How to Pray for Your Husband

Day 6 - Today’s Challenge (from Love Unending by Becky Thompson)

Today we are going to begin a prayer routine for our husbands. We are going to take five minutes to pray (maybe while we shower or brush our teeth or find a clean shirt to wear). Did you know God hears the prayers of a busy woman? It is so important to carve out specific time to pray, but if you just cannot—if you don’t know where you would find even five minutes at the beginning or end of your day—start by praying while you are doing something else, like washing the dishes.

Maybe you don’t know where to begin when it comes to praying for your husband. Maybe praying for him isn’t something you have done before or even considered. If that is the case, I’d like to make today’s challenge a little easier for you. The Word of God says in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (niv). We shouldn’t start by praying that just our husbands’ actions will change. We shouldn’t start by praying that just our husbands’ words or even thoughts will change. If we want to see God transform our husbands, we need to start praying for their hearts. For today’s challenge, whether or not you have a habit of praying daily for your husband, begin to pray these ten prayers over your husband’s heart.

Lord, I pray that my husband’s heart will be . . .

1.         confident of Your love for Him,

2.         sensitive to the promptings of Your Holy Spirit,

3.         brave as he follows You in all areas of his life,

4.         compassionate so that he may show Your love to others,

5.         wise in always discerning truth,

6.         gentle with my heart and the hearts of our children,

7.         receptive to my love for him,

8.         strong in doing what You have called him to do,

9.         protected from the lusts that would try to ensnare it,

10.       reflective of the love of his heavenly Father.

What are some of the other things that you are praying for your husband today? While most of the other days prompt you to predict the outcome of the challenge, today let’s write out our petitions before the Lord. Write out your own prayer below, and be specific about the things you are asking God to do in your husband’s life and in your marriage. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to look back some- day and see how God answered these prayers?

Talking to the Father

Lord, I admit that some days I wish You would just fix my marriage and would start with my husband. There are days when I feel he is the problem, when I wish he realized how much he frustrates me. Maybe if he realized this, he would change and our marriage would get better. But, Lord, sometimes I wonder if he thinks the same things about me. God, the most powerful tool You have given us to improve our marriages is prayer. Help me bring my husband before You daily. God, I want to be a wife who acknowledges that her husband deserves her prayers. He deserves a wife who continually intercedes on his behalf —not so that You will fix him, but so that You will bless him, walk beside him, and know what is most important to his heart. God, no matter what my prayer life was like when my husband and I first fell in love, help me see the purpose and the power in praying now. You are so faithful to answer when we call, and right now I just place my marriage at Your feet. Continue to guide me as I remember what it means to be a praying wife. Help me choose to walk in love always. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Excerpted from Love Unending by Becky Thompson Copyright © 2017 by Becky Thompson. Excerpted by permission of WaterBrook, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Becky Thompson is the author of Scissortail SILK, a blog that draws a global audience of millions. Speaking to the often overlooked struggle of balancing life as a wife, mother, and a daughter of God, Becky has a captivating way of becoming the voice for women in need of hope, healing, and the Father’s love. Becky’s candid way of sharing her heart extends an unspoken invitation for women to feel as though they have gained a friend and realize they aren’t alone. Her blog grew dramatically in 2014 from an average monthly audience of 1,000 to 1.5 million when she switched her message from fashion to hope.

She became a work-at-home mom when her first son was born in 2009 shortly after becoming a sought-after and highly successful wedding and portrait photographer. A self-professed city girl, Becky is a recent transplant to northwest Oklahoma, where she lives with her husband, Jared, their three young children, and whatever critters wander in from the wheat field behind their house.

Image courtesy: Unsplash.com

Publication date: February 9, 2017