Sister S is often optimistic and positive in how she views life. She is also a patient with depression that I have been accompanying and working with. Today I would like to share with you how she was saved by God.
"You spend your life getting rid of what others want you to be to become who you really are." Sister S sent this text to the circle of her friends.
"God fully accepts and loves us as we are, and you only have to be true to yourself," I responded.
She quickly replied with a happy expression. Through the flowing of God’s beautiful love we are able to communicate joyously with each other. Thinking back to Sister S, who suffered from depression and six years ago was quite desperate, and then to see how God has brought healing into her life during these years, I am deeply moved and amazed by the wonders that God does!
Soap operas on TV often depict stereotypical stories of love and betrayal. This is what happened to sister S six years ago. The first time I heard her name was on Christmas Day six years ago. I was on a business trip and got a call from a pastor at 1:30 in the middle of the night, saying that two young sisters in his church attempted to commit suicide because of broken hearts. One broke up with her first boyfriend of many years and attempted suicide, the other was Sister S, who suffered the betrayal of her fiancé. He fell in love with her best friend and broke off the engagement. Sister S could not bear the blow and also attempted to take her life.
In the months that followed, Sister S suffered from depression. She attempted suicide several times, was taken to hospital and needed to stop working. Her mother often accompanied her to church meetings, and that’s where I approached them, thinking that as a shepherd I could help them.
I also suffered from depression but was healed by God. I often share my experience of being healed at weekend church healing and prayer meetings in the hope of inspiring many members who suffer from the same condition. They also came to me and listened to my experience about how I was saved by God.
Sister S's mother also asked me for some advice, and I did my best to help her by praying, working with God and accompanying the pastor and her mother. I told sister S and her mother to stick to Bible study, fellowship in the church and take the proper medication.
As a result, Sister S and her mother continued to attend healing and prayer meetings, group meetings, Bible studies, and receive pastoral counseling, in addition to medical treatment at the hospital. Soon, Sister S began to believe in God, and from then on, they never stopped in their efforts to get close to God. They were gradually healed in the love of the Father and grew up in the fellowship life of the church.
The first thing I did was to establish a relationship with her mother and her through home visits. I gradually came to know the situation of her family: her mother divorced when she was young, and the pressure of raising her daughter as a single parent was very great. Her mother had high expectations for her and tried her best to educate her. Sister S was very diligent and hardworking. She excelled in her studies. After studying overseas she returned to China and fell in love with her boyfriend. She was ready to get married, but suddenly there was the breakup with her fiancé. Sister S could not accept this fact. We observed that the daughter did not have the love of a father in her life. Because of not having a father figure she developed an image of a fantasy father. She believed that she needed to be self-reliant and at the same time protect her mother. She has always lived up to her mother's expectations. Some tough women are especially precocious and independent. From childhood to adulthood, Sister S has seen her father just several times. She grew up without the support of his love. Her mother has been influenced more by worldly culture, especially believing in the success and importance of science. We observed that Sister S showed excessive strength and hard work that was not typical for a girl of her age.
After attending many church healing services, she came to know that God's love is unconditional and saw God's glory in accepting and loving from the time we are conceived. In Psalm 139:13-18 you can see God loves us so much:
“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”
It is this fully accepted love that enabled Sister S to establish an intimate relationship with God and it was also an important turning point in her recovery from illness. Sisters are satisfied with the love of God since she hasn’t enjoyed the love of an earthly father. Sister S finally feels loved, secure and safe. She began to value her relationship with the Lord. This softened Sister S’s; she no longer had to pretend to be mature and strong. She doesn’t need to always protect her mom, and doesn't have to prove herself by being successful in the field of science. She can be her real self. She admitted her limitations. She admitted that she had a weak heart and that she was hurt because of her love for wrong people. She cried numerous times, and prayed for the love of God. She admits that she needed the support of God, and to learn to entrust burdens to God. She was freed from the clutches of Satan. Freed and relieved.
God also released her from the bitterness of her fiance's betrayal. When Jesus was crucified, he asked God to forgive those who had beaten, humiliated and spat at him. How could she have been hurt more than Jesus? After a long time of healing, the sister chose to forgive the man who had hurt her and make peace with God and man.
In this way, God began to heal her, healing her from the inside out, repairing her image of beauty that was created in the first place, and gradually healing her. I see more and more of her positive sharing on WeChat. She shares photos of her working out, photos after her return to work, and words of optimism. When we meet, I always see her beautiful smiling face.
I do not know how many more people are experiencing spiritual difficulties, like bruised reeds or smoldering lamps, bound by sin, crushed by circumstances, pierced by passion, bent by burdens, or crushed by disease. They are so discouraged that they cannot raise their heads.
The proof that Sister S was saved by God was that she had established a loving relationship with God, and that her inner faith in Jesus saved her. He will not put out any smoldering lamp.
-Translated by Nicolas Cao
