I am reading Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker, a brilliant book on prayer and am already praying more, and praying better: one test of a good book on prayer.
Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:
Bold prayers honour God and God honours bold prayers. God is offended by anything less than your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. If your prayers aren’t impossible to you, they are insulting to God. Why? Because they don’t require divine intervention. But ask God to part the Red Sea or make the sun stand still or float an iron axehead, and God is moved to omnipotent action.
There is nothing God loves more than keeping promises, answering prayers, performing miracles and fulfilling dreams. That is who he is. That is what he does. The bigger the prayer circle we draw around our dreams, the better, because God gets more glory.
The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect—and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible situations in our lives and ask God to intervene.
I promise you this: God is ready and waiting. So while I have no idea what circumstances you find yourself in, I’m confident that you are only one prayer away from a dream fulfilled, a promise kept, or a miracle performed.
It is absolutely imperative that you come to terms with this simple, yet life-changing truth: God is for you. If you don’t believe it, then you’ll pray small timid prayers; if you do believe it, then you’ll pray big audacious prayers.
And one way or another, your small timid prayer, or your big audacious prayers will change the trajectory of your life and turn you into two totally different people.
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.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought as a child. I was ‘encouraged’ to kneel at the foot of my bed and ‘pray’. I didn’t, of course. I learned a few words and parroted them in a curious, sing-song kind of way, usually quickly, so I could get under the covers with my book.
It is only quite recently that I have found myself praying differently, not guilt-stricken because I didn’t want to ‘spend quality time’ with the Creator of the Universe, instead flowing like a paper boat downstream, conscious of moving in the right direction – thoughts slowly becoming captive to a will and purpose deeper and more intelligent than my own. This makes waiting easier, rapid shifts more flexibly managed and times when the water is still and no word comes more tranquilly accepted. God has so much more to say to us – frequently without words – than we have to say to him.
Yes, I have discovered a bit of this is soaking prayer. Sometimes, it feels so passive, like nothing is happening. It’s just when the timer goes (I put on a timer when I pray neither shortening it when bored, or lengthening it when delicious: Catholic training!) that I realize the wrench and that I had indeed been on holy ground, in the presence of the Lord.
Are we changed for this time with God? I am convinced we are, though we often cannot put our fingers on it. Perhaps we become slower, gentler, more contemplative, more yielded. Perhaps we don’t need to know. “You are the potter, I am the clay.”
Love the message here, Anita. What an invitation to pray bold prayers! How we diminish God by asking, or indeed expecting, so little of Him. I simply must read this book! Thank you for profiling it. Blessings 🙂
Hi Joy, Yes, it has already infused so much hope and specificity into my prayers. Hope: I think that is the main thing the book gives us. I am reading it, but I also have the Audible version on my iPhone and listen to the same chapter on my walks, so that it sinks in deeper. I am drawing up life-goals, and specific prayers for each Jericho in my life.
A very inspiring thought indeed! I think I have to get that book 🙂 Thank you Anita for this insight and idea; I love your posts 🙂
Thanks, Claudia! Yes, the book is really, really challenging me, even thought I am someone who has prayed big prayers, and seen things come about as a result of them.
I like his emphasis on specificity of prayers, and on writing out specific life-goals. Not I want to be a writer, but what to I want to write. No vague prayers, but specific ones.
I find it mind-enlarging!