The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (10 page)

L
ORD
, I pray You would help my husband and me to calmly and maturely talk things out without any arguments, strife, misunderstanding, or oversensitivity. Enable us to clearly share our perspectives on the issues at hand and truly listen to and hear each other. Give us Your peace and patience and the ability to share our opinions without attacking each other in any way. Show us how to resolve conflict when it arises so that any issue needing to be resolved will be mutually decided upon in a mature way. Put an end to any heated discourse that ignites overly strong feelings in either of us. Instead, help us to understand and fully believe without reservation that we are on the same team and we should always be working to keep the teamwork strong.

Whenever the enemy attempts to get in between us and cause confusion, misunderstanding, oversensitivity, feelings of rejection, or the
fear
of rejection, help us to discern the source and refuse his influence in our lives. Enable us to thoroughly talk out every issue so it is completely dealt with and there are no loose ends dangling without resolution. Help us to do all this with a positive, loving, and compassionate attitude toward each other.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

16

Whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God
is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
He who says he abides in Him ought himself also
to walk just as He walked.

1 J
OHN
2:5-6

N
OTHING REVEALS
to a woman how close or far away she is from being like Jesus than the relationship she has with her husband. The way she thinks, talks, acts, and
reacts
around him—or in
response
to him—shows her how far she has to go in order to become all that God wants her to be.

Marriage is one of the true testing grounds for what is in all of us. Any selfishness, inconsideration, or lack of love in either a husband or wife will be revealed as they live together day after day, year after year. But if ever a woman doesn’t like what she sees happening in herself with regard to her marriage relationship, she can seek to be more like Jesus, so that His love, selflessness, and kindness will grow in her and be revealed to those around her—especially her husband. (A man can and should do the same thing, of course, but this is about you right now.)

Ask God to help you walk as Jesus walked. The only way to actually do that is by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you have received Jesus, then you have His Holy Spirit in you, and you can live God’s way because the Holy Spirit enables you to do so. The way to have the perfect love of Jesus grow in you is to
be daily in God’s Word
so you can hear from Him about how to live, and you can read about the way Jesus lived, and you can
let the Word live in you
so you can be led by God’s Spirit to make the right choices about how to live your life. The Bible says if we say we know God and do not keep His commandments, we have no truth in us (1 John 2:4). Thank God that you have the mind of Christ and therefore all you need to become more Christlike. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you and teach you and enable you to have the same compassion, selflessness, forgiveness, mercy, and love toward your husband that Jesus has toward you. Ask Him to fill you with His truth.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, help me to think like You, act like You, and talk like You—with compassion, love, grace, and mercy. Take away everything in me that is not of You—all anger, bitterness, criticism, and lack of love. Remove every tendency in me to function in the flesh and lash out with my words or actions. Take away any desire in me to withdraw from my husband, whether physically, emotionally, or mentally. I know that holding myself apart from him is not what You want me to do, for Your nature is to have us draw close to each other as You draw close to us, and I want to imitate You.

Lead me in Your ways, Lord. Teach me what Your unconditional love means and help me to display it. Fill me so full of Your love and forgiveness that it overflows from me to my husband. Mold my heart into the way You want it to be. Change me every time I read Your Word. Help me to be so sold out to You that I cannot move or speak apart from the love You put in my heart. Lord, You are beautiful, kind, gentle, faithful, true, unselfish, wise, lovely, peaceful, good, and holy. You are light and life. Enable me to be more like You.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

17

He who covers his sins will not prosper,
but whoever confesses and forsakes
them will have mercy.

P
ROVERBS
28:13

I
F YOUR HUSBAND HURTS YOU
in some way—whether intentionally, carelessly, or unknowingly—you want him to recognize what happened, confess his mistake, and say he is sorry. Of course, you can’t
make
him
feel
sorry, but you can pray that God will convict his heart about it and lead him to confess that he is sorry to you.

The reason to pray that your husband apologizes for whatever he has said or done is not to see him crawl. And it is not only to find healing for the hurt, as important as that is for you. It’s because when he doesn’t repent of what he has done it means he is covering up his sin, and that limits his ability to prosper. And the two of you cannot live successfully without God’s blessing of prosperity upon you.

You don’t want your husband doing something—or
not
doing something—that separates him from the Lord in any way. Your prayers for him can help him to see the truth more clearly, because the Spirit of truth will convict his heart. Also, your prayers can help him to be confident enough to recognize that his apology to you will
raise
your esteem for him and not lower it. Although it is hard for a less confident person to admit when he is wrong, a husband who feels better about himself is more likely to see the benefit of clearing the air between you. And that always makes for a better marriage relationship.

My Prayer to God