The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (51 page)

L
ORD,
I pray You would fill me with Your unfailing and unconditional love. I thank You that You are the God of love and Your Spirit of love dwells within me. Fill me afresh with Your love so that it overflows to others—especially my husband. I pray You would pour out Your Spirit on my husband today and fill him afresh with Your love as well. With the weakness, frailty, and fickleness of our human love—which too often relies on feelings, circumstances, and whims—I know we cannot make our marriage successful. We need
Your
love to be the driving force.

Only Your love doesn’t waver. Only Your love forgives human failures. It is Your love that enables our love for each other to grow deeper. I confess any time I have not felt loving toward my husband and my words and actions have conveyed that. I know this is not pleasing to You, and it is certainly not pleasing to him. Forgive me and help me to deliberately show love to him in ways he can clearly see and understand. Help us to feel love for each other even in difficult times between us. Enable me to get beyond my own needs and become a conduit of Your unfailing love to him. May Your love be seen in me at all times.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

98

Is anyone among you suffering?
Let him pray…Is anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church,
and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the
prayer of faith will save the sick,
and the Lord will raise him up.

J
AMES
5:13-15

I
T IS ALWAYS UPSETTING
when a family member is sick, and especially so when it is the head of the household who provides for the family. You don’t want to see your husband suffer, and especially not if it is a serious illness. So when he is sick you must pray
with
him and
for
him about his healing, even if he is a nonbeliever.

God refers to Himself as Yahweh-Rapha, which means “the Lord who heals.” It is His nature to heal, and we can find healing in His presence. If Jesus didn’t intend to heal us, why does the Bible say He came as the healer? He didn’t just do it for the disciples or the people at that time; He did it for now. He is the Lord who “heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3). He is the Savior, who “by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). He is “the Sun of Righteousness” who arises “with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). He “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). It is not Jesus
was
the healer; it’s Jesus
is
the healer. And it’s not “if you would have been around when He was on earth in the flesh, you maybe could have been healed too.” It’s “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24
NIV
).

Healing doesn’t always happen immediately, so if you pray and nothing happens, don’t give up. As to why some are healed and some are not, that is God’s business. Just because people prayed and a person wasn’t healed doesn’t mean God never heals and so we should stop praying for healing. It means we pray and trust God for
His
answer, whatever that is. Praying is not telling God what to do. It’s telling Him our desires and trusting Him to answer according to His will.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD,
I thank You that You are the Lord who heals us (Exodus 15:26). Thank You that You are Yahweh-Rapha, and it is Your nature to heal and make us whole. I pray You would touch my husband with Your healing power and make him whole. Show him if this sickness is caused by something he has done or not done with regard to taking care of himself. If he has not lived Your way and he is paying for it now, reveal that to him so he can correct his actions. Give him the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding he needs in order to do the right thing and treat his body in the proper way so that nothing hinders the healing You have for him.

If necessary, lead him to the right doctor who can make the correct diagnosis and prescribe the proper treatment. Show me how I can help him recover. I know our life is in Your hands, and it is You who sustains us and meets us on our sickbed to heal us. Thank You, Jesus, that by Your stripes we are healed, and You are healing my husband. Whenever and however the healing manifests, we are grateful for it. Increase his faith to believe in Your Word and Your ability and desire to heal him.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

99

If there is any consolation in Christ, if any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy
by being like-minded,
having the same love, being of
one accord, of one mind.

P
HILIPPIANS
2:1-2

I
N ANY MARRIAGE
when the husband and wife are in the midst of busy careers, raising children, pursuing separate interests, and various other involvements, they can end up leading separate lives and growing apart. This may seem like an impossibility to you in the beginning of your lives together, but it can happen subtly without you even realizing it. Think about how many times we have heard divorcing couples say, “We just grew apart.” That doesn’t have to happen. We aren’t destined to grow apart. We grow as we choose to. Growing apart happens when there are unresolved disagreements between you. The two of you begin to feel as if you are always in opposition, and this sets the stage for communication breakdown.

You and your husband must always be convinced that you are on the same team and not in competition with each other. You need to feel that you have the same ultimate goals and direction in life. You should be able to agree more than you disagree. You don’t have to be attached at the hip, but you must have an attachment of the mind. You should be able to work things out and “be perfectly joined together in the same mind” (1 Corinthians 1:10). Of course, that means having the mind of Christ. But that doesn’t just happen, either.

You have the mind of Christ when you receive Jesus, but you have to
let
His mind be in you (Philippians 2:5). That means you can choose
not
to. It’s the same as having access to God’s power and choosing not to plug into it. The way you and your husband become like-minded is to
choose
to have the mind of Christ and the love of God in you.

My Prayer to God