The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

A great read. You will read this book over and over. Patterson is an amazing author and pastor!

Amazing book

I started The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams & Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson the other night and have not been able to put it down. I told Katie this morning that she needs to stop reading whatever she's reading and read this book. It was that good and challenging. There were a few things that jumped out to me from the book. The first was the idea of drawing circles around prayer. Praying specific prayers. I've preached before on this idea and find that praying specific prayers stretches my faith and I see God move in powerful ways because of it. But I like the idea of circling something. For me, I've begun circling places I believe God wants us to plant Revolution Churches in Tucson. So this was a great reminder. Another point was having a vision beyond your resources. I've already blogged on this idea, so I won't belabor it, but suffice to say, if you can afford or pull off your prayers or dreams, they are too small. Another was the question Mark asked, "Is there a limit to God's power?" All Christians would say no, yet we pray as if there is. We pray small prayers, believe possible things. This is the foundational question of prayer. Is there a limit to what God can do. By far, the most life changing idea from this book was when he said, "Stop praying for something and start praying/praising through something." God has already given us the promise of answered prayers and power in Scripture. Start praising God for what he will do. For me, I started to think about our adoptions and that God has already chosen children for our family, so instead of asking him to complete the adoption, I've begun thanking him for these children and praising through it. I believe God has put on my heart the prayer of planting a movement of churches around Tucson so that everyone is within a 10 mile drive of a Revolution Church and that 1 million people will enter the kingdom through Revolution (in my lifetime or beyond), so I'm beginning to pray as if that promise has already happened and giving God the glory for it. While all of this is good, it is easy for this idea and the way Mark communicates it for someone to walk away and think of God as a vending machine. Pray this and you'll get more than what you prayed for. Give this and God will give you 10 times what you gave. This is a tough line to walk when it comes to faith. Mark handles it well by bringing us back to the glory of God and how that needs to be the heart of our prayers and asking. He handled this well by comparing it to John the Baptist. One of Jesus' closest friends, John is beheaded, while others are being healed, raised from the dead, walking after years of being lame and John does not get rescued. It's a tough place to be, it is a dark place to be, but it is also a place that pushes our faith and asks if we truly believe in God and his sovereignty and his plan. The other reality is that sometimes God tells us no and doesn't answer our prayers the way we want them. Sometimes he doesn't bring healing like we hoped. Here are a few other things that jumped out to me: -Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. God isn't offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. If your prayers aren't impossible to you, they are insulting to God. Why? Because they don't require divine intervention. -Prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life. -The greatest tragedy in life is the prayers that go unanswered because they go unasked. -"God does not answer vague prayers." -We usually focus on what we're doing or where we're going, but God's primary concern is who we're becoming in the process. We talk about "doing" the will of God, but the will of God has much more to do with "being" than "doing." -Faith is the willingness to look foolish. -If you aren't willing to be perplexed, you'll never be amazed. -Many of us pray as if our problems are bigger than God. Our biggest problem is our small view of God. -God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him; God is great because nothing is too small for Him. -All of us love miracles. We just don't like being in a situation that necessitates one. -Show me your vision, and I'll show you your future. -The degree of satisfaction is directly proportional to the degree of difficulty. If you are looking for a book that will stretch your faith and prayer life, this is a great book to start with. [...]

Good read

Honi the Circle Maker was a man bold enough to draw a circle in the sand and not budge from inside it until God answered his prayers for his people. What impossibly big dream is God calling you to draw a prayer circle around? I learned some great quotes about prayer. Prayer primes your heart. We live in an ellipsis when we are waiting for God to answer a prayer, but 100 percent of the prayers I don't pray won't get answered. Kneeling is the most powerful position on earth. Daniel never stopped dreaming big or praying hard because that's what prophets do. Daniel stopped, dropped and prayed three times a day. Don't always do small, timid prayers. Don't just brainstorm, praystorm. Focus on the footnotes, God will write the headline. After you pray through, praise through. A heavyweight prayer bout with God is how the greatest victories are won. Our society overvalues 15 minutes of fame and underplays eternal life. I became fascinated with his discussion on James Cash Penney who started off giving 10 percent of his income away and ended with giving away 90 percent away and living on 10 percent. Penney said, Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal and I will give you a stock clerk. I didn't know a thing about Harriet Beecher Stowe. His book said one Sunday morning in 1851, during a Communion service, Harriet fell into a trance not unlike the trance that Peter had on the rooftop of Simon the tanner’s house. In her trance, Hattie saw an old slave being beaten to death. The vision left her so shaken that she could hardly keep from weeping. She walked her children home from church and skipped lunch. She immediately started writing down the vision God had given her as words poured from her pen. When she ran out of paper, she found brown grocery paper and continued to write. When she finally stopped, and read what she wrote, she could hardly believe she had written it. It was nothing short of divine inspiration. Hattie said that God wrote the book; she just put the words on paper. Kneeling is the most powerful position on earth. Daniel never stopped dreaming big or praying hard because that's what prophets do. Daniel stopped, dropped and prayed three times a day. Don't always do small, timid prayers. Don't just brainstorm, praystorm. Focus on the footnotes, God will write the headline. After you pray through, praise through. A heavyweight prayer bout with God is how the greatest victories are won. During one of the America's Cup races, the Australian team's coach made a tape beating the American team three years before the race. He narrated it. Every member of the team was required to listen twice a day. By the time they set sail, they had already beaten the American team 2,190 times in their imagination. Our society overvalues 15 minutes of fame and underplays eternal life. One God idea is worth 1,000 good ideas.

I love this book it has taught me so much about God and how to pray that I didn’t know nots very informative

One book that I would highly recommend to everyone is The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. It's one of the best books I've read this year, and has inspired me to take action and revamp my own prayer life. In fact, I was unaware my prayer life needed improvement until I read the powerful message of drawing circles around your prayers. This book is based on the legend of Honi the circle maker and the power of a single prayer to change the course of history. After reading it, I learned how to draw prayer circles around my family, my ministry, my business, my problems, and my goals. I started reading my Bible and circling promises and prayers. Mark Batterson uses examples from his own prayer circles, and shares his experiences of praying and waiting for the LORD to answer. His testimony of praying will inspire and encourage you to "think bigger" and pray for more than your heart desires. We often neglect to ask the LORD for bigger things or miracles, because we feel undeserving or worried that the LORD will say "no" to our request. So we depend on our own human efforts and often miss the mark or miss a blessing."Every prayer is a time capsule. You never know when or where or how God is going to answer it, but He will answer it. There is no expiration date, and there are no exceptions. God answers prayer. Period. We don't always see it or understand it, but God always answers," says Batterson. The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson opens our minds to a bigger picture and a method of praying circles around things that are important to us. Similar to an Olympic coach, Batterson moves us to change and to seek higher goals. We need to stop praying for only the little things and start praying for everything...even the impossible. He writes " The greatest tragedy in life is the prayers that go unanswered because they go unasked." If your prayer life is fantastic or if your prayer life is weak and crumbling...you'll want to read this book. It's based on scripture and would be an excellent Bible study for small groups. You'll learn methods of prayer, drawing circles around scripture, praising before the prayer is answered and much more. You'll learn to pray beyond your resources and to open doors of opportunity and provision through your prayers. Do I think The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson is an excellent book every Christian should read? Yes. "Prayer was never meant to be a monologue; it was meant to be a dialogue. Think of Scripture as God's part of the script; prayer is our part. Scripture is God's way of initiating a conversation; prayer is our response. The paradigm shift happens when you realize that the Bible wasn't meant to be read through; the Bible was meant to be prayed through. And if you pray through it, you'll never run out of things to talk about." Mark Batterson You will not be disappointed if you invest time in reading this book. It's life-changing!

Oh my goodness... Please do not listen to the other people who "couldnt like it" for whatever reasons, especially with the excuse of it doesnt teach you the" right way" to pray. They have not actually tried it.... so they have no room for opinion whatsoever. Critics went into the book thinking that they already know how to pray and so put up a wall. I however went in with an open mind and heart, and i indeed HAVE tried this way of prayer. And it is beautiful. What Batterson encourages and upholds is true, honest, fervent, constant prayer that is real in your heart. How else does Christ teach us to pray? Batterson reminds us to seek out God's will and to be an active force of good work in this world that relies and trusts strongly on God's great power and love. If that is not what Christ taught, then please tell me what He did! Knock and it shall be opened, seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given unto you. God asks us to give up all and follow him... rely and trust fully in Him, and to ask of him. That takes humility, love, dedication, and guts. This is what the book is about. I used to be so so scared and full of fear to talk with God and ask for help... i used to think it was because i feared asking for things that are against God's will, but i realized no.... I was scared of failure. Scared to take risks. I was scared God *wouldnt* show me his love cuz He didnt love me, or that He wasnt real and so couldnt. That all changed when after a frightened struggle to try and pray i ran to my bible. I Opened up to "peter, wherefore didst thou doubt?" When peter started to sink into the sea from his fear. And i understood God wanted me to walk forward with my trust in Him. After that i was lead to a ton of sources that all spoke the same ideas. Knowing what you want... asking for it... and persisting after it.... trusting in it. The Circle Maker was one of those sources, and because of it my faith and love for Christ has grown. Ive prayed incredibly detailed prayers that He has answered, and it has forever cemented my faith. Christ did teach us how to pray. And Mark Batterson echoes those teachings. No book will equal the holy scriptures, but just because Mark shares truth through modern language and expression doesnt mean it wasnt inspired. Anyone who treats this book too harshly is squirming under the call to be more brave and trusting in God than they are now and is too proud to admit that to themselves.

This is such a powerful read. Definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow in their prayer life, or who wants to learn how to pray effectively and see their breakthrough come!

I don't often take the time to write book reviews, but I just had to for this one. I picked it up last Summer in the States when the cover kind of leapt off the shelf at me. God had been challenging me on what dreams I was actually pursuing in my life, and has also been challenging me on the level of prayer in my life - and this book covered both issues. When I read it, though, I was totally blown away. Mark is a very good writer - accessible and easy to read, but with simply loads of encouraging stories about how he has seen God move in his life and that of National Community Church as they have "dreamed big and prayed hard". It really lifts your faith - and definitely does not make you feel guilty about historic failures to push through in prayer. i loved it, gave it to my wife who felt the same, then have been buying it for everyone we know. A truly amazing read, and quite simply has been life-changing for us - and I do not say that lightly, at all. Wonderful book! The follow-on Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge is a good way of cementing some of the content into your everyday life, too!

Excellent especially for a group study.

"Trabajar como si dependiera de mí y orar como si dependiera de DIOS" ... Lo he puesto en práctica y estoy ansioso y paciente a la vez, por ver el resultado que indudablemente será sorprendente!

One cannot read this book in few sittings. There is so much to mull and reflect in almost every page of this book. I loved the anecdotes and examples that the author (Mark) has provided in his unique style. While this book is worth every penny, more than penny spent... this book is worth every second reading it!!!