The Circle Maker (Book Review)

January 06, 2012 | by Jason Isaacs | Category: Books,

I recently finished Mark Batterson’s new book The Circle Maker. I’ve read almost all of Batterson’s books and The Circle Maker is written in a very similar fashion as In a Pit With A Lion and Wild Goose Chase. This book will inspire you to dream and pray more, and pray with a specific intensity. You can read my interview with the Mark Batterson here. 

If you are interested in buy The Circle Maker you can purchase the Hardcover here and the Kindle here.

A few takeaways from the book for me were:

• Be specific in what you are asking for from God. Most people don't know when God answers a prayer because they are praying very general prayers such as, "keep me safe", or "bless my food", or "use me in a great way". The more specific you are in your requests the more aware you will be when God answers them.
• Don't be afraid of praying something that isn't God's will. If it not God's will he won't answer it, but being afraid of praying something that isn't God's will keeps people from praying bold prayers.
• The more you pray the more you will pray for God' will.
• God is waiting on people who will pray and dream big prayers, and work hard to see them come to pass.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• God is still honoring those who pray with audacity and tenacity.
• If you want to keep growing spiritually, you need to keep stretching. How? By going after dreams that are bigger than you are.
• Is there a limit to my power? Have you answered the question? There are only two options: yes or no. Until you come to the conviction that God’s grace and power know no limits, you will draw small prayer circles.
• If you aren’t careful, the will of God can become a cop-out if things don’t turn out the way you want.
• One of the most difficult types of risk to take is risking your reputation
• Drawing prayer circles often looks like an exercise in foolishness. But that’s faith. Faith is the willingness to look foolish.
• Prayer and imagination are directly proportional: the more you pray the bigger your imagination becomes because the Holy Spirit supersizes it with God-sized dreams.
• “God does not answer vague prayers.” When I read that statement, I was immediately convicted by how vague my prayers were. Some of them were so vague that there was no way of knowing whether God had answered them or not.
• Most of us don’t get what we want simply because we don’t know what we want. We’ve never circled any of God’s promises. We’ve never written down a list of life goals. We’ve never defined success for ourselves. And our dreams are as nebulous as cumulus clouds.
• It is absolutely imperative at the outset that you come to terms with this simple yet life-changing truth: God is for you. If you don’t believe that, then you’ll pray small timid prayers; if you do believe it, then you’ll pray big audacious prayers.

About the author
Jason is the Teaching Pastor at River City Worship Center in Louisville KY, and owns a web development company Jbirdmedia. He wanted all boys until he had his daughter Sadie and now he wants 4 girls. You can follow him on twitter @jasonisaacs