Your Choice Facing Adversity

During last Sunday services, the life testimony and message from Pastor Barnabas and his sister Angela were deeply moving. There are many truths in their life stories and we are inspired on how to follow God and make the right choices amid adversity today.

Because of their parents, Barnabas and Angela have faced extreme hardship since young. Barnabas was put in a nursery where he was bullied and yet he still looked after his older but mentally challenged brother. He was groaning inwardly and very bitter with distorted thinking. Even after getting married, he considers himself as an orphan. Somehow, the rejection of an orphan spirit has lingered long and hard in him. When his father took him to Belgium where they ran a restaurant, he felt that his father was slave-driving him. He chose not to accept his father and then ran away from home and lived as an orphan since.

On the other hand, Angela was placed in different foster families when she was young, as a vagabond. But she chose to empathize with her parents who were facing difficulties. Knowing that her father had chosen to not remarry in order to raise four children, she willingly took care of her father and elder brother. She chose to submit to the environment, to forgive, to give thanks and to help others. Facing hardship, she has demonstrated great endurance. I am thankful for her life.

Being in similar difficult situations, Angela chose life and forgiveness, whereas Barnabas chose to be an orphan and firmly believed that he had been abandoned. Thank God that Barnabas has come to 611, a Tree of Life church, where his life has been transformed continuously. This was the first time that I heard him thanking his father publicly and I praise God for the changes in his life!

Our choices affect our whole life. Facing the global pandemic, social unrest and economic difficulties which put many companies to close and people out of job; all mankind is suffering! How should we face it and how to make choices? In the midst of adversity, we are not to grumble. Instead, we should choose to give thanks and to love, believing that our God still reigns, our life will be different and He will be with us.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Kingdom of God is unshakeable. During the turmoil, we should look to God and trust His provision. We commit our needs to God and pray for His peace to come, then miracles will happen! Every day I pray for our branch churches, co-workers and their families and their daily needs, proclaiming that the peace of Jerusalem will fall on everyone. When we follow God in faith, surely He will give us His revelations and lead us to experience His faithfulness and kindness.•[2020.08.16]