Book review: Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson

Leading on from Mark Batterson’s book The Circle Maker, this is a 40-day devotional-style book. In each of the 40 chapters there’s a Bible verse or passage, a true inspiring story of someone who prayed, and an application point for the day. The chapters are short and readable, and are well-suited to the design of the book.

There were things that I liked about this book – its incredibly well-written, and each chapter is clearly thought through. The application points from each chapter are challenging and Bible-based.

But, unfortunately, I wanted to love this book a bit more than I did. I haven’t read The Circle Maker so don’t know if it’s explained in there, but even after having read this I still have no idea what Batterson means by ‘circling’. In the book it seems like at times it means taking a pen and drawing a ring around a particular Bible verse (e.g. ‘circling 2 Corinthians 7:14′), at others it means praying over a particular location while walking around it (e.g. ‘circling the living room’), and at others just praying about something (e.g. ‘circling a job interview’). Apart from being confusing this means that it lost its meaning, like when the author took Jesus’ command to ‘keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking,’ and added ‘keep circling’ – what does that even mean?!

Something else that frustrated me was that the overall tone of the book made it seem like this guy just had everything in his life sorted now that he’d got ‘circling’ sorted out. There was quite a lot of things like ‘when I hit trouble I just circle it in prayer, trust in God, and continue in life with a smile on my face’ – not something I find useful.

The referencing also got on my nerves – some stories weren’t referenced at all (I’d never heard of Honi until this book talked about him in passing and I had to research him to understand it!), and the others had footnotes in really odd places, which for me broke up some excellent quotes unnecessarily.

Finally, although the book starts by saying that the purpose of circling stuff in prayer is more to learn God’s will rather than to get what we want, there was a bit too much talk about ‘you can get your dream through prayer’ which, again, I didn’t find useful.

Now, although this book did end up annoying me I still want to recommend it – the action points for each day are genuinely good, and if reading it is going to increase the amount of regular prayer (I can’t see why it wouldn’t), that can’t be a bad thing.

I got this book for free from booksneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

Related articles

• Post 1 (circlemakers.wordpress.com)
• Book Review: Draw The Circle by Mark Batterson (schelastic.wordpress.com)
• 40 Days To Change My Life (thegirlshouse.wordpress.com)
• Why I Highly Recommend “The Circle Maker” by Mark Batterson (faithfulprovisions.com)
• Book Giveaway! | The Circle Maker (ruthiedean.com)

I prayed about it, so stop bothering me

 

English: Christian Bible, rosary, and crucifix. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Does anyone else think it’s funny that many Christians claim to have been created in the image of God, yet their God seems more to have been created in their image? Not funny ha-ha, more funny strange, that is?

What I mean is: there seem to be a lot of people who end up making decisions which seem to contradict God’s instruction under the guise of ‘I prayed about it, and God said it was fine.’

I was a university student when I became a Christian, and if I knew one thing about Christianity it was that Christians don’t believe in sex before marriage! Whatever that means. So when a very, very Christian fellow-student told me that she started sleeping with her boyfriend when he proposed to her, I was confused. But she said that she’d prayed about it and that ‘God had given her peace that what he was really talking about was a lifelong commitment.’

Hmm…I’m still confused about that today. And Ed Welch has written a pretty useful article about people who have ‘prayed about’ stuff and coincidentally found that God has made them an exception. Here’s a sneak peek:

“I prayed about it”…is invoked when Scripture clearly teaches one thing and the person wants to do another. For example, a Christian woman is (somehow!) granted that coveted spiritual exception to marry an unbeliever. When challenged by her friends, she says: “I prayed about it.” Or another follower of Christ is startled to hear the Spirit say a resounding “YES, you can move in with your girlfriend,” or “YES, you can leave your spouse, because, after all, I want you to be happy.”

What “God” are these people praying to? This perverse, self-deceived foolishness is apparent to everyone except the person involved. How can we respond? We have a few possibilities.

The obvious place to start is to wonder if we are looking in the mirror. Where do I justify my own desires? Yikes, I don’t have to look hard. Lord have mercy on me.

Amen. Have a read of the entire article to get the full picture.

Inspirational story from the shadow of death

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Dustin Morrison, a soldier in Afghanistan, experienced a horrific explosion and ended up in hospital. It was bad:

You know you’re bad when a broken jaw, lacerated spleen and kidneys aren’t a top priority to address.

His family prayed for him to recover.

On Easter Sunday, doctors finally removed the machines—not to end his life but because they had witnessed a miracle. Against all odds, his lungs began to breathe on their own. When the news came to the family, Pedersen says that their reaction was overjoyed—but not shocked. “It was just like, ‘We know.’” She attributed the recovery in part to the thousands of people who were praying in the small communities of Iowa back home.

Still, the doctors were realistic with Morrison, explaining that despite the miraculous recovery he would never walk again. “I knew if I did,” Morrison says, “it would be of God. I’ve learned never to trust man before God.”

Ultimately, this journey to the shadow of death ended up bringing Dustin a real conviction to live as a Christian rather than just preaching Christianity:

An old friend recently pulled Morrison aside, complaining about his new lifestyle and all that he could be doing instead. “My buddy said, ‘You’re missing out on the some of the best years of your life.’ I said, ‘No, I’m just starting them.’”

Read the full story over here.

More Than Ordinary by Doug Sherman

In this book Doug Sherman explains that it is actually possible to enjoy life with God! Based on his experience as a teenager in which he handed every area of his life over to God and was surprised to find that Christians actually seemed less happy than other people, he has compiled a biblical argument for how life can truly be enjoyed through our relationship with God. The book is separated into two sections: Encountering God, in which we learn about God’s character, and Enjoying God, in which that character is practically applied to our daily lives.

Sherman’s a good communicator – I found the book easy to read but not over-simplistic – and he has an ability to explain some pretty enormous truths concisely. The concepts presented here aren’t ground-breaking by any means but I found it really useful to be reminded of the importance of the Christian basics like prayer, purity and witness.

Each chapter finishes with a paragraph about how to practically apply the lessons learnt; I imagine this could work well as a devotional in which you think about the chapter during the day or week, or as a tool for a small group discussion.

I’d be happy to recommend this book to any Christian but particularly those who have been Christians for a while – it really takes us back to the foundations of Christianity in a way that isn’t patronising.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The effects of prayer in a scientific study

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Tom is an atheist who visits and comments on this blog from time to time. Earlier this week he posted a link to this study – this is basically it (and I quote):

Patients at 6 US hospitals were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: 604 received intercessory prayer after being informed that they may or may not receive prayer; 597 did not receive intercessory prayer also after being informed that they may or may not receive prayer; and 601 received intercessory prayer after being informed they would receive prayer. Intercessory prayer was provided for 14 days, starting the night before CABG. The primary outcome was presence of any complication within 30 days of CABG. Secondary outcomes were any major event and mortality.

RESULTS: In the 2 groups uncertain about receiving intercessory prayer, complications occurred in 52% (315/604) of patients who received intercessory prayer versus 51% (304/597) of those who did not (relative risk 1.02, 95% CI 0.92-1.15). Complications occurred in 59% (352/601) of patients certain of receiving intercessory prayer compared with the 52% (315/604) of those uncertain of receiving intercessory prayer (relative risk 1.14, 95% CI 1.02-1.28). Major events and 30-day mortality were similar across the 3 groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on complication-free recovery from CABG, but certainty of receiving intercessory prayer was associated with a higher incidence of complications.

Here are my thoughts. The higher rate of complications in those who had been told they would receive prayer doesn’t have any bearing on the truth of whether prayer works or not, so I’m going to ignore that for today. I already know that atheists will write off my thoughts as excuses, but that’s the game we play I suppose!

Assumptions

I think the biggest question here is around what assumptions have been made. If the God being prayed to (and therefore tested in this study) is the God of the Bible, then we must start with the assumption that the Bible is true in its representation of God and His response to us. Knowing that the Bible commands us never to place God under test conditions (Deuteronomy 6:16, Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12) the expected result proving His existence would be that prayer would appear, under these circumstances, not to make much difference.

It would be like me declaring that I am invisible until observed. No-one has any evidence to disprove my statement because any evidence would only serve as evidence in favour of it. In effect, the results of this test provenothing.

Nature of the test

I don’t know the entire Bible off by heart, but I don’t remember there being a single reference to anyone in there praying successfully for a doctor’s operation to not experience any complications. If there was, this would appear to be a legitimate experiment. As it is, even if there was an overwhelming protection against complications it would be hard to argue that this actually proved that the God of the Bible was answering the prayers, as it never suggests this will be the case.

Which God

Specifically, however, the test doesn’t specify which God is being prayed to – if the participants were praying to someone or something other than the God of Christianity, it doesn’t surprise me in the least that prayer seemed to have little to no effect.

Success

The definition of success according to this test was ‘no complications in surgery’, however this is nowhere presented as a ‘successful’ answer to prayer according to the Bible. Again, the results present no surprise to a Bible-believing Christian.

Of course, the answer to this would be that the people praying were praying for no complications, so a positive answer would have been exactly that. However the Bible’s promise is that God will grant the desires of your heart to people who delight themselves in the LORD, rather than those who delight themselves in scientific study (Psalm 37:4).

Conclusions

So, bearing all the above in mind it’s hardly surprising that the intercessory prayer used in this test appeared to have no immediate effect on the surgery. Certain details have been missed out of these studies (it would be interesting, for example, to see the statistics showing percentage of complications based on location, surgeon, surgeon’s faith etc).

Clearly, the only way to properly test prayer would be to compare two situations side-by-side experienced in real life, one by a Bible-believing Christian and one by a non-Christian. And the results of this can be seen. Ask me, or any other Bible-believing Christian, if we believe prayer to work – the answer will always be yes. Here are just two examples of when I have personally experienced prayer working.

1. I prayed for a lady’s ovary to be healed; it was – the doctor couldn’t understand what had happened.

2. A friend’s hip had been causing him pain for a couple of weeks – I prayed for it to be healed; it was.

So here are my conclusions:

If knowing that you are being prayed for hinders the healing process, the chance that these individuals would have been healed would have been astronomically low.

The situations were that we were just sitting around praying – the chances of someone being healed of these issues out of nowhere is surely virtually nothing, so the fact that they were healed should stand a million miles out of the crowd.

Based on my experience prayer works. It would be selfish of me not to pray, and not to encourage others to pray. So here’s my encouragement: pray!

Living by God's Promises by Joel R. Beeke & James A. LaBelle (audio)

This book is a modernised compilation of the works of three Puritans, Andrew Gray, Edward Leigh, and William Spurstowe, all looking at the promises of God, and how to then live life in light of them.

Firstly, let’s just point out that when I say that this is a ‘modernised’ compilation, that doesn’t mean that the content has been ‘dumbed down’. The Puritans often wrote phenomenally heavy, content-rich works, and this is an attempt to communicate that same level of truth but for a modern-day audience. This is still one of those books where every word of every sentence has justified its existence, and that means that in reading it it’s likely you’re being bombarded with challenging truths.

I’m not convinced, therefore, that audio is the best format for this book. On several occasions I heard a sentence and had to skip back to actually listen to it! At some points it felt like every sentence had a new challenge in it, and I would have probably preferred to have this written down instead so I could have paused, and meditated on a particular biblical idea.

That said, this is still an outstanding book. Every chapter looks at a different aspect of God’s promises (such as God’s promises in prayer, in suffering, in temptation), and each time I found myself drawn to seeing things in a new light. It’s worth setting some time aside to focus on the book, because the writing style is hardly one for casual reading, but I’d recommend this in a flash to anyone, Christian or non.

I got this audiobook for free from christianaudio.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

How God helps when we’re suffering

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I’m halfway through a book right now which is blowing my mind – I’m keen to share more that I’m picking up from it, but thought I ought to at least start somewhere…so here we are!

Suffering exists in the world, and all Christians suffer at some time or other. There’s a wealth of Bible verses for our encouragement and reproof in God’s Book, but one idea was highlighted to me in this book I’m currently reading which I’d never really considered before.

God promises lots of stuff in the Bible, including answer to prayer. When we get caught in a tough time of life a Christian’s knee-jerk reaction would be to pray. Some would pray, ‘God, help me through this.’ Some would pray, ‘God, get me out of this!’ Which is the ‘right’ prayer to pray? And why doesn’t God seem to answer us sometimes?

An analogy may help. Imagine that I promised that I would buy you a brand new car in one week’s time. Now, imagine that in one week’s time, instead of buying you a brand new car, I bought you a brand new house. Only a fool would refuse to take the house, saying, ‘but you promised to buy me a car!’ What I gave to you was worth far more, was better, than what I originally promised.

The same is true of God’s promise to answer our prayer. If, for example, I’m really sick and pray to God to heal me, and He does, then that’s a great example of how He has been faithful to His promise to answer my prayer. So…what if He doesn’t? Simples! In His infinite wisdom He has determined that the best thing for me is not to be well right now, He wants to use my sickness for a greater goal, whether or not I understand it.

God will either deliver me from suffering, or give me the strength to bear it – whichever is better. The judgment of which one is better, we have to leave to Him.

My sermon

I preached on Sunday on Nehemiah 1 – hope you enjoyed it if you were there as much as I did (afterwards – I was nervous as anything before)!

Anyway, just thought I’d point out that it’s on the internet for your joy now so you can download the notes and the audio right here!

You can also find the links on my website.

LifeChange: Psalms by the Navigators

I had already worked through the Philippians LifeChange guide so was excited to see how the Navigators would deal with the Psalms. I was not disappointed.

The book works through each genre of prayer shown in the Psalms, providing in-depth study questions, practical applications, useful illustrations, and hands-on group guides for each. Each chapter gives a series of Psalms which could be studied, and works through a selection of verses in great detail to give a headstart.

The language is straightforward but not patronisingly simple. The concepts are complex but the application is easy to understand and thoroughly biblical. The historical context and word studies cast real light on this important Bible book.

In case you haven’t picked it up, I am a fan. If you’re looking for a personal or group study guide for prayer or the Psalms, look no further. There’s even an immensely useful list of resources at the end.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Why pray if God has infinite knowledge, wisdom, and power?

What does prayer achieve? God already knows what we’re going to pray, he already knows what’s best, and he already knows what he’s going to do! Isn’t prayer really a waste of time? C.S. Lewis has something thought-provoking to say about that in The Efficacy of Prayer:

He could, if he chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food; or give is food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and butchers…instead, he allows soil and weather and animals and the muscles, minds, and wills of men to cooperate in the execution if his will.”God,” says Pascal, “instituted prayer in order to lend to his creatures the dignity of causality.” But it is not only prayer; whenever we act at all, he lends us that dignity. It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so.

Question answered? I think so. Thanks C.S.