The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (37 page)

L
ORD
, I pray You would help my husband and me to simplify our lives so that we can be free of unnecessary stress. Give us the wisdom to get rid of things we don’t need and that someone else can use. Help us to not purchase anything we can’t afford and can live without. Enable us to live peaceful and quiet lives that, in their simplicity, we find to be beautiful. Help us to simplify our lifestyle, the foods we eat, the clothes we wear, the things we buy, and what we spend time on.

Teach us how to simplify the things we do and how we do them. Show us what we could eliminate of the activities and commitments we have that would free us to spend more time on the most important things—You, family, and each other. We need You to help us stop any tendency we have to allow our lives to become more and more complicated.

I pray by the power of Your Spirit that You will enable us to make our lives more manageable. When there are things that cannot be eliminated or simplified, such as the work we do for other people, I pray Your peace would reign in us to such an extent that we accomplish what is needed with less stress on our minds and bodies. May this new simplicity bring a better quality of life—a life closer to what You want for us.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

70

I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, says the Lord,
thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you a future and a hope.

J
EREMIAH
29:11

G
OD SAYS
your future is good. He promises that His thoughts and plans for you are not for evil and you will always have a reason to hope. But you can lose sight of this for many different reasons, such as extended illness, chronic pain, exhaustion, being too busy to ever catch up with yourself, and, most of all, neglecting to spend regular, in-depth times with the Lord. Other things, such as disappointments, diversions, following the wrong dreams, catering to ungodly desires, allowing your thoughts to wander to unhealthy places, or receiving lies of the enemy about yourself, can all contribute to this loss of vision as well. Whatever the reason, when you lose sight of your future you also lose sight of your hope and your source of joy in life. That alone will make you depressed, anxious, apathetic, or fearful.

Even though you may think right now that this could never happen to you, the truth is that it can happen to anyone. If you have experienced any one of the situations I mentioned above, it can bring you down and cause you to lose sight of the fact that God is your future and your hope.

Whether you feel this has already happened to you, or you want to avoid it happening in the future, ask God to speak to you every day in His Word. Ask Him to meet you whenever you pray and worship Him. That is the greatest
protection from
—and
remedy for
—this ailment. The reason for that is because God is the only one who can give you a sense of your future. And that’s because He
is
your future. He has planned your future and He is the key to your moving into it. Having a sense of your future doesn’t necessarily mean you will know specific details, but it does mean you will have a comforting sense that you
have
a future and that it is good.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, I ask that whenever I lose sight of my future, You will remind me again of all You have planned for me. The circumstances of my life sometimes cause me to doubt what’s ahead, but I trust Your Word that says Your plans are to give me a future and a hope. Restore that insight to me. Renew and refresh the vision I’ve had at certain times. Give me a fresh, new vision I’ve never had before.

Where I have not spent enough time with You in prayer and worship and reading Your Word, help me to change my habits and not let a day go by without experiencing that quality time with You. Help me to hear You speaking to my heart. When I have become too busy, or worried, or have allowed faithless thinking to dominate my mind, change my thoughts and turn them toward You. Help me to always see Your goodness in my life and never doubt it. Renew my strength, courage, and sense of direction. Enable me to understand completely that because I walk with You, I will always have a purpose and a calling. I choose to trust that Your plans for me are for good, no matter what is happening in my life.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

71

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself;
it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

J
EREMIAH
10:23

W
E ARE ALL ON
a path going somewhere, but we must be certain we’re on the path God has for us so that we end up in the right place. The way to do that is to walk closely with God, live in obedience to His ways, and be led by His Spirit so that we are moving in His will. However, just as some men won’t ask for directions when they are driving, there are some men who won’t ask for direction from God when they are traveling the highway of their life, either.

It’s not that this never happens to a woman, but most women seem to quickly recognize when they have taken a wrong turn. Some men don’t realize they are on the wrong road until they have fallen off of a cliff. But the good news about that is a wife’s prayers for her husband can keep him headed in the right direction, or at least help him recognize his lack of a spiritual GPS in time to avoid total disaster.

God never pushes against a strong will, nor does He force a stubborn person to submit. If your husband has either of those characteristics, pray he will not be guided by his ego. Pray he won’t have such faith in his own judgment that he refuses to seek the wisdom and will of God. If your husband has already chosen a wrong path and you or he are paying for it in some way right now, ask God to redeem the situation. Even when you cannot see a way out,
He
can. Ask God to do whatever it takes to get your husband headed in the right direction. If he is on a good path right now, keep praying that he continues to stay on it.

My Prayer to God