The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (43 page)

L
ORD,
I pray You will strengthen my husband and me by the power of Your Holy Spirit, and help us to stand strong against any enticing or lustful spirit that would cause either of us to allow ourselves to be polluted in our minds with illicit sexual images. Smash down any temptation we ever face that would allow any kind of sexual pollution to infect our lives. Enable us to immediately recognize the threat and resist it by fleeing from it. I know that a thought can overtake our mind and grow into action even as we are thinking we are well able to handle it. I pray that pornography never enters our experience or our home at any time. Smash down that evil so it has no place in our lives whatsoever.

Keep us from violating Your laws of sexual purity in any way. Help each of us to take our mind captive so that we don’t allow sexual pollution to invade it. Where there has already been a violation of Your laws with regard to this, in either my husband or me, I pray You would bring it to light so that we can come with repentant hearts to be cleansed of all sin and delivered from any hold it has on us. If nothing like this has happened to either of us, work complete purity in our hearts so that we stay protected from all sexual pollution in body, mind, and soul.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

82

Do you not know that your body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and you are
not your own? For you were bought at a price;
therefore glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 C
ORINTHIANS
6:19-20

M
OST WOMEN ARE
busy taking care of their family, or working to help support them, or both. The probability is good that you are stretched to the limit with responsibilities, caretaking, and life’s other activities. Something has to give, and it may be that what is sacrificed in your life is time spent caring for your own body. Too often a woman feels guilty if she takes time to do things for herself, as if she is being selfish. She often feels that only what she does for
others
is important. But this is not true. It’s part of her service to the Lord that a woman not neglect herself physically, mentally, or spiritually.

It is not good for you, your family, or your marriage to neglect taking time to care for
you.
You must recognize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and not your own. Jesus paid a high price for you, and He wants you to glorify Him by taking good care of yourself. That means spending time before the Lord every day in prayer and worship, in order to grow closer to God and be able to rest your mind from concerns. That means you need to eat foods that build up, strengthen, and increase your vitality and health, not foods that weaken, sicken, or destroy. It means exercising your body consistently in some way that rejuvenates, renews, and strengthens you. All these things affect your inner self as well as your physical health.

Ask God to show you what to do. Put the care of your body in His hands. Don’t underestimate how attractive physical health, strength, and vitality are to your husband. It is not selfish to want that and to make the effort to find it.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, I pray You would show me how to properly care for my body so that I can enjoy good health, renewed strength, and more energy. By doing so, help me to be the kind of pleasant and attractive person I want to be and that my husband and children enjoy being around. Help me to take the time to eat the right foods that give me life and health. Help me to be disciplined enough to exercise properly and consistently so that I can be strong and energetic. Most of all, help me to spend private time with You every day so I can find the peace and refreshment that only You can give me. Enable me to get sound, rejuvenating rest at night so that I can maintain good health and greater mental clarity throughout the day.

Show me all I need to do to properly care for my body as the temple of Your Spirit. Help me to not feel guilty about taking time and making the effort to do something for myself that is ultimately beneficial to my husband and my family. Enable me to be rid of all exhaustion and weakness so I can concentrate. In doing all these things, help me to glorify You in my body and spirit, which are Yours.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

83

A merry heart does good, like medicine,
but a broken spirit dries the bones.

P
ROVERBS
17:22

W
E CAN ALL WORK OURSELVES
into attitudes that are negative. We may become so afraid of bad news that we anticipate it with negative thoughts and words. Our spirit can be so broken that negativity becomes an automatic response to everything without us even realizing it. Habits of the heart like this are hard to break, but by the power of God they can be changed in an instant.

If your husband has those kinds of negative thoughts, they will not only bring
him
down, but they will bring
you
down as well. It’s hard to be around someone who is always negative. It may be that
you
are the one who has a chronically heavy heart and it is bringing
him
down. Or possibly you have a heavy heart in reaction to his. Whatever the situation, pray that God will change all that. Pray for your husband to be healed of a broken spirit and filled with the Spirit of God so that the joy of the Lord can rise in him. Pray for him to experience the presence of God so that he becomes convinced of who God is and all He has done for him. Pray that he be reminded every day that because of God he is never without hope.

Ask God to take away a heavy heart from your husband and keep him from getting sick because of it. We all need the medicine that comes from a heart lifted up in cheer and joyful anticipation of what God is going to do next in our lives. Ask God to give your husband the medicine of a merry heart as a gift for
both
of you.

My Prayer to God