The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (6 page)

L
ORD
, I confess I don’t feel like praying for my husband right now. I have thoughts and emotions that keep me from coming before You with a peaceful heart in that regard. I confess any anger, disappointment, or hurt I feel toward him. Reveal to me any other thoughts and feelings in me that are not glorifying to You so I can be free of them. Take away any hardness of my heart that has crept in and create in me a clean heart. Overflow me with Your love so that my heart can easily overflow with love to others.

I realize that more than anything else I need time with You to be refreshed and renewed. I lay down my battle in prayer for my husband, my marriage, my family, and the details of my life and release it all to You. I surrender every burden, concern, worry, desire, and hope to You and choose to simply be in Your presence. Rejuvenate my mind, fill my soul afresh with Your Spirit, teach me Your ways, and speak to me about my life in Christ. Comfort me as I take comfort in Your Word. Fill me with an abundance of Your love, peace, and joy. Restore me to full capacity so that I can serve You with unfailing strength.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

8

Cast away from you all the
transgressions which you have committed,
and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

E
ZEKIEL
18:31

G
OD GIVES US A CHOICE
about what our attitude will be. We can
choose
to allow negativity to dominate our personality to the detriment of ourselves and all around us, or we can
choose
to be more like Christ. There are many factors that can affect this, such as stress, strife, financial pressure, traumatic events, mental strain, pain, or sickness. But no matter what is happening to us, we are still responsible for our attitude in the midst of it.

Your husband’s attitude affects his health, your children, the atmosphere of your home, and his future, not to mention how it makes you feel. If he has allowed a bad attitude to become a way of life, it must be changed or it will wear you down and put tremendous strain on your marriage. A chronically negative attitude can make him sick in mind, soul, and body. He may not realize it, but he has a personal choice about what kind of attitude and spirit he maintains. He has to decide—especially when he is in the midst of difficult circumstances or troubling situations—what kind of man he is going to be. Your prayers can help him make the right choice.

If your husband too often has a bad or wrong attitude, you have to be strong in your refusal to be influenced by that. Don’t allow him or anyone else to pull you into their negativity and bring you down. Carry that heavy burden to God in prayer instead. Pray for your husband to have a new heart and a new spirit. That’s God’s will for his life, and life is too short to settle for anything less.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, I pray for my husband to be free of any negative attitude he has. Help him to see the good in his life and not the bad. I repent of any negativity I have had in my mind and have conveyed to my husband and children. I confess it as a lack of faith in Your goodness in my life. I know that negativity doesn’t do anyone any good. It is in itself a statement of faithlessness and self-centered sin. Please redeem any damage I may have done to my husband’s soul by allowing any negative attitude to have a safe harbor in me. I also confess any lack of patience I may have had with his less than uplifting attitude. Forgive me and renew a right spirit within me.

I pray You will give my husband “a new heart and a new spirit.” Fill him with Your peace so that it dominates his personality. Let Your spirit of joy rise in him, no matter what his circumstances are right now. Teach him to refuse “sorrow of the heart” that breaks one’s spirit (Proverbs 15:13). Strengthen and teach him to reject negativity and choose to have the “continual feast” of a merry heart (Proverbs 15:15). Help him to choose an attitude of love, patience, and kindness that comes only from inviting Your Holy Spirit to crowd out any other spirit that is trying to oppress him. Enable him to choose a spirit of praise and thankfulness to rule in his heart and mind.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

9

Unless the Lord had been my help,
my soul would soon have settled in silence.

P
SALM
94:17

T
HIS VERSE HAS TO DO WITH
standing up for what’s right and not staying silent, thereby allowing something unjust to happen. There are times in your marriage when you cannot settle for silence, either. When a husband and wife let silence continue, they are allowing a gap to grow between them that will widen into a gulf. For example, there can be occasions in a marriage relationship when
not
talking for a time is safer and more pleasant than talking, because speaking to each other about anything could trigger an argument. And so it becomes just not worth it to even speak. The problem with that is even though not speaking can be a temporary fix while tempers cool, this silent separation can grow into something bigger and more damaging if allowed to go on too long.

These self-initiated silences can also happen because one person is trying to protect himself or herself from an aggressor. (“If I don’t say anything, then I won’t trigger a rampage.”) Or it could be because of selfishness. (“If I can’t win this argument, then I won’t say anything because I know I’m right.”) Or immaturity. (“I’m going to punish her by not speaking to her.”) Whatever the reason, continued silence is not of the Lord.

If you ever find the grip of silence closing in on you and your husband, pray immediately that God will help each of you to break it. If just one person is determined not to speak to the other, pray that God will bring down that prison of human will. And it truly can become a prison, the oppression of which you can feel every moment you are held captive by it. Pray for a dissolving of that silence with the steel-melting presence of the Holy Spirit’s fire. He can melt down any wall—even that of a silent partner.

My Prayer to God