The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

by Mark Batterson

Once you’ve experienced a miracle like that, you believe God for even bigger and better miracles.

The day we stop dreaming is the day we start dying.

In fact, the death of a dream is often a subtle form of idolatry. We lose faith in the God who gave us the big dream and settle for a small dream that we can accomplish without His help.

We go after dreams that don’t require prayer.

you keep drawing prayer circles, the answer is yes.

May you die young at a ripe old age.

Faith is the willingness to look

foolish.

Peter looked foolish getting out of a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus looked foolish wearing a crown of thorns.

But his willingness to look foolish resulted in epic miracles

Israel out of Egypt,

parting of the ...

quail mi...

In order to experience a miracle, you have to take a risk.

And one of the most difficult types of risk to take is risking your reputation.

You cannot build God’s reputation if you aren’t willing to risk yours.

If you haven’t eaten at an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse, you aren’t ready to die yet.

selective memory!

Israelites longingly remember the free fish they ate in Egypt, and forget the little fact that the food ...

we scoff at the Israelites for grumbling about a meal of manna that was miraculously

delivered to their doorsteps every day, but don’t we do the same thing?

There are miracles all around us all the time, yet it’s so easy to find...

The simple act of reading involves millions of impulses firing across...

God patiently

God promises meat for a month. And Moses can hardly believe it. Literally.

Lilly took Adam on a tour of the sewer where he found an entire community of orphans living under the streets.

The prospect of leaving a six-digit salary didn’t add up, but Adam didn’t care.

“Pulling an Adam Taylor” has become synonymous with taking a step of faith that doesn’t add up.

Logic is screaming no; faith is whispering yes.

Then a nameless boy offers his brown-bag lunch of five loaves and two fish to Jesus.

“How far will they go among so many?” Like Moses, Andrew starts doing the math in his head and it doesn’t add up.

that

If you put what little you have in your hand into the hand of God, it won’t just add up; God will make it multiply.

It says Jesus “gave thanks.” He didn’t wait until after the miracle; He thanked God for the miracle before the miracle happened.

He knew His Father would keep His promise.

up? What do you do when a dream doesn’t fit within the logical constraints of your left brain?

What do you do when faith seems foolish?

It doesn’t add up, but the will of God never does add up by human calculation.

That is God’s business.

We can’t figure out how to do what God has called us to do, so we don’t do it at all.

I learned that if you aren’t willing to put yourself in “this is crazy” situations, you’ll never experience “this is awesome” moments.

The same is true when we take a flying leap of faith.

When we find ourselves in situations that are beyond our control or beyond our comprehension, we pray.

Moses must have felt like he was running off a cliff, but that is how the parachute of God’s promises opens up.

The greatest risk is failing to circle the promises of God because we forfeit the miracles God wants to perform.

but I felt like God was prompting us to start giving.

Him. How can we give what we don’t have?

How can we give what we don’t have?

what I learned about arguments with God: If you win the ar...