Praying Circles

For those that don't know, I'm a bookworm.

I absolutely love to curl up with a good book. 

In fact, I love it so much that it has become a habit to go to bed 

when my hubby does and after he falls asleep I head for a hot bath and read until I know I won't be able to function the next day unless I stop. Guilty!

I normally don't read just one book, either. At any given time

I probably have at least 3 going. Depends on my mood 

which one I will choose to read at any particular moment.

All that rambling to tell you that I've been reading a book 

called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson.

I will try to say this carefully and attempt not to offend anyone... but I'm typically a skeptic about "formulas" for anything related to my own personal faith. I don't like to be given a recipe on how to pray in order to manipulate God into giving me what I want. 

(Actually...I guess I don't follow recipes for much of anything-cooking included!)

Let me assure you that this book is NOT a recipe/formula type

of prayer book. He does say things to stretch the reader beyond his/her comfort

zone but I appreciate the way he continues to let you know that 

ultimately God is in control and there's no magic formula that we can use to manipulate God.

One of my favorite things about the book so far, is that Batterson encourages us

to pray big. He says that our "safe" prayers (the kind you are confident God will answer)

are almost insulting to a God that is bigger than all of our dreams. He urges the reader to pray beyond the safe stuff. 

I love that.

Isn't it so true that we often hesitate to ask God for the big things because

we fear that we will appear to be crazy when they don't happen?

I won't continue to tell you all about it, in hopes that I've told you enough to make you want to read it. It is such an encouraging wealth of knowledge and great perspective about prayer and God's desire for us. Mixing this book with my favorite verse about faith in prayer, I'm feeling incredibly uplifted today. I'll leave you with Matthew 17:20...

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”