“You have collected all my tears in your bottle.”- Psalm 56:8
In Chapters 17 (“Bottled Prayer”) and 18 (“Now There Was One”), the concluding chapters of The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson writes that there are many different kind of tears, including the tears shed in prayer. Specifically, David’s psalm promise may be the place for you to begin circling:
“Each and every teardrop is precious to God. They are eternal keepsakes. The day will come when He wipes away every tear in heaven. Until then, God will move heaven and earth to honor every tear that has been shed. Not a single tear is lost on God. He remembers each one. He collects each one. . . . God collects our prayers. Each one is precious to Him. Each one is sealed by God. And you never know when He’s going to uncork an answer.”
Mark encourages us not to let what we cannot do keep us from doing what we can do or let who we are not keep us from being who we are. We are circle makers who need others to agree with us in prayer. Most importantly, Mark emphasizes that the ending of a prayer is the beginning of a dream. The power of one prayer circle never can be underestimated. As Josephus wrote about Honi the circle maker in Antiquities of the Jews, “Now there was one. . . ”
Today’s question: How does circling the promise about “all my tears” in Psalm 56:8 bring comfort to you? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: the latest addition to Crown’s Annotated Bibliography, The Circle Maker
