Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

by Jennie Allen

“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”4

“You have to thank God for the seemingly good and the seemingly bad because really, you don’t know the difference.”

if you love anything more than God, even though you believe in God, if there is anything in your life that is more important to your own identity or significance than God, then that is a false god and it is a power in your life.5 And you can usually tell that something here has become an idol because you have an extreme reaction when it is threatened.

So we live more afraid of losing what we love here than of facing God in eternity, even when it all is striving after the wind, to paraphrase Solomon (Eccl. 1:14).

I did my best to make God big as I taught his Word, to give them hope because of Jesus and his plan for making it all right, to remind them that in a minute we would all be in heaven.

And God is saying, Look up. This is going fast. Your life here is barely a breath. There is more, way more. Time is almost gone. Our lives are only spent well on him and whatever stories he has written for us. What are we really so afraid of losing?

away for the few years I am here. And then I saw God—the real God—and I saw the moment I would meet him. He was on his throne with eyes fixed on me, questioning why I had sought my comfort more than him. Why had I loved people more than him? Why had I sat on every gift he had given me to make him known? Because I cared more about being judged by everyone else but him?

“From this point on things are changing. I am living for the moment when I will face you. I want to get to heaven out of breath, having willingly done anything that you—God of the universe—ask . . . anything.”

Until there is total surrender, there is no vision.

But if Christ has been raised from the dead, risk it all.

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chron. 16:9).

“The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”5

If God is really real and we are going to live with him forever, shouldn’t he be the only thing?

Katie Davis to authors like Francis Chan and David Platt, all waving their arms. More and more people are waking up. It is spreading.

“David Platt...Francis Chan are just going to cry. David will tell you to go on Mission. Francis will tell you to love Jesus...” -Chris... But, these things are exactly the things that mark a person sold out for Jesus. This is part of what we should strive for. To be so passionate that it moves us to tears.

But he wants us, like children, to keep an unreserved faith in him, simply because he is God.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”7

Anything is not foolish if you believe in heaven. What else can we do? If Christ is raised from the dead, we risk it all, losing what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose. That is not foolish. That is common sense.

“God, we will do anything. Anything.” Our lives now lay in the hands of a reckless, invisible God.

No more pro-and-con lists. No more scrapbooks of my future. No more seemingly logical decisions about what made sense for a family.

I was waiting, Jennie, calling you. I was waiting for you to see that while you wanted me all of these years, you had another master. Your heart was divided. You loved something else more, and I will not share my glory. I had to become your one thing . . . your only thing.

No matter the suffering she would have in this life, she was praising God for a chance to participate in eternity.

The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.10

Service is an expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of His nature.

God is most after his glory.

What if the true motive of my life and my heart were to make God known

If we pray anything, we will all, like Christ, be called to give up this life and things we love. We will be called to risk for his glory. Christ never intended those who walked with him to feel comfortable and safe. This was meant to be a risk-it-all pursuit. The glory of God will be made great on this earth, but what a privilege to be part of his plan to restore it.

who found her Africa at home

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20–21, emphasis added)5

“But how do we disobey God? We have to obey because he is God.

what if you had been too afraid to obey me? Look at what you would have missed.

When you are truly about the things of God, there is always attack.

Where is the attack in my life? Should that be a clue of how dangerous I am for the kingdom?

Forgiveness becomes easier when I realize people are not my enemies.

I’ve learned to quit wishing away the hard stuff, because I don’t want to miss all the good stuff that goes with it.

Joy comes from giving yourself entirely and unreservedly to God.

Do your everyday and your ordinary. Godliness is found and formed in those places.

trying to live a medium life: “BUT, I loved Jesus.”

Something about Jesus changes everything—shatters what we thought we were going to do with our lives.

We were made for God. To be filled with him, to live out our days for him, and to long for the day we will meet him.

He is a person you talk to and listen to and love and respect. He’s someone you decide to spend time with and dream with, whom you follow and learn from and hurt with, and to whom you ask things—someone you choose over anybody else, over anything else.

peace came in because I knew I was doing the things God put me here for just a little while to do. I was living the story that he had written for me—

She is just a normal girl filled with an extraordinary God who is using her for extraordinary purposes, all because she said yes.

This will all be worth it. Wait till they are with us and see our glory. Just wait till all of this work and suffering and pouring out is over and we are in heaven together forever. Just wait.

Anything begins with a relationship with the God of the universe through Christ.

Pressing down all we love more than him is next,

God wants to be invited in to lead our lives, for your heart to truly stand before God and say, “You have me. Do anything with me.”

Ask him to show you where he wants you to pour out your life and gifts and resources.

We know who God is because of his Word;

So you read and study and search and pray. Then you ask God to lead you.

Surround yourself with people on the same mission.

but find people to live on a mission with who will make you better, help you remember, and help you live your anythings. Intentionally pursue people who make you better.