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

by Mark Batterson

And Honi was their only hope.

Nope.

Honi was celebrated as a hometown hero by the people whose lives he had saved.

Nope.

but God is still looking for circle makers.

What?

God isn’t offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers.

What if your biggest dream is ridiculously ungodly?

But ask God to part the Red Sea or make the sun stand still or float an iron axhead, and God is moved to omnipotent action.

What?

There is nothing God loves more than keeping promises, answering prayers, performing miracles, and fulfilling dreams.

Where is this ever said in scripture? This sounds more like a genie than god.

And the bigger the circle we draw, the better, because God gets more glory.

In the story listed in the first chapter, literally all the glory was given by this author to Honi. He acts as if God is the effect that has Honi as the cause. I doubt bigger circles will fix this.

The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect — and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible situations in our lives and invite God to intervene.

Part one of this sentence is pretty good. Clause two is poppycock. Show me the circle drawn around the cross.

Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.

Right. If I pray selfishly for years, assuming every worldly desire I demand from god will be fulfilled, I will end up spiritually bankrupt, impatient, and super confused when it comes time to grieve, suffer, or face death against my will. It may be a better idea to pray to be more humble, godly, and understanding of god's will for me.

which was actually more of a square,

Sigh.

Simply put, God won’t do it unless you pray for it.

I see. Follow up question: Why? I mean, is He stuck until we say the magic words hard enough? Just consider how differently the book of Exodus would have sounded if this was true.

or maybe I should say, we have not because we circle not.

Deeper sigh.

He will answer.

Follow up question: Do you realize his answer is allowed to be "no?" Paul had to learn that one.

God has the ability to answer the prayers we should have prayed but lacked the knowledge or ability to even ask.

I actually wholly argree with this statement. Kind of undercuts the point of the book, though. What happened to “Simply put, God won’t do it unless you pray for it?”