Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

by Jennie Allen

Great people don’t do great things; God does great things through surrendered people.

The only exercise that works 100 percent of the time to draw one close to the real God is risk.”

I started craving . . . a reckless faith, a faith where I knew God was real because I needed him, a faith where I lived surrendered, obedient, a faith where I sacrificed something . . . comfort or safety or practicality . . . something.

“To risk is to willingly place your life in the hand of an unseen God and an unknown future, then to watch him

come through. He starts to get real when you live like that.”

Stepping out wholly dependent on God to come through, stepping away from what is secure and comfortable exposes the holes in

our faith. And then if God comes through, it expands our faith. Something about stepping off cliffs where God leads allows God the opportunity to move in greater ways. When we step off and he shows up, we see him differently than we would if we were standing safely looking over the edge.

I believed he was big enough to save me forever, but now I would have to grow to believe he was big enough to weave in and out of my every day, leading me, changing me.

Yet when I read the words of Christ, I felt this call. A call to fall on my face.

When I read the words of Christ, I felt this call. A call to fall on my face.

It physically hurts to see our pride, to see our sin, to quit playing good, to feel broken and to need God. And it hur...

What if the thing we are trying to impress him with was the very thing keeping us from him?

There is something so beautiful about people aware of their sin and their need for God.

“Will you hold my hand just because I love you, just because I am your mom?”

God is home to us. He is where we were made to be. He is what we were made for. We just forget all that

while we are trying to be good and...

I had to redefine my hand for him. What seemed to be a hand that signaled discipline and failure was about something different; it was about a relationship. I wanted him to love me and need me just because he was eight and I was his mo...

God is reaching out to us, wanting us to see we need him. But since he is God, we think he wants some song and dance from us—in other words, behavior modification. He ac...

God is home to us. He is where we were made to be. He is what we were made for. We just forget all that while we are trying to be good and independent.

Pretending to be good halts God’s movement in our life.

I rethought the things I valued in people and the types of people I valued,

Anyone can get to heaven—no matter how messy his or her life. And by the same token, anyone can be kept out—regardless of all his or her fancy goodness.

It is the work of Christ that saves any of us. Our behavior here is really all the same—we all screw it up pretty bad without God. Some of us are just better at covering our sin up.

Did he know Jesus?”

I am crazy screwed up. And my only hope is my Jesus.

The places that hold grace should be the safest places to unveil our humanity.

I go to him broken,

and he takes my hand and helps me up and says to me

“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no ...

And with that taste of freedom, with that taste of forgiveness, I want to run from my sin and toward a God who loves me.

“God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.”

This is the gospel: [We] all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). And then God did what the law, could not do. He sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3,

Love is jealous . . . especially God’s love. He wants me, and I want everybody else.

He chases me down and lures me back to him; while I am running to everyone else, he runs after me.

I did wonder sometimes, when I closed my eyes and let it get scary quiet, if I was missing the best things, the things that matter most, because I was afraid.

But was that the way God planned for lives to be lived—people selling out to him in college or at some point later, only to fondly look back on the glory days while they get on with their expected and ordinary lives?

Little deaths always feel like big deaths until you let go. After you let go you wonder, what was the big deal?

I don’t know what God’s plans are for you, but I do know that we don’t hear from him until certain things die. He doesn’t compete. And when he does speak, it typically costs something.

But I’ll tell you who we mess with when we live radically: It’s not the pagans; it’s the Christians. When we actually believe in heaven and hell and angels and a radical God, and we act like it . . . it’s other Christians who stare shocked and start questioning our sanity.

He wants to press us through our doubts so we can see the other eternal story going on, of which we are actually a crucial part.

If she would just lift her head a little and look up and out, her problems would get smaller and forever with me would get bigger.

They are displaying the gospel, and there is nothing normal about their lives.

all I want is to have nothing normal about our lives.

She traded entitlement for surrender, and God to...

The very thought of doing anything demands everything.

Stories like this expose our deepest fears. What are you most afraid of? What would be the very worst thing that God may allow you to suffer? We all would say his character is loving and good, but do we really trust that he won’t get crazy and dish out the same life he gave Job?

All of this lay ahead of her that day the angel came, and the first words out of her mouth were, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Let it be as you say. God, I want to live that way.

I believe that being willing to abandon everything requires being willing to go anywhere—and willing to let go of everything.

a·ban·don v. — 1. to leave completely and finally; forsake utterly. 2. to give up the control of. 3. to yield (oneself) without restraint or moderation. 4. to surrender one’s claim to, right to, or interest in. 5. to give up entirely.

God is an anchor in the midst of the difficult chaos of this world.