There's a big difference between knowing facts about God and knowing God personally. You can pend your whole life learning information about God yet still not experience Him as real. But a surefire way to experience the reality of God’s presence with you is to follow wherever He leads you without holding anything back.

If you’re willing to do anything for God – no matter what risks are involved – everything in your life can change for the better.

Here’s how you can surrender your life completely to God and find blessings in return:

Pray a prayer of surrender. Start your adventure with an important prayer surrendering every part of your life to the God who has planned good purposes for you to fulfill. Ask God to show you how real He is as you take the risks necessary to live in complete obedience to His will for you. Look forward to God leading and changing you in amazing ways going forward.

Face the reality of your sin. Although people like to think we’re good, we bump up against the reality of our selfish sinfulness every day in this fallen world. Be honest about the fact that you’re a sinner in need of God’s grace through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Let go of shame. Let your sin show you how much you need God, but don’t let it trap you. Rather than getting stuck in shame, realize that there’s no condemnation in Christ and let that freedom propel you closer to God. Confess and repent of your sins when you think of them, and accept God’s gifts of forgiveness and help to make better choices.

Live to please God, not other people. God loves you completely and longs for you to devote yourself wholeheartedly to Him. So stop turning to other people for approval and fulfillment and look for those qualities from the only source who will truly satisfy you: God. Ask God to change your desires to reflect His desires, so that you will want to pursue what He wants for you.

Let go of a sense of entitlement. You won’t be free to follow God anywhere He leads you if you’re living a carefully planned life, pursuing things you think you’re entitled to have. Also, chasing after the blessings you’d like can divert your focus so much that God’s gifts begin to replace God Himself in your life. So give up your sense of entitlement and invite God to bless you however He sees fit, trusting that doing so will lead to a better life than you can imagine on your own.

Let go of efforts to control. Everyone has images in their minds of how we would like our lives to be. But as much as we’d like to design the lives we want, it’s God who designs our lives – often in unexpected ways. Instead of trying to convince God to give you what you want, ask God to help you trust Him to do what’s best in every area of your life (from your relationships with family and friends, to your health and your work). Invite God to do whatever He wants to do with all you have.

Make decisions with an eternal perspective. During each day that God gives you to live in this world, keep heaven on your mind, realizing that your time here is limited and it’s vital to use your time well. Ask God to help you focus on what has eternal value and make decisions about how to use your time in light of an eternal perspective.

Learn and grow constantly. Don’t settle for a stagnant life that feels comfortable. Take advantage of every opportunity that God gives you to learn something new and grow into a stronger, better person.

Obey God even in the little things. Choosing to obey God’s guidance in the little things of daily life – such as doing chores with excellence, paying bills on time, being honest when you’re tempted to lie about something, or unconditionally respecting someone with whom you don’t agree – is actually a big deal because the daily decisions you make shape the kind of person you become. So decide to be faithful in the mundane as well as in the more dramatic moments of your life.

Press on through doubts and fears. Don’t let your doubts and fears stop you from saying “yes” to God when He calls you to do something. Instead, choose to trust God despite your doubts and take action even when you’re afraid. The more you press through your doubts and fears, the more you’ll see God come alive around you.

Rely on the Holy Spirit to empower you. Rather than trying to accomplish good purposes in your own limited strength (which will only lead to failure, despite your good intentions), place your trust in the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen you as you work to fulfill God’s good purposes for you.

Engage in spiritual warfare. Expect to be attacked by the evil side of the spiritual realm whenever you’re passionately pursuing God’s callings in your life. But have confidence that you can always win the spiritual war when you cling to Jesus for protection and guidance. You can fight evil bravely because God is for you and with you. So don’t hesitate to pray against evil daily and keep following wherever God leads you.

Change your dreams for God’s dreams for you. Every day, surrender your own agenda to God and invite Him to show you what dreams He wants you to pursue. You’ll find over time that as you do that, God will change your desires to His desires, and you’ll enjoy even making costly sacrifices because you’ll experience the greater blessings that result from your faithfulness.

Adapted from Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul, copyright 2012 by Jennie Allen. Published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tn., www.thomasnelson.com.

As we enter into a new year,here is something to remember-

When it’s all said and done, we have three things we can offer God: our treasure, our talent, and our time. Each of these is given to us by God, and each of them should be given back in generous portions.

First, there is our treasure.

I urge you to commit yourself to give faithfully and generously to the Lord in this coming year. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21 nkjv). Whenever we put our money into something, we develop a vested interest in it.

It makes sense to us that we would place our treasures where our hearts are. If we love reading books, or being entertained, or the latest technology, we spend our treasure on those things. And if our heart’s desires change, that changes where we put our treasure.

But it works the other way too: Where we put our treasures, our heart will follow

Do you want your heart to be in the things of God? Then put your treasures in the things of God! Develop a vested interest in God’s kingdom.

The second thing we can give to God is our talent.

God has gifted each believer in different ways. Everyone has something to offer for the work of the kingdom.

Romans 12 says, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us different work to do” (nlt).

Finally, there is our time.

Let’s say that one day your phone rang and it was the president of the bank that you use. He told you that an anonymous donor who loved you very much had decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your bank account each and every morning.

At first, maybe that didn’t seem like a lot. But then you figured out that it was $864 a day. At seven days a week and 52 weeks a year, those pennies add up to almost $315,000 each year!

But the bank president added one thing: “The anonymous giver said you must spend all of the moneyon the day you receive it! No balance will be carried over to the next day. Each evening the bank must cancel whatever sum you failed to use! Remember, what you don’t spend is lost.”

That may sound like fantasy, but here’s the reality: Every morning, Someone who loves you very much deposits into your “bank of time” 86,400 seconds, which represent 1,440 minutes, which of course equals 24 hours each and every day.

God gives you that much to use each day. Nothing is ever carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a 27-hour day.

It’s called time, and you can’t escape it. Time is ticking away right now. The Bible tells us to “redeem the time”—to make sacred and wise use of every opportunity.

Offer God your treasure, your talent, and your time. Live this year as if it were your last…because it could be.

Make those minutes count!