Books of The Church of Almighty God-Chapter 9. Seeking God’s Will and Putting Truth Into Practice to the Greatest Extent Possible
As soon as people become hasty while fulfilling their duties, they don’t know how to experience it; as soon as they are busy with matters, their spiritual states become troubled; they are unable to maintain a normal situation. How can this be so? If you are asked to do a little work, you become unconventional, unrestricted, do not draw close to God and become distanced from God. This proves that people do not know how to experience. No matter what you do, you should first understand why you are actually doing this and what the nature of the matter is. If it is categorized as fulfilling your duty, then you should ponder: How should I do this? How should I fulfill my duty well so that I am not doing it perfunctorily? This is a matter in which you should draw close to God. Drawing close to God is seeking the truth in this matter, it is seeking the way to practice, it is seeking the will of God, and it is seeking how to satisfy God. These are the methods for drawing close to God while doing things; it is not performing a religious ceremony or an outward action; it is done for the purpose of practicing in accordance with the truth after seeking God’s will. If you always say “Thank God, thank God” when you are not doing anything, but when you are doing something, you still do it according to your own will, this type of thanks is an outward action. When fulfilling your duty or working on something, you should always think: How should I fulfill this duty? What is God’s intention? Through matters, you draw close to God, and through drawing close to God, you seek the principles and truths to do things, you seek God’s will from within and do not leave God in all that you do. This is a person who truly believes in God. Now when some matter comes upon people, regardless of what the actual situation is, they think that they can do this and that, but God is not in their hearts, and they do it according to their own intentions. Regardless of whether the course of action is suitable or not, or whether it is in accordance with truth or not, they only stiffen their necks and act according to their personal intentions. It usually seems that God is in their hearts, but when they do things, God is not in their hearts. Some people say: “I can’t grow close to God in the things I do; in the past I was accustomed to performing religious ceremonies, and I tried drawing close to God, but it was to no effect; I couldn’t draw near to Him.” This kind of person does not have God in his heart, he only has himself in his heart and he simply cannot put truth into practice in the things he does. Not doing things in accordance with truth is doing things according to your own will, and doing things based on your own will is leaving God; that is, God is not in your heart. Human ideas usually look good and right to people and they look like they do not violate truth that much. People feel that doing it this way is putting truth into practice, they feel that doing it this way is submitting to God. Actually, people are not really seeking God and praying to God about this. They are not striving to do it well to satisfy God’s will, nor striving to do it well according to His requirements. They do not have this true situation, and they don’t have such desire. This is the greatest error people make in their practice, because you believe in God, but God is not in your heart. How is this not a sin? How is this not deceiving yourself? What effect will believing this way have? Where is the practical significance in believing in God?
