I came across The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson when I was doing a search for books on prayer. Am I ever glad I found this book.  Mark has done a great job in this book of finding a good balance between challenging readers and also encouraging readers to pray more often, pray for more than you have before and to build your personal relationship with Christ.

I highlighted and dog-eared a number of passages in this book, but one of my favourites is this one:

“When you live by faith, it often feels like you are risking your reputation. You’re not. You are risking God’s reputation. It’s not your faith that’s on the line. It’s His faithfulness. Why? Because God is the one who made the promise, and He is the only one who can keep it. The battle doesn’t belong to you; it belongs to God. And because the battle doesn’t belong to you, neither does the glory.”

And just because I can’t pick only one favorite out of the book, here is another one of my favorite passages:

“The reason many of us give up too soon is that we feel like we have failed if God doesn’t answer our prayer. That isn’t failure. The only way you can fail is if you stop praying. Prayer is a no-lose proposition.”

Mark’s book, The Circle Maker has definitely challenged and encouraged me with my own prayer life and I have enjoyed his writing style so much in this book, that I’m eager to read another one of his books, All In, very soon.

If you want a book that will stretch your faith and deepen your prayer life, this book is a good one to read!