The Circle Maker Quotes

“Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. God isn’t offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. If your prayers aren’t impossible to you, they are insulting to God.

Prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.

The greatest tragedy in life is the prayers that go unanswered because they go unasked.

God does not answer vague prayers. The more specific your prayers are, the more glory God receives.

Most of us don’t get what we want because we quit praying. We give up too easily. We give up too soon. We quit praying right before the miracle happens.

If you don’t take the risk, you forfeit the miracle.

Take a step of faith when God gives you a vision because you trust that the One who gave you the vision is going to make provision. And for the record, if the vision is from God, it will most definitely be beyond your means.

We shouldn’t seek answers as much as we should seek God. If you seek answers you won’t find them, but if you seek God, the answers will find you.

If your plans aren’t birthed in prayer and bathed in prayer, they won’t succeed.

Are your problems bigger than God, or is God bigger than your problems? Our biggest problem is our small view of God. That is the cause of all lesser evils. And it’s a high view of God that is the solution to all other problems.

Because you know He can, you can pray with holy confidence.

Persistence is the magic bullet. The only way you can fail is if you stop praying. 100 percent of the prayers I don’t pray won’t get answered.

Where are you most proficient, most sufficient? Maybe that is precisely where God wants you to trust Him to do something beyond your ability.

What we perceive as unanswered prayers are often the greatest answers. Our heavenly Father is far too wise and loves us far too much to give us everything we ask for. Someday we’ll thank God for the prayers He didn’t answer as much or more than the ones He did.

You can’t pray for open doors if you aren’t willing accept closed doors, because one leads to the other.

Just as our greatest successes often come on the heels of our greatest failures, our greatest answers often come on the heels of our longest and most boring prayers.

The biggest difference between success and failure, both spiritually and occupationally, is your waking-up time on your alarm clock. We won’t remember the things that came easy; we’ll remember the things that came hard.

It’s not just where you end up that’s important; it’s how you get there. Goal setting begins and ends with prayer.

The more you have to circle something in prayer, the more satisfying it is spiritually. And, often, the more glory God gets.

I don’t want easy answers or quick answers because I have a tendency to mishandle the blessings that come too easily or too quickly. I take the credit or take them for granted. So now I pray that it will take long enough and be hard enough for God to receive all of the glory. Change your prayer approach from as soon as possible to as long as it takes.

Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“But God doesn’t call the qualified; God qualifies the called.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Finally, I learned that we shouldn’t seek answers as much as we should seek God.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Don’t just read the Bible. Start circling the promises. Don’t just make a wish. Write down a list of God-glorifying life goals. Don’t just pray. Keep a prayer journal. Define your dream.                 Claim your promise.                                   Spell your miracle.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“We pray as if God’s chief objective is our personal comfort. It’s not. God’s chief objective is His glory.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“You cannot build God’s reputation if you aren’t willing to risk yours.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Many people never see God part the Jordan River in their lives because their feet are firmly planted on dry ground. We’re waiting for God to make a move while God is waiting for us to make a move. We say to God, “Why don’t you part this river?” And God says to us, “Why don’t you get your feet wet?” But if you make a move, you’ll see God move. And He can move heaven and earth.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“May you keep dreaming until the day you die. May imagination overtake memory. May you die young at a ripe old age.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Finally, I learned that we shouldn’t seek answers as much as we should seek God. We get overanxious. We try to microwave our own answers instead of trusting God’s timing. But here’s an important reminder: If you seek answers you won’t find them, but if you seek God, the answers will find you. There comes a point after you have prayed through that you need to let go and let God. How? By resisting the temptation to manufacture your own answer to your own prayer.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Sometimes the power of prayer is the power to carry on. It doesn’t always change your circumstances, but it gives you the strength to walk through them. When you pray through, the burden is taken off of your shoulders and put on the shoulders of Him who carried the cross to Calvary.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“If we repent, God always recycles our mistakes.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Imagination is the road less taken, but it is the pathway of prayer.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Do you trust that God is for you even when He doesn’t give you what you asked for?”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“The more faith you have, the more specific your prayers will be. And the more specific your prayers are, the more glory God receives.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Second-degree faith is resurrection faith. It’s a faith that refuses to put periods at the end of disappointments. It’s a faith that believes that God can reverse the irreversible.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“In the words of Harriet Doerr, “One of the best things about aging is being able to watch imagination overtake memory.” So who’s right? The neurologists? Or Harriet? The answer is both. As we age, either imagination overtakes memory or memory overtakes imagination. Imagination is the road less taken, but it is the pathway of prayer. 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. One litmus test of spiritual maturity is whether your dreams are getting bigger or smaller. The older you get, the more faith you should have because you’ve experienced more of God’s faithfulness. And it is God’s faithfulness that increases our faith and enlarges our dreams. There is certainly nothing wrong with an occasional stroll down memory lane, but God wants you to keep dreaming until the day you die.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“The issue is never, “Are you qualified?” The issue is always, “Are you called?”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“We give up too easily. We give up too soon. We quit praying right before the miracle happens.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Faith is the willingness to look foolish.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Never underestimate the power of a single prayer. God can do anything through anyone who circles their big dreams with bold prayers. With God, there is no precedent, because all things are possible.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“When you pray regularly, you never know when God will show up or speak up. Today could be the day. When you live in prayer mode, you live with holy anticipation. You know that coincidences are providences. Any moment can turn into a holy moment. God can invade the reality of your life at three o’clock one afternoon and change everything.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“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.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“There is nothing God loves more than keeping promises, answering prayers, performing miracles, and fulfilling dreams. That is who He is. That is what He does. And the bigger the circle we draw, the better, because God gets more glory. 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.

I promise you this: God is ready and waiting. So while I have no idea what circumstances you find yourself in, I’m confident that you are only a prayer away from a dream fulfilled, a promise kept, or a miracle performed.

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. And one way or another, your small timid prayers or bid audacious prayers will change the trajectory of your life and turn you into two totally different people. Prayers are prophecies. They are best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Well-developed faith results in well-defined prayers, and well-defined prayers result in a well-lived life.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“I threw in the obligatory “if it be Your will” at the end. That tagline may sound spiritual, but it was less a submission to God’s will and more a profession of doubt. If you aren’t careful, the will of God can become a cop-out if things don’t turn out the way you want.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“Every once in a while, I need a no-agenda day with nothing to do, but those aren’t the days we’re going to celebrate at the end of our lives. We won’t even remember those days. What we’ll remember are the days when we had everything to do, and with God’s help, we did it. We won’t remember the things that came easy; we’ll remember the things that came hard. We’ll remember the miracles on the far side of “long and boring.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears

“fail. But I also believe this: One bold prayer can accomplish more than a thousand well-laid plans. So go ahead and plan, but make sure you circle your plans in prayer. If your plans aren’t birthed in prayer and bathed in prayer, they won’t succeed.”
― Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker (Enhanced Edition): Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears