The answer from God’s word:
“Some people say, ‘I have lived the church life for several years, and every time I am quite satisfied with it and enjoy it very much.’ When you ask them how they live the church life, they say, ‘When we get there, we pray to God. And while praying, we weep bitterly. The brothers and sisters all pray and we are all very willing to speak to God and pray and supplicate to God. Then we sing hymns and praise. When we sing hymns, we are so moved that our face is covered with tears! Sometimes when we are excited, we feel very hot and keep sweating, so much so that we can wring plenty of water out of our towel. The brothers and sisters then dance, some singing and others dancing. The church life is so pleasant. After that we eat and drink God’s word. When we eat and drink God’s word, we feel that God’s word touches the bottom of our heart. And when we fellowship, we feel we all have strength.’ After people have lived the church life this way for more than a decade, what is the end? No one pays attention to being an honest person, no one dissects himself, no one shares his real states with the brothers and sisters, and no one shares his real substance with the brothers and sisters and lays it bare to them. The church life of more than a decade has been wasted like this, passed in their dancing and leaping and in their feeling and enjoyment. Where do you think that enjoyment and happiness comes from? I dare say it is not what God wants and not what God is satisfied with, because God wants to see the transformation in man and see that man has lived out the reality of God’s word. God wants to see this, and He does not want to see that when you have meetings or your zeal is stirred up, you hold the hymn book and sing hymns, or praise God and dance there. This is not what God wants to see; on the contrary, God is sorrowful and grieved to see this. This is because although God has spoken thousands upon thousands of words, God’s words have not been truly realized in or lived out by anyone, and God feels very sorrowful and anxious. This is what God worries about. Often, when we have somewhat of the church life, we feel contented; when we have somewhat of a happiness, somewhat of a peace, and somewhat of a joy, and when we have a little delight and comfort in the heart or feel kind of rich in the spirit at the time of praising God, we think that we have done very well in believing in God. We always keep these false appearances and think that these are what we ought to gain first and chiefly and are what we have gained in believing in God and substitute them for the transformation of our disposition and for the way to enter into salvation, so we do not pursue, and do not pursue to be an honest person, to lay bare ourselves, or to practice God’s words. Therefore, God is very worried.”
from “To Be Honest, You Should Lay Yourself Open to Others” in Records of Christ’s Talks With Leaders and Workers of the Church
