Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Draw the Circle

Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson builds upon his earlier work in The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. Batterson provides readers with a 40 day devotional to help focus his readers on a greater prayer life. Each entry is 5 to 6 pages in length and covers a variety of prayer related topics. Batterson’s writing used excerpts from The Circle Maker, stories of those impacted by the original book and tales from Batterson’s own prayer life.

Batterson opens with “The forty-day prayer challenge is going to change your life (Batterson, 7).” Personally I feel this promise falls short. To me Draw the Circle is more of a devotional than a challenge. To me a challenge is something that requires action steps and reflection. I assume that these can be found in Batterson’s The Circle Maker Prayer Journal. If I evaluate the book as a devotional, I find it typical of that book type. And I believe those who enjoy Batterson’s writing style will likely find this enjoyable and enlightening.

I sadly am not a huge fan of devotionals, though I have read a few. Yet I was still able to find thoughts for reflection. These include need to provide variance to our prayer life to avoid ruts, the need for specific and non specific prayer and stories of God working in the lives of the prayerful. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I had thought of it as a devotional and not a challenge.

Review Copy Provided by Booksneeze

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