As this year draws to a close, many people are looking back to see what they accomplished in the previous twelve months. They’re hoping to see that they fulfilled some purpose. There was a reason, a need, for them. They also are looking ahead to see if their life will have purpose and meaning in the next twelve months.

We all want our life to mean something, to count for something. Too often we fear it doesn’t. We fear we have real purpose in life, so we have to grab it by the horns with gusto and search out our purpose for breathing.

Could I tell you something?

Jesus. Always was. Always is. Always will be. We exist for His pleasure. He has a plan and a purpose for every person. No one is born apart from His plan.

Each one of us is born on purpose and with a purpose that God designed for us. He purposes our birth, our death, and all the tiny moments in-between. He did all of this planning and purposing before the foundation of the world. It is His life that wills and works in us to fulfill His plan.

It’s all about Him.

Through our surrendering to Him–His Life in us–He works His plan and purpose according to His will in us. He has made so we don’t have to find our purpose, our passion. We just need to surrender our lives to Jesus on the altar. He, then, works in and through us freely.

So all of our lives; every facet, every component, every minute detail, is sacred. Nothing is secular, everything is sacred because everything is about Jesus. There are no secular jobs for the indwelt believer.

Every thing becomes sacred in surrender to the Savior.

In our strength alone, everything we deem sacred becomes secular. When we muster our own strength and minister in that place of self, we say, in essence, “it’s okay, God, I’ve got this one”, our ministry has ceased to be ministry and has become simply our vocation and no longer sacred.

The difference is Jesus.
The difference is always Jesus.
The sacred becomes secular when Jesus is relegated to the periphery.
The secular becomes sacred with Jesus at the center of it all, doing it all.
The secular becomes sacred though surrender;
The sacred becomes secular through self.

You were born on purpose, with a purpose according to the plan of God. He knew exactly when you would be born, He knew your struggles, your strengths, your joys, your sorrows. He knew all of you intimately before the world was created.

If you are indwelt with the Life of Jesus, you don’t have to worry and fret, or work so hard to discover your passion, your purpose. You just have to surrender to His Life in you. He will accomplish His purpose through you and in you. He knows what His plan is and He knows what your year will bring. He knows the high points and He is intimately acquainted with each of the low points already. He is already there. His plan and His purpose for your life will be revealed as you surrender.

How Do You Surrender?

It seems so simple and easy to just say, “all you have to do is surrender”. It is almost like saying, “All you have to do it sacrifice your firstborn.” It often feels that wrong and scary too.

Surrender comes as we lean into, press into Jesus for deliverance from our strongholds and then we walk in the freedom He brings.

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:1

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

Matthew 10:38

Surrender means death. When the Germans surrendered at the end of World War 1 and 2, their surrender said they were dying to their plan, their desires. They were admitting their defeat and weakness in the face of the stronger opponent. They laid down their weapons, and agreed to the terms of peace.

That is what we do. We die to our own will, our own desires. We confess to Jesus that our strength is weakness apart from Him. We acknowledge we have believed and lived lies about ourselves and Him.

It is in that place of hardest surrender that He takes over and we are set free. Free to be the people He created us to be in Him. He brings the plan, the purpose, the passion; He changes our secular into our sacred.