Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson

Two Mondays ago I started reading Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson published in 2012. It’s premise is to inspire us to pray daily and to make prayer a regular part of our lives. He has stories about how prayer has worked in many people’s lives, prayers that have changed individuals, families, communities, churches and businesses. Prayers that have spanned many years and answered prayers that were answered instantly. 

This year my focus is 20/20 spiritual vision, spiritual clarity and keenness and this book is for just that. He calls for the reader to place one self inside the “circle” and ask God for revival for the person in the circle, it can be an actual circle drawn out or a symbolic circle, the circle itself isn’t important but the person asking of God and the specific prayer that’s prayed. He also calls for a specific time, 7:14 to be precise because 2 Chronicles 7:14 states

“if my people, who are called by my name,will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 

and the idea is if we have a specific time it gets tied to our memory and this builds within us “a time to pray” 

 I am still reading it, I am actually on day 14, two weeks in and it keeps getting better as the days go on. He shares the story about the circle maker himself, his name is Honi and he actually drew a circle around himself and said “Lord of the universe, I swear before Your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon Your children they were in a severe drought and the threat of a whole generation being wiped out loomed over them. A long story short, God sent rain and it was said that it fell as the size of eggs and so Honi again prayed and said “not that kind of rain LORD,  but the rain of Your favor, blessing and graciousness” and you know what?! The Lord honored that prayer. 
This book is full of those kinds of bold prayers, full of people who shamelessly trusted God and asked Him for any number of things and He answered them. As I said earlier, some prayers that Batterson writes about were answered quickly, some took years to answer. Some prayers were singular and some layered one atop the other. 
For example, George Washington Carver was a great scientist that trusted God and persuaded a group of farmers to plant peanuts instead of cotton because the land was depleted of nutrients. Once the peanut harvests came in they didn’t know what to do with all of those peanuts so George Washington Carver set out again to pray and trust God for answers and God have him many uses, over one hundred almost immediately. 
Fast forward to present day and a missionary was working on capital hill and heard a story about RUTF a revolutionary food supplement made from... peanuts! The missionary worked to create what is now called MANA -mother administered nutritive aid and it has already saved over a million children’s lives. George Washington Carver probably never dreamed of such an outcome. 

outcome. 

Many years ago my husband and I were watching The Edge with Anthony Hopkins, and there’s a line in that movie that goes “what one man can do, so can another” it’s a scene about killing a bear and although it may be a strange way of putting it, sometimes we have to trust God to guide us to “kill the bear” and if God will do it for one He’ll do it for another. 
I’ll never forget that line and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used it to keep me pushing forward and trusting God. The Bible says that God gives good gifts to His children and that God will give us the desires of our hearts and what we ask in Jesus name, God will do, as well as so many other verses that speak to this very thing. God wants to bless His own. 

This book is about those things, we can be refreshed by hearing what God has done for others and we can gain hope that He will also hear our prayers and if there’s one thing I know for sure, prayer is always good and “I pray too much” said no one ever. 

So all that to say this, Draw the Circle is a faith builder, game changer, daily devotional, prayer propeller great 40 day book. 

Love you all and thanks for hanging out with us for a few. 

Tracy