Vince Recommends…

I have to admit, when I heard about Mark Batterson’s new book, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears, I couldn’t help but ask, “Do we need another book on prayer?” and “Do I really need to read another book on prayer?”  I’ve got about ten on my bookshelves.

It’s not that I don’t think prayer is important. I totally do. I just wondered what new things could be written on the topic. It’s not like prayer has changed a lot.

I was wrong.

Well, I’m not sure if Mark is giving us new thoughts on prayer, or a new way to pray (though he does provide a somewhat different angle). But what he did do was inspire me. Really inspire me. The book is oozing with stories of God doing amazing things through the prayers of His people. And those stories challenged me. I thought about the things that are critically important to me – my wife and kids, who my kids will marry someday, my extended family coming to know Jesus, bringing the love of God to the Las Vegas Strip, living with a courageous risk-taking faith – and was forced to stare in the mirror and ask myself: How often do I pray about those things? Have I given up on the possibility that some could still happen, or that my prayers could really make a difference?

I’ll tell you this: With my ADD personality, I often start reading a book and then literally forget that I’m reading it and move on to the next book I want to read. Finally, I realize – “I’m half-way through about six books right now.” But with The Circle Maker, I was anxious to get to each new chapter, looking for more stories to inspire me to take my prayer life to the next level.