The article tells the stories of two devout female believers: one, an illiterate woman who became a Christian and learned to read the Bible, and the other, a Christian woman who encountered divine "pursuit" on three occasions.
A pastor recounted this testimony. About a decade ago, when he was in his twenties, serving as a clergyman, he had an experience. After a gathering, he accompanied a Christian woman in her seventies back home. She walked briskly, outpacing him. Her house was on the sixth floor of a building without an elevator, which left the pastor gasping for breath by the time they arrived. During their conversation, he discovered that the elderly woman had suffered from asthma and knee pain for years. Descending the stairs posed a challenge, often taking over thirty minutes to reach the ground floor. Sometimes, she chose to remain home rather than go downstairs.
A relative of hers, who was a Christian, learned about her condition and encouraged her, saying, "Put your faith in the Lord; He can protect and heal you." She was hesitant but agreed to attend church and give it a chance.
She was illiterate with a very limited vocabulary, and reading the Bible posed a challenge for her. Nonetheless, she took her Bible to gatherings. She gradually learned to follow along with the readings, eventually becoming able to read independently, but she could not read anything besides the Bible. Yes, she persisted in reading the Bible, attending worship services, and eventually becoming a Christian.
After she became a Christian, she was healed of asthma and knee pain. Initially, descending the stairs was difficult for her, but she would silently pray or repeat "Emmanuel" repeatedly. Over time, her descent time reduced from over thirty minutes to just ten minutes, until it became effortless. The knee pain and asthma eased, and she went from taking the bus to walking to church.
Another woman, formerly a staunch atheist and proud university teacher, encountered the gospel through a pastor but initially rejected it. Undeterred, the pastor persistently invited her to have conversations. On the third occasion, she did not vehemently refuse him. The pastor suggested that she could say a prayer of commitment without immediately becoming a Christian.
She prayed the commitment prayer like the pastor said but still hesitated to believe, claiming the prayer was ineffective. The pastor explained to her that committing through prayer was like entering into a "covenant" with God, and if she did not uphold this covenant, God would "chase" after her relentlessly.
The next day, God began to "examine" her “covenant fulfillment” and "pursue" her three times. That day, one of her close friends came to her, mentioning that a relative of hers was a Christian who constantly invited her to church, and she wanted this woman to accompany her. The teacher thought to herself, "I prayed yesterday, and today God arranged for someone to invite me to church!" Reluctantly, she went to church on Sunday morning.
In the afternoon, a foreign teacher from her school approached her, asking for help with learning Chinese. When the teacher handed her a Chinese book, she was astonished to find it was a Chinese version of the Bible!
Later, she took the Bible home, thinking, "The Bible is also a world classic; I might as well take a look." She randomly flipped to Jeremiah 11:1-4, where it read, "Thus says the Lord: 'Cursed is the one who does not obey the terms of this covenant.'"
After realizing God’s "pursuit" of her within just a day, she hurriedly informed the pastor of the day's events, confirming her realization that God had chosen her and expressing her newfound desire to believe in Him.
(The article was originally published by the Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Nonye Nancy
