By Xiaocao
That year, Sister Zhang was in her 80s, and due to being illiterate, she could only listen to songs praising God and the Lord’s words on CDs. However, because of her age, plus the fact that she had once caught an ear disease, her hearing was nowhere near as good as it had been, and so she had to turn the volume of the CDs up high to hear clearly. But she couldn’t do that at home because her son and daughter-in-law both opposed her belief in the Lord, so all she could do was go to other sisters’ houses to listen. Her son and daughter-in-law, however, didn’t allow her to do so any more after they found that, but had her stay home to look after her grandson. As a result, there came a time when Sister Zhang failed to go to other sisters’ homes to listen to songs praising God and God’s words, nor could she even go out to gatherings. But that day, she actually came to a meeting. Let’s hear how she relied on God to make it.
Sister Zhang fellowshiped in the meeting, “My son and daughter-in-law had been letting me look after my grandson to stop me from going out to have gatherings, plus I couldn’t listen to the Lord’s words, so I felt empty inside. I could only pray to the Lord every day and ask Him to provide me with a way out. Afterward, my ear disease flared up again. At first, I paid no attention to that and didn’t go to the hospital. Later, when I found my condition became serious, I went to get some medicine. However, the illness didn’t improve but got worse—my ear began to discharge. I was unable to grasp the Lord’s will at the beginning; I just prayed that I must have faith in the Lord no matter what the outcome of my condition. But as time wore on, I got weak and didn’t know what to do for the best. At the same time as praying to the Lord, I tried to communicate with my son and daughter-in-law about my going out to have gatherings, yet they wouldn’t let me go out and even asked my grandson to watch me, telling him to report to them as long as I went out. Failing to have gatherings had upset me greatly, and coupled with the illness, I was disturbed so much that I felt incredibly pent-up. Therefore, I told the Lord of my suffering once again and asked Him to guide me to understand His will.”
Hearing this, a sister asked, “What happened then?”
Sister Zhang said, “One day, my grandson saw my ear discharging and then hastened to his mother and said, ‘Oh! My grandma’s ear is discharging. …’ When my daughter-in-law asked me what was wrong with my ear, I said there was no serious problems and just my old illness returned. Hearing that, with a look of dislike, she said that she would tell my son to take me to the hospital the next day. But my son didn’t come, and moreover, my grandson wasn’t brought over the following day. Only at that time did I know that seeing my condition, my daughter-in-law disliked me and so didn’t want me to look after her son. I thanked the Lord from the bottom of my heart for His wonderful deeds. I knew it was the Lord opening up a way for me; I could go out to have meetings. More marvelously, in the evening my ear recovered on its own, and there was nothing wrong with it for the next several days and my hearing wasn’t affected. Through this experience, I saw that everything is dominated in God’s hands, and that God had put people, events and things around me into play to give me a way out. Thank the Lord!”
A sister said, “Your experience reminds me of the words in the Bible: ‘[A]ll things work together for good to them that love God’ (Romans 8:28). It appears that even the ear disease was rendering service to you. After finishing doing service, your illness recovered.”
Hearing that, the rest of us all nodded.
