Surrender is freeing; it allows us to call on the Lord and believe that he is our God. 

It’s hard to fully understand God’s calling on our lives, especially when the direction we feel led doesn’t line up with our own agendas. Our inherently sinful nature constantly tells us that our ways are better than anyone else’s, even God’s. When I was in high school, I had zero intention of coming to Bible college because it didn’t line up with the trajectory that I had in mind for my own life. I had been presented with opportunity after opportunity to apply and come to the Bible college, but I ignored them out of selfish ambition. Over the course of about two years, door after door was closed for me to pursue my own path, and I started to get really frustrated with everything. I began taking matters into my own hands and falling down a path that wasn’t healthy for my relationship with God. 

All through this time I felt such a strong pull on my heart but didn’t know what to make of it. I kept pursuing worldly desires in hopes of filling a void that I didn’t know how to fill because I wasn’t listening to God. Time and time again, I found myself stuck in this repetitive cycle of trying to achieve worldly happiness and satisfaction. I was blatantly ignoring the pull that deep down I knew was God. But because I thought my plan was better, I didn’t listen and kept on keeping on. It took God literally stopping me in my tracks one October day for me to truly realize how lost and in need of help I was; I couldn’t do it on my own. I started to not only realize but also believe that the pull I was feeling was God’s presence redirecting me and my life down a better path. My dad, an alumnus of the Bible college, along with many family members, had been encouraging me to go to Bible college for so long. I finally gave in; I finally surrendered to the pull on my heart, God’s call for my life. I truly believe God was also working through their lives to get me to Bible college.  

This was a crucial “fire” and “refinement” moment in my life as the prophet Zechariah records in 13:9. The fire is the hardships we endure, and the refinement is how we are made to better serve the kingdom of God. Understanding God’s call on our lives isn’t always easy, and we don’t always get it, but the great thing is that we don’t need to understand; we just need to trust God and surrender to him. God’s plan is so much better than our own or anything that we can even fathom.  

Trusting his call on my life led me into a deeper relationship with him. It also led me to a community that pushes me to be better and encourages me in my walk with God. Surrender to God’s plan is freeing. It’s what allows us to call upon the Lord, to claim and believe that “the Lord is our God” as stated at the end of verse 9. What a gift it is to know and be known by the Lord. 

Madison Mundfrom [FLBC second-year] is from Greeley, Colo.