Book Review: Draw The Circle by Mark Batterson

A couple of weeks ago, a friend stopped by for a quick visit. During the visit, she shared how her and her husband were helping out a man with a 3-year old daughter whose wife had just died. Through the conversation, I realized I knew this woman and had prayed for her for a long time. . .then I stopped. I didn't stop because I didn't care anymore, I stopped because I wasn't sure my prayers were making a difference anymore. However, through that conversation, God showed me that my prayers may be making more of a difference than I know.

Shortly afterwords, I had opportunity to read Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson. Batterson is the author of the popular book, The Circle Maker. I didn't read that book but I had read his book, Praying Circle Around Your Children. Draw the Circle is a forty-day devotional book that offers forty true faith-building stories of how God answers prayers based on his first book, daily Scripture and a prayer prompt for each day. This book is designed to inspire the reader to pray.

I found this book to do just what it was designed to do. . .I was inspired to pray. I have a heart for God and I want to intercede for others. If I am to love God and to love others as myself, I think I need to pray for the people and needs around me. Each of these readings offered me nuggets I needed.

*Day 19 shares a story about a mother of 12 who prayed for her children after every meal her whole life. . .Wow! What an example of a prayer warrior. Ten of the 12 children surrendered their lives to Christ. . .the 10th one is the one that really speaks to me in the story. He came to Christ at age 92 after a neighbor had a dream and felt prompted to invite him to church. "And that is the beauty of prayer. We never know when our prayers will be answered, and we never know when we are the answer to someone else's prayer. What a reminder that, indeed, our prayers make a difference and God will work the answer in His time.

*Day 26 "If you worry about everything, you'll have a much higher likelihood of praying without ceasing if you simply learn to turn your worries into prayers. The Holy Spirit can redeem your anxious thoughts by using them as prayer triggers. Think of worry as a prayer alarm. Every time it goes off, you put it to prayer." While worry isn't as big of a problem for me as it used to be, at times, I still struggle with it and found this helpful.

These are just a couple examples of some of the prayer wisdom found in this book. I recommend it to anyone wanting to spend more time in prayer. I found much encouragement. I also found someone who sounded real and shared some struggle along with the advice. For me it is a keeper for my permanent library and one I will refer to again.

I received this book from Zondervan as a part of the Booksneeze program. I was not required to write a positive review.