| This blog was written last month while serving in Thailand. Our team had limited access to WiFi.|
For the past few months I have been reading The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson. If you ask anyone on my team, they will tell you how much I enjoy reading this book.
It’s true.
I think everyone should read it.
In the book, Pastor Mark says that "drawing prayer circles around our dreams isn’t just a mechanism whereby we accomplish great things for God. It’s a mechanism whereby God accomplishes great things in us."
Before beginning ministry in Thailand, I was at the part in the book where Pastor Mark talks about Thinking Long.
He writes:
“ … prayer is planting. Each prayer is like a seed that gets planted in the ground. It disappears for a season, but it eventually bears fruit that blesses future generations. In fact, our prayers bear fruit forever. Even when we die, our prayers don’t. Each prayer takes on a life, an eternal life, of its own.”
He goes on to say that:
“when we pray, our prayers exit our own reality of space and time. They have no time or space restrictions because the God who answers them exists outside of the space and time He created … He [God] has infinite answers to our finite prayers. He answers them forever. The problem, of course, is that we want immediate results. Forever is fine but we want answers instantly.”
The last excerpt from the book I’d like to share – the one that really stepped on my toes, is this:
“We want to reap the second after we sow, but this isn’t the way it works with dreaming big and praying hard. We need the patience of a planter. We need the foresight of the farmer. We need the mindset of a sower.
Because we are surrounded by technologies that make our lives faster and easier, we tend to think about spiritual realities in those terms. But almost all spiritual realities in Scripture are described in longer and harder agricultural terms. We want things to happen at the sped of light instead of the speed of a seed planted in the ground. We want our dreams to become reality overnight. We want our prayers answered immediately, if not sooner. But the key to dreaming big and praying hard is thinking long. Instead of thinking in terms of time we must think in terms of eternity. Instead of thinking in terms of ourselves, we must think in terms of our children and grandchildren.”
After reading this, I was convicted – especially since I did not get to work with the ministry in Thailand I had been praying for. I wanted my prayers answered immediately.
But the funny thing about this is that part of the ministry I’m doing this month is being a farmer. It’s almost like The Lord is saying, You’re reading the book Jessica, but you’re not getting the lesson. Let me give you some real life experience in this!”
Almost every day this week, we’ve gone out and planted banana trees. I couldn’t help but smile, laugh and pray as I planted. It’s God’s gentle way of reminding me that just as it takes six months for the banana tree to bear fruit, it will take time for my prayers to be answered.
The key is to keep planting.
“And let us not grow weary in weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
What seeds are you planting?
