CHINA: The Grace of the Lord Is Like Running Water
Jesus said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14, NKJV). This is very true for me, as I have experienced the amazing grace of God like running water in my life.
I was working in a well-known architecture and design company located in South China.
My encounter with Jesus happened at a time when I was struggling with anxiety and depression because of an excessive workload. It was a miracle moment during my first time sitting in a church. When the pastor started reading Psalm 23, I instantly felt an overwhelming power run through me and my eyes were full of tears. At that point, my life began to change; reading the Word of God helped me quickly to recover from depression and to quit drinking and smoking. When I heard the plea to give offerings, deeply moved I brought to the church my first-time offering of CNY60,000 in three increments, which was about 30 percent of my total savings at that time. It was a natural response to my experiencing God’s love.
But soon after, I fell into a serious financial crisis. Because of my overconfidence, I left the architecture company to start my own business venture. But it didn’t work out as I expected, and as a result, I ran up a huge personal debt of more than CNY6 million, and the situation was worsening. Just at that time, the Adventist Church was in urgent need of funding to build a large sanitarium. With a commitment in my heart to put the church’s business first, and despite of my large debt situation, I decided to borrow CNY160,000 and put it into the sanitarium project. Soon another challenging moment came when the church made another appeal to raise CNY10 million to buy a new church building with 2,300 square meters of space. It seemed extremely difficult to our congregation with only 300 members to accomplish this, and how could I give when I was deep in debt? But I knew clearly that it was a good opportunity and that a new church building would advance the mission greatly because our church acts as the mother church in a province of more than 60 million people. I was serving as the church treasurer, so I strongly felt the responsibility to contribute. Also, what Jesus has done for us inspired me to follow Him and lead as an example to others. So when preaching a sermon, I made a commitment before the congregation to offer CNY400,000. Indeed, at that moment I had no idea where and how I could get this money, but I fully trusted that God would provide.
Then amazing things happened. The shareholder of the architecture company came to visit me several times and strongly urged me to come back. With a grateful heart, I returned to the company. I praised God for His beautiful plan and leading. Soon I also was promoted as an executive officer and board director, with a good salary. Eventually, I could contribute a lung sum of CNY1 million to the church building project, more than my initial promise of CNY400,000. By God’s grace, the church building has successfully been completed.
And in 2019, I paid off all my financial debts.
Along the way, though full of hardships, I experienced the promise of God ”My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9, NKJV) again and again. The grace of the Lord is like endless running water. All glory to the holy name of the Lord!
