“Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers.”- Mark Batterson
Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D. C., wrote The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears in 2011. Max draws and shares powerful insights from the true legend of Honi the circle maker. Honi, a first-century BC Jewish sage, stood inside the circle he had drawn and boldly, yet humbly, prayed for God to end a year-long drought. Rain fell and a generation was saved.
God, Pastor Batterson underscores, still is looking for circle makers. Bold prayers require divine intervention. Mark writes that the bigger the circle we draw the better, because God gets the glory:
“The great 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 invite God to intervene.”
Mark emphasizes it is absolutely imperative to come to terms with this simple but life-changing truth: “God is for you.” Failure to believe this truth results in timid prayer. Believing this truth means you will pray audacious prayers. Either way, Mark states, “who you become is determined by how you pray.” Pastor Batterson also clearly defines what drawing prayer circles is and is not:
“Drawing prayer circles isn’t some sort of magic trick to get what you want from God. God is not a genie in a bottle, and your wish is not His command. His command better be your wish. If it’s not, you won’t be drawing prayer circles, you’ll end up walking in circles. . . . getting what you want isn’t the goal; the goal is glorifying God by drawing circles around the promises, miracles, and dreams He wants for you.”
Today’s question; Do you pray timid or bold prayers? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Identifying your Jericho”
