of how great, painful, or devastating your sufferings may be, pray to Him earnestly, praise God and sing hymns of praise more often. In this way, you will have faith and find relief in your sufferings, and you will not complain. Sometimes people have some knowledge of the truth, but they will complain when they find their sufferings overwhelming. They will complain once they find their sufferings physically painful and unbearable. There are such states in life, aren’t there? Therefore, when you find sufferings too devastating, praise God and pray to Him more often. Sing hymns of praise more often. In fact, the first three days of the sufferings are the most intense. However, they will become less intense as you sing hymns of praise and maintain fellowship with brothers and sisters during these three days. These three rules are quite crucial, aren’t they? So you can see that bearing witness is no easy task! In general, the first three to seven days of sufferings are the most intense. They are the most intense for no more than three days for small trials, and for no more than seven days for larger ones. If you manage to endure these few days, then there shouldn’t be any big problems. Notice what a great trial Job experienced. He lost all his property—the property he spent his entire life getting—was destroyed in one day. All gone in one day. He also became ill and had boils covering his entire body. The pain was tremendous. After losing all his property, having boils covering his entire body was like pouring oil on the fire. Wouldn’t it be true? Who could bear such pain? But Job, a man of real stature found it easy and effortless to bear witness. Under extremely painful conditions, he would rather curse himself than grumble. How real his fear for God was! Job was indeed a man who feared God, for he would rather curse himself than complain to God when going through devastating sufferings. Therefore, Job’s fear for God was indeed genuine. God calls Job a perfect man because he fears God and shuns evil. These words have been proven to be true. God knows all people’s hearts, and this is nothing but the truth. …
… What’s the first thing to do when a trial comes? First, you must understand it pertains to God’s plan and is permitted by God, which you must submit to and accept with a heart of obedience. Second, you must pray to God at once to figure out His will. You must equip yourself with the truth to understand God’s will. You must know what to do to satisfy God and remain standing and bear testimony. Third, you must pray to God and praise Him earnestly regardless of how devastating the sufferings may be. Do not complain or pass judgement on God. No matter how devastating your sufferings may be during the trials, never leave God. If you seek man’s consolation and rely on them to solve your problems rather than praying to God and relying on God as you go through great sufferings, you would be betraying God. Straying from God means betraying God. Wouldn’t you be betraying God if you pay no attention to Him? It is like a relationship between two friends. One stops associating with the other due to an offense, and then stops calling and contacting the other. Wouldn’t this be a betrayal of their friendship? Straying from God means betraying God. When you cease to communicate with God and pray to Him, and live among the unbelievers, without God in your heart, it means you have betrayed God. It is never an easy task to pray and seek the truth during trials. After figuring out what the trial is about, you will say a complete prayer, a prayer of victory and of obedience to God. You will succeed bearing witness. Now let’s look at Job. He succeeded bearing witness by saying a few words in his final prayer. These few words effectively addressed problems of man’s mortal spot and the most perplexing issue for man. By seeking the truth he was able to figure things out. And through prayer he offered a satisfactory answer to this question, the puzzling case, and brought it to closure. So this kind of prayer is a mark of standing witness, a witness to Job’s victory. It shows Job’s faith and his fear for God. True witness entails that one seeks the truth in prayer during trials, and then completely figures things out as well as comprehends the truth before finally presenting true thankfulness and praise to God. Such true thankfulness and praise concern mainly the heart of the matter. As people express their own views and standpoints, the case that puzzles them is resolved and witness comes about. Have you noticed what Job’s family and some outsiders said when Job was facing trials? They all involved these questions, “Isn’t God the One who gives? Isn’t He also the One who takes things away? Shouldn’t God’s name be glorified?” Didn’t they all involve these questions? At last Job figured these things out, and said a true prayer as well as offered true praise. As a result, this puzzling case was resolved. Therefore, the final prayer is the most critical, where you figure out the crux of the matter you encounter, and present to God praise and thankfulness by your true understanding which fully conforms to the truth, and bear witness. This means you succeed bearing a witness. In an earlier example, I mentioned how a sister experienced when her husband died. Do you know how to pray when you experience such matters? If one day your house and property are completely destroyed or taken away from you, how will you seek to grasp God’s will? How will you pray? Do you know? First, what should you do? You should accept the reality with an obedient heart, and see that it is God’s plan, and it entails God’s good intentions. Second, pray at once in order to figure out God’s will, and seek the truth to find the solution to your perplexity. Third, bear a true witness. Praise God and give thanks to Him in prayers, in which you convey your knowledge and attitude. That way, you succeed bearing a witness and your trial is over and done with. Therefore, when facing trials, we must find solutions to the greatest perplexity within us. Until then the trials will be concluded, and this experience will come to an end. If you fail to find solutions to the greatest perplexity and you do not seek the truth, you will question God, complain, and pass judgement by your notions and thinking. As you fail to apply the truth to find solutions to the problems, you will stray away from God with resentment in your heart. If from start to finish you go through a trial with complaint and resentment, and you never attain victory and never apply the truth to solve this problem, doesn’t this signify that you fail during this trial? At a later date when you recall how you went through this trial, you might say, “I never figured out that trial till the end, nor did I figure out why God had planned it that way. I had no idea what was best to do. I just let it go without paying much attention.” This is an example of failure. You failed to obtain the truth. You went through the trial with resentment, so you gained nothing and ended up empty handed. This is how people without the truth go through trials. When facing trials, they complain to God with doubts, accusations, and resentments. After the complaint, they still do not seek the truth. Their resentments eventually may diminish after a period of time, but their doubts and problems within remain unsolved. So, when the next trial comes along, their resentments reappear. They continue to complain, blame, and pass judgement on God, and do not seek the truth. Do such people bear witness? No, they don’t. Besides, this also illustrates a point, that is, he never seeks the truth or tries to understand God’s will during the two trials. Would you consider him to be a person who pursues the truth? No, he is not a person who pursues the truth. Therefore, after putting them through such trials two or three times, God will say, “This person does not pursue the truth. There is no point to bother him with more trials. He is not someone who pursues the truth. I cannot perfect or cleanse him. He continues to hold on to his complaints, accusations, and notions as the truth, and as a result, he continues to resist, grumble, and complain to God. There are no words of real thankfulness or praise from him. Would he ever become obedient? Not at all. He has no real faith at all, not to mention any fear for God. Isn’t he an evil person?” And thus this person is eliminated. Eventually, God will not pay attention to such people, and no longer subject them to trials since it serves no purpose. Such people are doomed to be disposed of and eliminated along with non-believers when disasters arrive.
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