While you may be committed to serving God, are you surrendered to how He plans to use you?

Amy Peterson was serving as a schoolteacher in a country that was closed to Christian influence. After being banished from the country, she found herself in a place that felt less useful to God in.

“I was asking God a lot of questions like, I was useful there and you ripped that useful position away from me. So what does that mean for my role in the Kingdom now?”

While pondering this, she was convicted the words of a fellow missionary, Helen Roseveare.

“Are you willing to be useless for God if that’s what God asked you to do. Would you be willing to be the arrow in the quiver instead of the arrow that was in the bow?”

Amy realized that while she went into her work as a missionary fully committed to whatever God had it store for her, God wasn’t only looking for her commitment.

“I realized that that had always been about me. God hadn’t actually asked me to be committed as much as He was asking me to be surrendered. If you’re surrendered, that means that you’re also willing to be quiet if that’s what God has for you, you’re willing to be hidden away in the quiver.”

Wrestling with the meaning of life and work is a natural part of being a human being. However, Amy says we would do well to let God decide what is meaningful in life.

This doesn’t feel as meaningful as being in south east Asia. There are churches on every corner here, what am I doing? God helped me see that while I’m here on earth I don’t have a good way of knowing what is a big thing for the Kingdom and what is a small thing for the Kingdom.”

God never asks us to do big things, He just asks us to surrender to Him.

“God doesn’t ask us to determine what the big thing is that He wants us to do and do it. He wants us to be faithful where we are.”

This takes the pressure off of us because we don’t have to try to do big things for God, all we have to do is surrender to Him.


Amy Peterson is an English as a Second Language instructor and assistant director of honors programming at Taylor University as well as the author of Dangerous Territory: My Misguided Quest to Save the World.

Key Scripture: Luke 12

Featured Songs: Magnify – We Are Messengers; Let Them See You – JJ Weeks Band; King of the World – Natalie Grant

Committed to God versus surrendered to God