This one focused more on adoption than anything else. The author is passionate about giving God full control of her life and that leads them to pursue adoption. Great read for someone on that path, but not applicable to where I am right now.

“God, give us enough faith for whatever the story of our life holds.” ( )

An easy read/listen with a challenging message. Encouraging. ( )

Oh, to have the faith to pray the Anything Prayer and mean it! Please, God, give me the courage and faith to do ANYTHING you ask me to do.
( )

Anything…
How can I possibly pray “Anything, LORD?” Those kind of words have always filled me with fear. What might God do with me? Where might He send me? What if I don’t want to do that? But how can I disobey my God?

We live life chasing things of the world trying to fill those empty places inside of us. For a moment, that new home, the nice car, the cute dress, the different job seems to make us feel better, happier, more content…for.a.moment. Then we revert back to feeling the same way…discontent, unhappy, sad, yet still looking for what might satisfy us. On page 46, Jennie says, “So the concrete things we can see and touch, they become the wind, they become the things we try to catch, and over and over, they pass through our fingers and souls, keeping us empty. But when I take my empty self to God, he feels familiar and stable and more like concrete than wind.”

Turning to God in our quiet moments, we begin to hear Him, to hear from Him. We hear what plans He has for us. But it is not just about listening. It is about letting pieces of the self-pie go and surrendering that self to God. He wants an undivided child to work through in order to touch others in this world. God wants us to seek Him first and foremost. He wants all of us. The prayer, “God we will do anything. Anything” is an incredibly difficult prayer to pray. Yet if we truly want to walk with Him and be His servant in this world, praying “Anything” is just what each one of us needs to do.

Jennie Allen’s book will turn your mind over, make your heart beat faster, and will give you plenty to ponder. For such a young woman, she is beautifully wise and compassionate. Her book is well worth reading, but not just to read from page to page. There is meat here…meat to chew upon, to digest, to be absorbed into our bloodstreams in order for those nutrients of the Christlife to be absorbed into our spiritual bodies to grow as Christians. God is not a God to be feared (I am still learning). He is compassionate and just and loving. He knows His plans for us. He just wants to take us there, but he cannot until we release, surrender, abandon this person that we are in this world. Only then can He use us for His glory. Praying “Anything” is a mighty prayer, a courageous prayer, a serious Christian prayer. May we each find the stability, the comfort, and the power of God.

Award
2013 New Author of the Year Christian Book Award

Author
Jennie Allen is a young woman, is passionate, and is inspirational. Jennie Allen states on her website: “My passion is to inspire a new generation of women to encounter the invisible God. I love words and I believe God uses them to heal souls and to reveal Himself to people.“ She received her Master’s in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. She is the author of two Bible studies, Stuck and Chase. She was named by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) “New Author of the Year” winner of Anything and Restless, which also includes a DVD-based study. She is the founder of IF: Gathering, http://ifgathering.com/home/ Jennie and her husband Zac, have four children. You can find more about Jennie @ http://www.jennieallen.com/ ( )

Friday, July 10, 2015
Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul by Jennie Allen, © 2015
revised and updated, includes Bible Study

"You make beautiful things out of dust. You make beautiful things out of us."

Redefining Hands
Available in the Potter's hands to be made into a new vessel ~ not the one I think I need nor the picture of the life I thought I was supposed to have. Join this beautiful journey with God. I like this quote:

"God was writing a story for my life I never would have written."
--Anything, 145

What if we got beyond ourselves, to the very heart of God to be all of who He created us to be? His alone; His love encompassing us! Not our "shoulda, coulda, woulda, oughta" but His "Rest in Me, I have it covered?"

Jennie shares, gathering insight, overcoming doubts, really doing what He asks us ~ for our good and for His plan, changing us, sharing Him, beyond learning about Him ~ to know Him.

Jennie talks about what was further after she and her husband, Zac, prayed "anything," surrendering to God, letting Him change them, for every day of their lives. Yielding everything. Daily abandon, preferring others to yourself. Jennie speaks of letting the person who just drove up have the parking space ~ laying our "rights" down? To pursue reconciliation quickly rather than letting it fester ~ and cause us to go inward instead of loving and being a peacemaker?

"I wanted time for the other things God was leading us toward. And somehow in all the little deaths, in seeing more of God, I was watching my soul untangle."
--Ibid., 105

One interesting thing is, words on a page will speak differently to each reader for we are not cookie cutters in the same shape or place. I feel this writing reflects Psalm 139 and 23 ~ we are so loved, and He delights in guiding us.

The added Eight-Week Study Guide in the back begins reading a section of chapters, Scripture and reflection questions; and if you have done any of her other studies in a group setting, the Conversation Cards are so revealing to our heart. Part 1: Everything Keeping Us From Anything; Part 2: Praying Anything; Part 3: Living Anything; with reference Notes.

Jennie Allen is a passionate leader following God's call on her life to catalyze this generation to live what they believe. She is the author of Restless and the Bible studies Stuck and Chase, and is the founder and visionary of IF: Gathering. Jennie is married to her best friend, Zac, and they have been blessed with four children.

***Thank you to BookLook Bloggers and Thomas Nelson Publishers for sending me a copy of Jennie Allen's Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul for review. This review was written in my own words. No other compensation was received.*** ( )