Friday, August 16, 2013

Book Review: Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson

I had read the book The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, so when I saw this, Draw the Circle: the 40 Day Prayer Challenge, as the follow up devotional, I was pretty excited to give it a try. By and large, I am not a fan of the standard devotional literature out there. I find most of it shallow and sappy. But there seems to be a different style of devotional literature emerging and this one fits the bill. It's not the little devotional reading that you read before work that is uplifting and makes you feel good with Jesus the rest of the day. This one is almost more like a 40 day course, or a 40 day sharpening, and at the end of it, you are expected to be transformed for life.

The content follows the book The Circle Maker pretty close, but he does add in new stories, so of which were sent to him by readers after they read The Circle Maker. Even though much of the content is the same, being arranged in a 40 day format changes it up enough to make it rewarding to go through again. Each day was an easily digestible unit with a strong theme that was easy to take away and remind yourself of throughout the day. Though there are not necessarily activities for each day or follow up questions to think about, the readings themselves strongly point toward things for examination or further thought in your life. I think the ideas are radical and big enough that even the most seasoned and devoted prayers will get something out of this, while those who struggle with praying are given a good framework from which to begin.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to strengthen their prayer life. I personally am using the time to lead up to a major project that I'm undertaking, sort of a 40 days of strengthening through prayer.

This book was given to me free of charge by booksneeze.com in return for my honest review.

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