The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (25 page)

L
ORD
, I pray You would help both my husband and me to remember that the purpose of our marriage, and any children we may have, is to glorify You. I know we are one in Your sight, but help us to truly become one in our hearts toward each other. Help us not to live in separate worlds, but to grow closer together with each passing year. Where we have already grown apart, I pray You would stop that drift between us and reverse our course so we are headed in the same direction.

Teach us how to glorify You in the way we treat each other and in the way we raise our children—or raise up spiritual children—to follow You. Help us to “take heed” to our spirit so that we are always controlled by
Your
Spirit and no other. Even though I know that the purpose of our marriage and our family is always to glorify You, I know we cannot do that without Your help. Enable each of us to rise above our own selfishness and put renewed desire in our hearts to serve You only.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

46

That you put off,
concerning your former conduct,
the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts,
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

E
PHESIANS
4:22-23

W
E WOMEN CAN SOMETIMES
imagine a romantic moment or encounter, which isn’t a problem unless we are imagining it with someone other than our husband. It’s possible that we can be somewhere and see someone, either in person or in an image of some kind, and think a lustful thought. We can also think other kinds of thoughts—critical, fearful, or negative thoughts—thoughts that are not right and do us no good. That’s why we have to keep a close guard over our mind.

When thoughts that are not of the Lord enter your mind, you must reject them. When negative thinking begins to play over and over, you have to put a stop to it. You must stand strong against any lie of the enemy that is a setup for your demise. You must tear out, put off, and throw away from you any thinking that takes you away from the will of God and closer to the enemy’s plans for your life (Matthew 5:29).

You have been given control over your mind, so you can choose to either fill it with the things of God or let whatever comes into it reside there. It’s not a sin that a wrong thought comes. The sin is in letting it find a home in your mind and grow into something that will eventually be tormenting. Your old self could be corrupted by “deceitful lusts.” But your born-again self can choose to have a renewed mind. The minute a lustful, negative, or wrong thought enters your mind is the time to choose to live in that renewed mind. Begin by praising God that He is greater than all your fears, doubts, lusts, and tormenting thoughts. Ask Him to help you be thoroughly renewed in the spirit of your mind. He will do that.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, I ask that You would fill my mind with only thoughts that please You. Where I have allowed any lustful thoughts of anyone except my husband, I confess that to You as sin. I reject them from my mind. I confess any negative thoughts filled with doubt, fear, judgment, or anxiety. Cleanse my mind and heart of them, because I don’t want to open myself up to the consequences of that kind of thinking. Forgive me and free me, as only You can do.

If there are any other thoughts I have that are not glorifying to You, take them from me and help me to be renewed in the spirit of my mind. If there is a person I need to stop being around or something I need to stop looking at or reading, help me to do that too. I don’t want to commit sin in my mind in any form whatsoever. If ever I entertain wrong thoughts, convict my heart so I can repent of it immediately and be released from them. Keep me from any secret thought life that takes me further from You. Enable me to stand strong against the enemy who tries to capture my thoughts. Help me to take my thoughts captive. Teach me to fill my mind with Your truth and refuse anything that is in opposition to that.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

47

The Lord is the Spirit;
and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty.

2 C
ORINTHIANS
3:17

E
VERYONE NEEDS
to be free of something. We all need to be free of our past, free from our sins, and free from the bondage we have because of them. We need freedom from our own limitations and from the enemy of our soul. The list is long. If nothing else, we need to be free from the notion that we don’t need to be free of anything. That’s because the enemy of our soul is always seeking to entice us off the path God has for us and into some trap of temptation, sin, or disobedience he has planned for us.

It is not hard for a wife to see what her husband needs to be set free of because it is usually very clear to her. The challenge is not constantly reminding him of it, but instead continually praying he will find the freedom God has for him.

It is sometimes difficult for a man to see his own need for liberation. Too often he may accept things about himself as being “just the way I am.” If you see clearly something your husband needs to be free of and he doesn’t, ask the Lord to reveal it to him. Ask God to open up your husband’s heart to hear the truth—from the Lord, from you, or from someone else God puts in his life. Then ask God to help your husband seek the presence of the Holy Spirit—who is the Spirit of liberty—where all freedom is found. That may seem like an impossible prayer to have answered, but nothing is too hard for God.

My Prayer to God