Anything Quotes

“You have to thank God for the seemingly good and the seemingly bad because really, you don't know the difference [until we get to heaven].”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“From His eternal perspective, it's tolerable to allow our temporary dreams to fall apart.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“I am a human, and we humans arrive with "screwed up" on our foreheads. We come that way, but somewhere between toddlerhood and being a grown-up we learn to wipe off our forehead signs. Sit up straight. To be good. But before God I am no different from these men. My forehead is clean my soul certainly is not. That day on an old, beat-up sofa with some old, beat up guys, I rethought the things of value to people and the types of people I've valued, and I realized that God shown more through those accused and hurting men then than in me.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Every sin, at its root, is based in something we do not fully believe about God.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Unless there is some craving for God and some distaste for sin in us, we should question if we are believers.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Great people don’t do great things; God does great things through surrendered people.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“And when everything in life is working . . . plastic gods feel like enough.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Weight causes things on earth to fall--to remain grounded. What if the weight of sin holds the same purpose as physical weight? When I curl up on my sofa with God and his Word, that feeling that makes me want to bold should be the feeling that keeps me there with him. It's the weight of my sin pushing me down from the high and lofty places where my pride would rather keep me.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“It is too easy in this country for blessings to become rights, for stuff and money to become what calls the shots in our lives. And before we know it, God’s gifts have replaced God himself.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“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.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Plastic gods are safe. Plastic gods don’t mess with you.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Sometimes we bolt because we hate to repent. It feels like death to confess. But when God calls us to something that feels backward, it is usually his path to our freedom. The path out of shame is to see our sin and turn from it toward our God.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“We don’t want to fall. We like to see great testimonies of God’s grace, but we don’t want to be the testimony.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Pretending to be good halts God’s movement in our life.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“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.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“He began by listing all the ways we grow or know God: prayer, studying Scripture, church, worship, experiences, suffering, confession, community, and on and on. Then he said, “But obviously each of these is unpredictable . . . many people who study the Bible never find God. Many people who go to church never really know him. The only exercise that works 100 percent of the time to draw one close to the real God is risk.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Yet God clearly says first and foremost, “Have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). Nothing here shall compare to me in your heart. Everything should so pale in comparison to me that it is as if you hated it. With our minutes and days and decades, we build houses and savings accounts and busy calendars full of activity. And in some deeper way, we build our reputations and friendships and invest in our kids and careers. We are looking for this life to matter. No, we are actually looking for ourselves to matter. So we keep so busy, so distracted, so in love with everything but our invisible, patient, jealous God. Christ said, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). This covers literally everything.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“We need different eyes, a different mind. One that lifts us above the seen and our short time here, above the fears that invade our lives, above the snapshots in our scrapbooks.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“It is the fight for control that has us all tied up, while it’s really an illusion anyway. We control because we are afraid of what may happen if we let go. Do we really think we are better captains of our lives than a God who sees everything and deeply loves us? So we pursue our scrapbook dreams, distracted, too busy to see he’s already with us and has our steps planned. The days and pictures and people he puts in our scrapbooks are seemingly chaotic but perfectly planned.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“We love our earth. We love our people. We love our stuff. We love our schedules. We love our short lives here. 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? Heaven feels far away, and we forget. But it is real . . . and it is coming.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“If we can taste heaven, we live differently.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Theologian Tim Keller says 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.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Christ never intended those who walked with him to feel comfortable and safe. This was meant to be a risk-it-all pursuit.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“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.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Somehow I thought most of my life following God was not supposed to be too costly. Following God is flat costly.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Grace is scary insane.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“ultimately faith in Christ is what will separate those who belong to God from those who do not.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“Unbelief is not just something attributed to an atheist or agnostic. Unbelief is found in nooks and spaces within Christianity. Every sin, at its root, is based in something we do not fully believe about God.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“He is God, and if our suffering brings him the most glory, let it be. Easy to preach, difficult to live.”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul

“People had to shrink for me before God had me completely . . . but how?”
― Jennie Allen, Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul