Jennie Allen - Made for This: 40 Days to Living Your Purpose

CONTENTS

Made for This

2019 Jennie Allen

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ISBN 978-0-7852-2909-4 (eBook)

Epub Edition January 2019 9780785229094

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018914418

ISBN 978-0-7852-2907-0 (HC)

Printed in the United States of America

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Dedicated to four of the greatest dreams God had for my life:

Conner, Kate, Caroline, and Cooper Allen.

You are my favorites.

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I am not really good at anything.

The tears came first and then a slew of words that felt like lies. Really, they were lies, but the person saying the words obviously believed she was telling the truth.

I dont know if I have ever done anything truly important.

I feel like I have missed my purpose.

I dont know what to do next.

Sarah was a couple of years from an empty nest. What were once quiet, pesky thoughts now grew louder. She didnt look directly at me; her eyes darted around as if they might land somewhere more comfortable. But they couldnt find their home.

Her son, Isaiah, had popped in during our short coffee break. He had a firm handshake and told me he was almost eighteen. I noticed his shirt was ironed and tucked in because I have a son the same age who also tucks in his ironed shirt. He does this because I dont iron them, so he learned how to do it.

All I wanted to do was wrap Sarah up and get her away from whoever was making her believe these lies! But I knew that the person was her.

Sarah, are you a good mom? I had already met her son with an ironed shirt, and I knew. Like I knew she had a dozen or more superpowers that she couldnt see. I knew because God built her and set her in this time and promised to equip her with gifts and a purpose. I just knew.

Her eyes finally met mine. She grinned through her tears and said, I am a great mom. That is the one thing I can do, but that is about to be over.

So what is our purpose on earth? Why are we here?

Though that conversation happened exactly two hours ago, I meet a Sarah, and sometimes ten Sarahs, every single day.

Sometimes shes a twenty-four-year-old dating a man who does not know Jesus. He barely values anyone but himself, but she cant bring herself to break up with him because shes afraid no one else will come.

Sometimes she is sixty-two and has both margin to make disciples and a passion for it, but she is divorced and cant see what she has to offer younger women in her church. So, rather than invest in their lives, she withdraws and disqualifies herself.

Sometimes she is sixteen and cant figure out how to quit obsessing about herself. She keeps thinking about her weight, stepping on a scale, and scrolling Instagram. She wants to please Jesus, and love people, but she doesnt know how to turn off the loud voices in her head telling her she cannot ever measure up.

Sometimes we tell ourselves the lies, and sometimes someone else has lied to us. Either way, these lies are from the Enemy, who is out to shut down the church.

But I have also seen the opposite. I have seen women believe God. Women who have been set free, who believe the truth about God and themselves and their purpose here. They are nonchalantlyalmost without thinkingradically laying down their gifts and resources to display Jesus and meet the needs around them. And its dangerous to hell.

So why are we here?

Since the release of my books Anything and Restless, Ive watched women come alive. Theyre finding that they were made for great purposes that can change eternity in the hearts and lives of others. Ive heard their stories and seen them transformed through the prayer of surrender and intentional discovery of the great adventure God has written for them.

I want the same for you.

Acts 17:2627 says, [God] marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.

So lets go on a journey together. Forty days to be exact. Forty days to remember how delightful Jesus is, to be reminded of who you are, to consider that you are a part of the story of God with a part to play in it. Its forty days to hope hopes and dream dreams and pray prayers. Forty days to become dangerous to the Enemy again, or maybe for the first time.

Join us, will you?

This forty-day approach is a new look at the core message of my first two books Anything and Restless. Weve combined them to create a unique, interactive journey to help you analyze the places you find yourself in, your passions, your gifts, your experiences, your age, and your positions to discover your specific calling. Then weve provided the space to work it out. Youll also find a few stories along the way to show how other women have moved beyond fear, uncertainty, and excuses to find what they were made for.