Jennie Allen > 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

“We have to deal with fear because it is possible that it will make us miss the best parts of life.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“We can’t curl up on our couches, read the pages of a book, pray, and simply will our minds to change. God is concerned not only with the posture of our hearts but also with the people on each of our arms. In terms of fulfilling our mission in this life, we can’t do anything worthwhile alone.”
― Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

“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

“What if the things that have caused the most hurt in your life became the birthplaces of your deepest passions?”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“Nothing is more dangerous, more compelling, more freeing, more radical, more real, more satisfying, more powerful than a person holding a smidgen of faith. A sincere faith in Jesus and all He wants to do around us wakes us up, rattles our lives, shifts every perspective, issues hope in pain, and ignites purpose.”
― Jennie Allen, Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard

“Our confidence comes from believing God can do anything , then stepping back and letting Him.”
― Jennie Allen, Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard

“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

“We can do one of two things with suffering: we can absorb it and let it change us, or we can let it crush us. Suffering will change you, or it will crush you.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“Comparison is often why our important roles shrink to seem so insignificant. Comparison robs us of the joy of obedience.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“Faith is the measure to which we believe God is God. And faith is the measure to which we let God be God.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
― Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

“Great people do not do great things; God does great things through surrendered people.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“Striving is stealing our joy, our moments.”
― Jennie Allen, Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard

“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

“There is an art to living that is far above the base human instinct of survival. I want to live beautifully.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“when you and I choose to believe a lie about ourselves, it’s one of these three lies we believe: I’m helpless. I’m worthless. I’m unlovable.”
― Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

“If I were your enemy, this is what I would do: Make you believe you need permission to lead. Make you believe you are helpless. Make you believe you are insignificant. Make you believe that God wants your decorum and behavior.”
― Jennie Allen, Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard

“We fall apart when we look at our fears and inadequacies and compare ourselves to every other runner. But fix your eyes on a God like Jesus, and you will not quit. You will not shrink back. Not from others, and not from yourself. Risk something. Step out and fail. Be the fool. Build a life that needs our God.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“I think God could untangle your soul, your story, your gifts, your people, your place, and your passions, and begin to weave it into purposes that you haven’t been brave enough to imagine.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“As theologian and emeritus professor D. A. Carson has observed, People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.1”
― Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

“Every moment is granted for purposes we can’t see. Every breath is issued for eternal things left undone. We brush against people in check-out lines who will live forever in heaven or hell, and we contain God. Try to tell me your life is insignificant. Try to tell me that anything about this life is insignificant.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“No unique purpose for your life will fill your soul. The only thing that will fulfill and settle your soul is God himself.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“If I can accept that I am so sinful and so broken that I am likely to hurt anyone close to me on any given day without even being aware of it, I can willingly pass out grace to those who hurt me.”
― Jennie Allen, Restless: Because You Were Made for More

“So what is the one thought that can successfully interrupt every negative thought pattern? It’s this: I have a choice.”
― Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

“Evil never wants to be noticed, I should mention here. It sneaks in and hijacks our minds, and we barely notice anything’s amiss.”
― Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

“my neuro-buddy Curt Thompson likes to say we all come into the world looking for someone looking for us.”
― Jennie Allen, Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World

“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

“One God-honoring thought has the potential to change the trajectory of both history and eternity. Just as one uninterrupted lie in my head has the potential to bring about unimaginable destruction in the world around me.”
― Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

“We have to become people who stay. We have to become friends who show up to chop things for a few hours and stay even later to do the dishes, not just to eat. And we need to do this consistently, time and time again.”
― Jennie Allen, Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World