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‘God Story’ by Anne Wilson - Lyrics & Meaning

By Maxim Mower

June 19, 2025 10:30 pm GMT

Anne Wilson - ‘God Story’

Label: Sparrow Records / EMI Records Nashville

Release Date: Friday, June 20th 2025

Album: TBC

Producers: Jonathan Smith & Jeff Pardo

Songwriters: Anne Wilson, Matthew West & Jeff Pardo

The Background:

Serving as the first taste of Anne Wilson's highly anticipated REBEL (Revisited) follow-up, ‘God Story’ arrived on Friday, June 20th after the genre-blending trailblazer treated us to a slew of teasers via socials. It finds the Contemporary Christian and Country prodigy again blurring the lines between the two worlds with sincerity and warmth, as Wilson pays tribute to the ways in which God has helped her over the years.

It's an uplifting, energising anthem, which finds the Kentucky native showcasing both her stirring, evocative vocals and her continued willingness to draw on her own life as inspiration for her music. This makes ‘God Story’ all the more powerful, with Wilson explaining in the lead-up that she reflected on how God guided her through the grief of losing her brother, Jacob, in a car accident when she was just 15.

If ‘God Story’ is anything to go by, it's safe to say we have good cause to feel excited about Anne Wilson's next album - which will hopefully be unveiled in the coming months.

The Sound:

‘God Story’ feels like a seamless blend of traditional Contemporary Christian textures and more countrified sonics. The sparse, intricate guitar and soulful piano riff pave the way for the euphoric, celebratory instrumental that elevates the rousing chorus.

As is often the case with Anne Wilson, the ‘Songs About Whiskey’ singer-songwriter's powerhouse voice take their rightful place at centre-stage, with choral vocals then introduced into the mix to add an extra jolt of energy into this faith-filled earworm.

The Meaning:

“I’ve gone where the hopeless go

The dead end of broken road

And I’ve learned there’s a place so low

You can’t see your way out

Been stuck in a ditch so deep

Thought it might be the end of me

But I’m still here and there could only be

One way how”

Although ‘God Story’ is an unquestionably jubilant song, it begins from a place of anguish and despair - as many ‘God Stories’ do. Anne Wilson recalls how she felt “stuck in a ditch” and at the “dead end of a broken road”, with Wilson explaining ahead of the song's release that she is referring to her grief at losing her brother, Jacob, when she was just 15. She hints at a happier ending to this tale towards the end of this verse, with the ‘Rain in the Rearview’ crooner underlining that there was only ever going to be one way in which she'd rise from the darkness.

“My life is a God story

Gotta tell the world what He’s done for me

Miracles on miracles

That only He could do

I’m proof that we’re all only

One prayer away from a testimony

There’s only one getting all the glory

My whole life is a God story”

During the galvanising chorus, Anne Wilson emphasises that she feels compelled to share all the miracles God has performed for her, such is her depth of gratitude.

She goes on to use her own story as inspiration for the listener, assuring them that, if they're feeling the same way she was during the opening verse, they're only “one prayer away from a testimony”. Wilson concludes the hook by stressing that, despite becoming well-known in recent years, she only seeks to glorify God, not herself.

“From beginning to the end

From who I was to who I am

I can see His fingerprints

On every single page

Now the story I love to tell

Is the story of the one who brought me back from hell

From all is wrong to it is well

And all I can say is”

In the second verse, Wilson explores the titular theme of ‘God Story’ more literally, and frames her life God as literally writing a book, with His “fingerprints on every single page”.

She again touches on how lost she felt years ago, praising how God “brought me back from hell“, replacing her sense that something was wrong to a soothing feeling of peace.

“From death to life, from blind to sight

This is my God story

From lost to found, from then to now

I’ll tell you how, God story

Who brought me through from old to new

It’s a true God story

Ain’t hard to see the change in me

Could only be a God story”

Anne Wilson references some of the miracles of the Bible here, describing how her progression from grief to peace felt akin to all the blind people Jesus gave sight back to, such as Bartimaeus in the Gospel of Mark. Although Wilson was not literally blind, she uses this imagery to ground ‘God Story’ in scripture and to highlight her emergence from emotional turmoil and ‘darkness’ to joy and ‘light’. Similarly, the phrase “death to life” is a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

What has Anne Wilson said about ‘God Story’?

In an official statement shared in tandem with ‘God Story’, Anne Wilson mused, “I wrote this song just thinking about all the things that have taken place in my life over the last several years. When I was 15, I lost my best friend and my brother Jacob in a car accident. My family and I endured some of the darkest days since then”.

She expanded, “When this song says ‘I’ve gone where the hopeless go,’ that’s what I’m talking about. Over the last couple years, God has done some incredible healing work in my life and now I get to stand on stage and sing about his goodness and tell other people about the Hope I found. When I look at the story that’s being written with my life, all I can really say is that it truly is a God story”.

The ‘My Jesus’ hitmaker went on to movingly toast, “It’s a miracle and I’m standing here today. I hope this song will remind people that all of our lives are our God story. I know we’ve all got those moments when we know there’s only one way to explain how we made it through. From death to life, this is my God story”.

During a video shared across socials ahead of ‘God Story’s release, Anne Wilson endearingly reflected, “Growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut, and my dream was to work for NASA. I thought for sure by now, at 23 years old, that I would be on my way to becoming an astronaut - but God had very different plans for my life”.

Wilson recalled, “When I was 15, I went through a really tragic time. I lost my brother Jacob in a car accident, and it was the most devastating time of my entire life. I'll never forget the day that me and my family found out that he had passed away, and just this reality that I wasn't going to see him again until Heaven. It was really, really painful. But in the midst of all of that, God started to open doors for me and started to show me what he was going to do with my life. And for me, it was getting to have a platform to share the gospel and to spread the love of Jesus”.

Wilson finished by encouraging fans, “And slowly but surely, I moved to Nashville and got a record deal and started putting out music. And honestly, I can look back now at 23 years old and say that my entire life has been a ‘God Story’. My entire life, God has been writing a story that was far greater than anything I could have ever imagined”, before concluding, “And he can do the very same thing for you”.