Is anyone else pumped about this book?
The Circle Maker, in just these first few chapters, has totally changed my perspective of prayer. I thought my prayer life was pretty good. I talk to God and listen (although I know I need to listen more) and then I sit back and wait and watch how He works.
But, what I’m learning from this book is that I am not taking everything to God in prayer. I am not praying for some things like I should.
Why?
Because I am not bold enough.
I lack the audaciousness it takes to go to God with my big dreams (my Jericho….which I said yesterday was to be a published author and a speaker/teacher of the Word). I guess I feel that maybe this dream I have is too enormous and won’t ever happen so why bother praying about it.
Anyone else feel this way?
I love what Mark Batterson says though, “Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers.” (page 15). When I hear that I realize this is so true. When we pray with boldness, we are saying that this dream I have is impossible for me, but not for God. Because we know that “nothing is impossible for God.” (Luke 1:37). We recognize that God is powerful and we do not fear going to God in prayer. And we are saying that God cares about our dreams. I think a lot of times we aren’t bold in our prayers because we believe God doesn’t have time to listen to our “wishful thinking” dreams.
Wow…how so far from the truth is that?
After we have gathered up all the boldness within us to pray for our dreams, we sometimes fall short in our prayers because we are too vague. I like the quote from page 27 that says, “God doesn’t answer vague prayers.” That got me thinking about my own prayers. How often do I pray vague prayers? Sometimes my prayers seem to be remote prayers because I am used to praying the same thing each day. I am too general and not specific enough. My prayers need to spell out what I want God to do for me.
Remember the question I had you ponder on Sunday night that Jesus asked the blind man: “What do you want me to do for you?” Go back to that place in your journal where you wrote your answer to this question. I want you to write out a very specific prayer for this. I want you to lay it all out on the table for God. Don’t be shy about it. Be bold. Don’t be vague. Be specific. Write down what is in your heart. This is a prayer that should be fearless. No need to be afraid of speaking your dream to the Lord. Just be open, honest, and audacious.
Because as Mark Batterson says, “God honors bold prayers.” And I believe that with my whole heart.
Journal Questions
- Read Genesis 18:22-33 (I like NIV best for this passage).
- What did Abraham boldly ask God to do?
- What can we learn from Abraham when it comes to speaking with the Lord?
- What will it take for us to boldly go to God in prayer with our dreams?
On page 25 of the book, Mark lists a few things that I want you do in your journal.
- Write down a list of God-glorifying life goals. Think about what the goals are for your life and write them down in your journal.
- Keep a prayer journal. I also want this journal to be a prayer journal for you. Write down any prayer requests you have. Write down their names and what you are praying for them about (remember be specific). During the week, you will have the opportunity to share any prayer requests you have with our group on our Facebook page (see post from yesterday….pray for each person’s Jericho). And if write down the requests others share in your journal so you can boldly pray to God for them.
- Define your dream. Write out your dream. This will help in being able to go before the Lord with boldness.
- Claim your promise. Write out a Scripture you want to claim over this dream.
- Spell your miracle. For your dream, how is it spelled out? To understand what this means, read the “Spell it Out” section on pages 25-27
Father God,
Thank you for all you have done for us. We praise you for all that You are…one of those being a God who honors boldness. Take away any fear that we have of coming before you with our dreams. Grant us boldness to come before Your throne with praise for our Almighty Savior.
Hear our specific prayers, Lord.
Amen.