The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams And Greatest Fears (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
Quotes from The Circle Maker, by Mark Batterson Is there some dream that God wants to resurrect? Is there some promise you need to reclaim? Is there some miracle you need to start believing for again? The reason many of us give up too soon is that we feel like we have failed if God doesn't answer to prayer. That isn't failure. The only way you can fail is if you stop praying. Prayer is a no lose proposition.Our most powerful prayers are hyperlinked to the promises of God. When you know you are praying the promises of God, you can pray with holy confidence. It's the difference between praying on thin ice and praying on solid ground. It's the difference between praying tentatively and praying tenaciously. You don't have to second-guess yourself because you know that God wants you to double-click on his promises. p. 91All of God's promises have been transferred to us via Jesus Christ. While these promises must be interpreted intelligently and applied accurately, there are moments when the Spirit of God will quicken your spirit to claim a promise that was originally intended for someone else. So while we have to be careful not to blindly claim promises that don't belong to us, I will greatest challenge is that we don't circled the promises we could or should circle. pp. 92-93The Bible is a promise book and a prayer book. As you pray, the Holy Spirit will quicken certain promises to your spirit. It's very difficult to predict what and when and where and how, but over time, the promises of God will become your promises. Then you need to circle those promises, both figuratively and literally. I never read without a pen so that I can underline,*, and circle. I literally circle the promises in my Bible. Then I do it figuratively by circling them in prayer. p. 95There was nothing God loves more than keeping His promises. He is actively watching and waiting for us to simply take Him at His word... Praying hard is standing on the promises of God. And when we stand on His word, God stands by His word. His word is His bond. we sometimes pray as if our bold prayers that circled the promises of God might offend the God who made them. Are you kidding me? God is offended by anything less! There is nothing God wants to do more than prove His power by keeping His promises. p. 100The favor of God is what God does for you that you cannot do for yourself. p. 102Even when we die, our prayers don't. Each prayer takes on a life, and eternal life, of its own. When we pray, our prayers exit our own reality of space and time. They have no time or space restrictions because the God who answers them exists outside of the space and time He created. You never know when His timeless answer will reenter the atmosphere of our lives, and that should fill us with holy anticipation. Never underestimate His ability to show up anytime, anyplace, anyhow. He has infinite answers to our finite prayers. He answers them more than once. He answers them forever. We want things to happen at the speed of light instead of the speed of the seed planted in the ground. Instead of thinking in terms of time, we must think in terms of eternity. Instead of thinking in terms of ourselves, we must think in terms of our children and grandchildren. pp. 134-135Just in case you have forgotten – and to ensure that you always remember – God is for you. I can't promise that God will always give you the answer you want. I can't promise that He'll answer on your timeline. But I can promise this: He answers every prayer, and He keeps every promise. That is who He is. That is what He does. And if you have the faith to dream big, pray hard, and sink along, there is nothing God loves more than proving His faithfulness. p. 195The Omniscient One cannot be surprised. God is always a step ahead, even when we feel like He's a step behind. He's always got a holy surprise up His sovereign sleeve. p. 197 This book started with a story from Jewish history of a man who drew a circle and from his circle prayed that God would send down much needed rain. He did and the requests became more and more specific and with each new circle God delivered. It also talks more about prayer and other people's examples of God doing abundantly more. While there were times were some of the examples didn't seem like the best examples of eternally significant requests, and sometimes books like this are hard to process during a time when God seems a little silent, it did encourage me to believe bigger and not hold back my requests. It was good to have read.
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