Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge

by Mark Batterson

If we hit our knees, the Holy Spirit will do the heavy lifting. If we hit our knees, the Holy Spirit will reveal things that can only be discovered in the presence of God. If we hit our knees, the Holy Spirit will give us God-ideas for our ministry, family, business — for our lives.

Are my problems bigger than God, or is God bigger than my problems? Our biggest problem is our small view of God.

How big is your God? Is He big enough to heal your marriage or heal your child? Is He bigger than a positive MRI or a negative evaluation? Is He bigger than your worst sin, greatest fear, or biggest dream? If He is bigger than all of those things, then pray like it.

God can answer one prayer in a way that will affect millions of lives.

when you get a God-idea, you need to take it captive. In the words of Paul, “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

it’s also about capturing creative thoughts and keeping them in our minds. It means stewarding every word, thought, impression, and revelation inspired by the Spirit of God.

Never underestimate the power of a single prayer.

Don’t just pray about it; act on it. There are defining moments in life when we need to prove to God that we mean business — and I don’t mean “business as usual.” In fact, it’s only when “business as usual” goes out of business that we’re in business — the Father’s business. That’s when we’re on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough.

Bold prayers and big dreams are normal. Anything less is subnormal. And when bold prayers become the norm, so do the miraculous breakthroughs that follow.

But don’t let the nitpickers and naysayers keep you from doing something crazy if you know God has called you to do it.

There is a pattern repeated in Scripture: crazy miracles are the offspring of crazy faith. Normal begets normal. Crazy begets crazy. If we want to see God do crazy miracles, sometimes we need to pray crazy prayers.

Bold prayers honor God and God honors bold prayers.

And this is precisely what happens when we pray. We see things no one else sees. We see things before others see them.

Prayer gives us a God’s-eye view. It heightens our awareness and gives us a sixth sense that enables us to perceive spiritual realities that are beyond our five senses.

Prayer turns us into first-class noticers. It helps us see what God wants us to notice. The more you pray, the more you notice; the less you pray, the less you notice. It’s as simple as that.

Prayer creates divine opportunities.

The emotions we experience don’t reflect our external reality; they reflect our internal reality. We don’t see the world as it is; we see the world as we are.

The Holy Spirit compensates for our sensory limits by enabling us to conceive of things we cannot perceive with our five senses.

Our spiritual vision develops much like our physical vision does.

prayer is the key to perception.

When we open our spiritual eyes, we start seeing God everywhere we look. We see the image of God in others. We see His fingerprints on His creation. We see God-ordained opportunities all around us all the time.

Faith is what keeps those dreams alive, even when it seems as though they are dead and buried. But that is the very nature of seeds. They go underground. They disappear. And while it may seem like they are dead, they are not. They’re just germinating beneath the surface!

praying is planting. Each prayer is like a seed that gets planted in the ground. It disappears for a season, but it eventually bears fruit that blesses future generations. In fact, our prayers bear fruit forever.

We need the patience of the planter. We need the foresight of the farmer. We need the mind-set of the sower. We worry far too much about outcomes instead of focusing on inputs. We cannot make things grow. Period. All we can do is plant and water. But if we plant20 and water, God promises to give the increase.

sow a seed. Keep praying, keep obeying, keep giving, keep loving, keep serving. And if you keep sowing the right seeds, the harvest of blessing will come in God’s time, in God’s way!

If we do the little things like they are big things, then God will do the big things like they are little things.

Too many people pray like they are playing the lottery. Prayer is more like an investment account. Every deposit accumulates compound interest. And one day, if we keep making deposits every day, it will pay dividends beyond our wildest imagination.

vision beyond your resources.

but we refuse to let our budget determine our vision. That would be poor stewardship because it’s based on our limited resources rather than on God’s unlimited supply. Too often we butcher our God-given dreams because we forget the simple fact that God owns the cattle21 on a thousand hills. Don’t let fear dictate your decisions. Letting your budget determine your vision is backward. Faith is letting your vision determine your budget.

the God who gives the vision is the same God who makes provision.

I’ve since learned that the miracle is already in the house!

It’s tough to discern between wishful thinking and prayerful promptings,

God listens more to our hearts than our words.

It’s our childlike faith, not our theological vocabulary, that moves the heart of our heavenly Father. It’s simple childlike trust. It’s the bedrock belief that God is bigger than our problem, bigger than our mistake, bigger than our dream.

to the infinite, all finites are the same.

The size of your prayers depends on the size of your God. If your god is small, you’ll pray man-sized prayers. But if your God knows no limits, then neither will your prayers. The God we pray to exists outside of the four space-time dimensions He created, and maybe we should pray that way!

the way you steward the miracles of God is by believing for bigger and better miracles. God stretches your faith so you can dream bigger dreams.

There comes a moment when you must quit talking to God about the mountain in your life and start talking to the mountain about your God.

Jesus is the Lion23 of the tribe of Judah. And when He roars, everything is shaken. All authority under heaven and on earth is His. And we are His children. Why don’t we live like it, love like it, give like it, serve like it, and pray like it?

God is for us,24 who can be against us? The one who is in you25 is greater than the one who is in the world. I can do all things26 through Christ who strengthens me. In all things God works27 for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We are not conquerors; we are more than conquerors through Christ.

He said, “I will build My church.” The key pronouns are I and My. The church belongs to Jesus Christ. So does the battle. So does the victory.

The battlefield is the prayer closet.

When we hit our knees, we pick a fight with the enemy. We are immediately transported to the front lines of the kingdom, where we wage war with principalities and powers. That is where the battle is won or lost — on our knees! And when we hit our knees, God fights our battles for us.

of us have impossible people in our lives. All we can do is circle them in prayer. It’s the only way to keep our attitude in check. And prayer has the power to change the heart of Pharaoh. So every time I got angry, I converted it into a prayer. I think it’s the closest I’ve ever come to praying without ceasing because I was angry all the time.

learned that we don’t have to be afraid of the enemy’s attacks. These attacks are counterproductive when we counteract them with prayer. The more opposition we experience, the harder we have to pray. And the harder we have to pray, the more miracles God does.

Prayer is the way we let go and let God.

If anyone messes with us, they are messing with our heavenly Father.

They prayed like it depended on God because they knew it did.

Psalm 35.