The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (42 page)

L
ORD
, I am very aware of my own limitations. I know there are times when I can be less than I want to be in patience, compassion, kindness, and love. But I also know You can change me and transform me into Your likeness. I need You to do that now. I know that in You is found perfect patience, compassion, kindness, and unconditional love. I need those attributes every day, but never more than in my marriage and my relationship with my husband. Help me to be more like You so that I can be the wife You want me to be for him. I know that I don’t have it in me to reflect Your wonderful characteristics on my own, so I look to You for help.

As I look to You every day, I ask that Your reflection will be revealed increasingly in me. Change me according to Your will. Continue to renew my mind and heart so that I can find the transformation You have for my soul and my life. Instill such peace in me that I am never without it, no matter what is happening in our circumstances. Help me to communicate your goodness to my husband in ways that inspire it in him. Bestow upon me
Your
patience, compassion, kindness, and love in increasing measure until others can clearly see those attributes in me. Enable me to behold Your presence as I worship You so I can go from glory to glory, until Your goodness, love, and beauty are revealed in my heart.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

80

Honor your father and your mother,
as the Lord your God has commanded you,
that your days may be long, and that it
may be well with you in the land
which the Lord your God is giving you.

D
EUTERONOMY
5:16

O
NE OF THE MOST
important things your husband can do in order to receive all God has for him is to make peace with his father. Whether he had a great father, or an absent one, or a cruel father who is no longer living, he still has to come to a place of forgiveness and release so he can honor him in his heart.

When Noah was sleeping and became uncovered, one of his sons, Ham, went into his tent and saw his nakedness. Instead of covering his father, he went to his brothers and told them what he had seen. His brothers, Shem and Japheth, took a garment and walked backward into their father’s tent and covered him. Because of their respect for their father, they were blessed. Because of Ham’s disrespect, he was cursed. These blessings and curses followed the people and nations that descended accordingly from Noah’s three sons from then on (Genesis 9:18-27).

This curse is serious. God promises that by honoring your father and mother you will have a long and good life. But He declares that
not
honoring them means your life will not go well and it will be cut short. If the image in your husband’s mind of his father is a negative one because of things his father has done or not done, pray for your husband to be healed of those memories. That doesn’t mean he will completely forget what happened. It means the memories will no longer have the power to continue making him suffer.

The Bible also says that one who disrespects his father or mother is deserving of death (Matthew 15:4). How much death do people experience in their lives by not observing this law? It’s worth praying about, because this is an issue that is many layers thick for most men. The peace—or lack thereof—in your husband’s heart regarding his relationship with his father will not only greatly affect
him,
but it will affect
you
as well.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, I pray You will take away any negative memories my husband has of his father. I know You do not want him to disrespect his father in any way, but You
do
want him to enjoy all the blessings You have for him. Heal any hurt, bitterness, anger, sadness, apathy, or painful memory that is in his heart toward his father. Help him to do what is necessary to completely clear the slate.

Where my husband has felt his father was too strong or too weak, give him insight as to why he was the way he was. Where he might feel there was a lack of love coming from his father, help him to know You as his heavenly Father who loves him unconditionally. Where he may have felt abandoned in some way by his father, help him to see that You will never leave or forsake him. Even if he had a great father, I pray he will forgive any bad memories of past incidents. Whether his father is living or deceased, I pray there will be reconciliation between them, at least from my husband’s standpoint. Heal that relationship—or lack of—as only You can do.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

81

Turn away my eyes from
looking at worthless things,
and revive me in Your way.

P
SALM
119:37

N
OT ONLY DO WE
not want sexual immorality to creep into our marriage, we don’t want sexual pollution in our minds, either. Sexual pollution is everywhere. We even see it in such harmless places as news magazines, billboards, films, commercials, television, and on the Internet. Just because we have never viewed pornography doesn’t mean our mind isn’t already polluted. This is a big issue for too many marriages, so don’t think because
you
are not enticed by it that your husband can never be influenced in that way.

The enemy’s plan for your marriage and your soul is to distract you from God’s best with images that can pollute your sexual relationship. God wants sex in your marriage to reaffirm your oneness. The enemy wants to destroy that oneness. Pornography is an enormous issue today because of easy access to it on the Internet. It has often been justified by those who view it saying, “It’s not hurting anyone.” But it is not only hurting the person who views it, it also hurts that person’s relationship with their spouse. When a man is found to be viewing pornography, the pain it causes his wife is beyond description.

All sexual immorality is destructive, even if it is “only” in the mind. Just as physical immorality destroys the body, mental immorality destroys the mind, and affairs of the heart destroy the soul. The damage is never worth whatever momentary pleasure the person thinks they are deriving from it. Even if your husband wouldn’t dream of doing anything like that, pray for him anyway. Pray that he will be successful in resisting the sexual pollution that pervades our society. Pray that you both can resist this plan of the enemy to destroy your marriage.

My Prayer to God