Long and boring

“Praying through is long and boring, but it is the price you pay for miracles.”- Mark Batterson

In Chapter 123 (“Long and Boring”) of The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson states that, in the Bible, few people prayed with more consistency or intensity than Daniel.  Daniel had the ability to pray urgently about things that weren’t urgent- an important dimension of thinking long.

Pastor Batterson notes that when you feel like you’ve been drawing prayer circles forever and are extremely frustrated by God’s deafening silence, the solution is to stop, drop, and pray.  The only viable option is to pray through.

Although we all need an occasional no-agenda day with nothing to do, Mark emphasizes that type of day won’t be one we celebrate at the end of our lives. We won’t even recall such days.  We’ll remember the days when we persevered or overcame.  Similarly, the ancient truths of the Bible should not be arrived at easily.  Mark explains:

“What we’ll remember are the days when we had everything to do, and with God’s help, we did it.  We’ll remember the things that came hard.  We’ll remember the miracles on the far side of ‘long and boring.’ ”

Mark offers the encouragement that if we pray through and think long, God will give us some exciting answers, although  we don’t know how or when God will answer our prayers.  If we persistently pray through, a miracle is waiting on the other side.

Today’s question: What Bible verses sustain your consistency and intensity in prayer?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Scriptural prayer postures”

 

Long and boring

Thinking long

” . . . the key to dreaming big and praying hard is thinking long.”- Mark Batterson

Today Mark Batterson introduces “The Third Circle- Thinking Long” of The Circle Maker.  He begins by noting that Honi the circle maker realized that prayer is like planting.  A seed planted in the ground disappears for a season, but eventually  bears fruit to bless future generations.  Pastor Batterson emphasizes that our prayers bear fruit forever:

“Prayer is the inheritance we receive and the legacy we leave.”

Mark underscores the thought that we never should underestimate God’s ability to show up anytime, anyplace, or in any way.  While our prayers are finite, His answers are infinite.  Our problem, of course, is that we want immediate results.  As Mark quips, “we don’t just want to have our cake and eat it too, we want the instant brand.”

Pastor Batterson asserts that we need the foresight of the farmer and the mind-set of the sower.  We tend to think of spiritual realties in terms of the technologies that make our lives faster and easier.  Scripture describes spiritual realities in longer and harder spiritual terms.  An important dimension of thinking long is thinking different.  Mark states prayer is the key to both:

“Prayer doesn’t just change circumstances; more important, it changes us.  It doesn’t just alter external realities; it alters realities so that we see with spiritual eyes.  It gives us peripheral vision.  It corrects our nearsightedness.  It enables us to see beyond our circumstances, beyond ourselves, beyond time.”

Today’s question: How have you developed the ability to think long and think different?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Long and boring”

 

Thinking long