A call to surrender and bear fruit

Geetha Balasubramaniam

When the year 2020 began, beyond all the hype of a new decade being born, I started sensing the urge to pursue God and His ways more intently than I have been. Having been born in a non-Christian family and having become a follower of Christ in my teen years, my walk with God over a period of 23 years has been marked with ups and downs. Although God’s faithfulness has been a predominant theme for me all these years, the absolute necessity for total surrender to God’s will and ways was still an element that I had not yet learned to pursue.

The work of God in my heart created a new desire to read and enjoy His word more early on during this year. I have a regular corporate job and was inspired to take up a vocation that was more aligned to sharing the kingdom of God. I knocked on different doors for quite a while and all of them were closed. I kept pursuing praying all along that God would open a door. Then the pandemic stopped the entire world on its tracks and it felt like an indefinite pause to me with no end in sight.

Through a broken heart and teary but sometimes frustrated prayers, I sought God. He began teaching me precious truths from His word. I understood the effectiveness of the abiding in the vine to be able to bear fruit for Him. It is the sap in the vine that nourishes the branch to bear fruit and God has designed our work in the world this way. “Apart from me you can do nothing.”

God also took to teaching me the truth about denying ourselves, our plans, our desires, our vision and surrendering to His good pleasing and perfect will without any reservation. This was no doubt a very difficult process and one that I still am having to work on consciously every day. The transition from milk to solid foods is painful.

I am still waiting on God’s plans to unfold in my life, but I am now equipped with His truths to continue the journey. I am thankful to the ministry of our church that has helped me stay the course through it all. I am part of Young Adults Fellowship and we have been studying the book of Exodus since late last year and what a journey this has been! Each of us in the fellowship takes turns to lead a chapter and God impressed and confirmed the truths I had been learning in many of these sessions, both as a listener and when I had the opportunity to lead a study.

Even as much of the movements has ceased around us, a follower of Christ is called to run the race and God Himself will be our reward. “….let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…..”