The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (11 page)

L
ORD
, if there is an offense my husband has committed against me, or a way in which he has neglected me, and he should say he is sorry, I pray You will help him to do so. Draw him close to You so that he can confess any sins he has committed to You. Help him to clear the air with You first so that he will feel greater clarity and confidence in his ability to clear the air with me. You have said in Your Word that if we come to worship You and remember that someone has something against us because of an offense we have committed, we are to go first to find that person and apologize, and then bring our worship to You (Matthew 5:23-24). Convict my husband’s heart about that so nothing interferes with his relationship with You.

Prepare my heart with forgiveness now so that I will receive his apology with a right attitude. Take away anything in me that wants him to feel bad for the offense he has committed. Remove all desire in me to punish. When he
does
say he is sorry to me, I pray that this will be the end of the matter and we don’t have to revisit it again. Help us both to let go of all offenses and be able to move forward to better things. Above all, I want him to know Your mercy and be able to prosper in every way.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

18

Do not remember the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing, now it
shall spring forth; shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

I
SAIAH
43:18-19

W
E ALL HAVE TIMES
when we know we need new life in our marriage. We feel the strain, the tension, the sameness, or possibly even the subtle decay in it. When there is so much water under the bridge over what seems like a river of hurt, apathy, or preoccupation, we know we cannot survive the slowly and steadily rising flood without the Lord doing a new thing in both of us. The good news is that God says He will do that. He is the God of new beginnings, after all. But it won’t happen if we don’t make a choice to let go of the past.

We have been made new if we have received Jesus. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But in a marriage, it is way too easy to hang on to the old disappointments, misunderstandings, disagreements, and abuses. It becomes a wilderness of hurtful memories we cling to because we don’t want to be hurt, disappointed, misunderstood, disregarded, fought with, or abused again.

Hanging on to old patterns of thought and negative memories keeps them fresh in your mind. And you don’t let your husband forget them, either. You remain mired in them because you don’t feel the situation has been resolved—and it still hurts. Only God can give you and your husband a new beginning from all that has gone on in the past. Only He can make a road in the wilderness of miscommunication and misread intentions, and make a
cleansing
and
restoring
river to flow in the dry areas of your relationship. Everyone needs new life in their marriage at certain times. And only the God of renewal can accomplish that.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, I ask that You would do a fresh work of Your Spirit in our marriage. Make all things new in each of us individually and also together. Dissolve the pain of the past where it is still rising up in us to stifle our communication and ultimately our hope and joy. Wherever we have felt trapped in a wilderness of our own making, carve a way out of it for us and show us the path to follow. If there are rigid and dry areas between us that don’t allow for new growth, give us a fresh flow of Your Spirit to bring new vitality into our relationship. Help us to stop rehearsing old hurtful conversations that have no place in any life committed to the God of new beginnings. Sweep away all the old rubble of selfishness, stubbornness, blindness, and the inability to see beyond the moment or a particular situation.

Only You can take away our painful memories so that we don’t keep reliving the same problems, hurts, or injustices. Only You can resurrect love, excitement, and hope where they have died. Help us to forgive fully and allow each other to completely forget. Help us to focus on Your greatness in us, instead of each other’s faults. Holy Spirit, breathe new life into each of us and into our marriage today.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

19

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.

P
SALM
145:19

W
HEN YOUR HUSBAND
has done something to hurt, embarrass, or betray you, you may be disappointed in him for a legitimate reason. But God is all about love and forgiveness. He gives you the responsibility of making certain that you forgive fully and retain your love and respect for your husband. That can be very hard to do—especially if the offense has been repeated again and again. Or if the offense is quite serious. The truth is, you cannot come up with the kind of forgiveness needed without the help of God. That means you must pray for it.

First of all, go before the Lord and confess your disappointment and hurt to Him. Ask Him to heal your heart and work complete forgiveness in it for your husband. That is probably the last thing you feel like doing if the offense has been devastating, but for your own good and the good of your marriage, you must do it and quickly. Unforgiveness destroys you when you don’t act right away to get rid of it. Forgiving is God’s way, and His ways are for your benefit.

Be honest with God and tell Him how you feel and why. He already knows, but He wants to hear it from you. Be perfectly honest with your husband too. He needs to understand how what he has done has affected you. Forgiving him is not letting him off the hook. It’s not saying that what he did is now fine with you. It’s releasing him to God and letting the Lord deal with what he has done. Ask God to work complete forgiveness in you and take away all disappointment so that none remains in your heart. That can sometimes take a miracle, but God is the expert in that.

My Prayer to God