Are You Praying for Your Man?

James 5:16

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Let's recap:

Pill #1: Death to self

Pill #2: Submission

Prayer: it's what makes these pills palpable...

I'll never forget the day in 2003, when I heard what seemed to be the audible voice of God. (I promise, I did not hear the actual voice of God.) But there were words spoken loud and clear into the depths of my heart. It was undeniable Who's voice it was because they were words I did not want to hear.

I had just finished one of my "change him" prayer sessions. On that particular day, I heard: "No, it's you that needs to change."

Yuck!

Since then, God has totally transformed how I pray for my husband. My prayers used to be all about me; and how I wanted God to change Tim to suit my wants and needs.

Yesterday, I harped on the importance of fervently praying for your husband. Today, I thought I'd share how God changed those self-centered prayers - to heaven hearing - God moving mountains-answering prayers. Why are they mountain moving prayers? Because God taught me to pray scripture over my husband. I have the full list in my prayer Journal. It's available on my website. Here are a few marriage prayer prompts:

• Help me to accept him the way he is; knowing only YOU can change him into the man YOU have purposed him to be. (2 Cor. 3:18)


• Where love has run out, create new love. (John 2:1-11)


• Help me to submit to my husband's authority as unto YOU! (Eph. 5:22)


• Bring unity between us so that we can be in unity about everything. (Romans 15:5-6)


• Make us a team, overlooking each other's faults and weaknesses for the greater good of the marriage. (1 Cor. 1:10)


• That we would only have eyes for each other. (Eph. 5:3)


• Help us to be quick to forgive. (Eph. 4:32)


• Remind me not to keep a list of the negatives, but only the positives. (Phil. 4:8)

Ways that God has taught me to pray for him:

• That he would learn to love you with all of his heart, all his soul, mind and strength... (Mark 12:30-31)


• That he would receive YOUR wisdom to lead our family physically, emotionally and spiritually. (Eph. 1:17-19)


• That he would seek YOU daily. (Psalm 119:1-2)


• That he would not conform to the world. (Romans 12:1-2)


• That he would stand firm in the Lord. (Eph 6:10)


• That you would protect his eyes and ears from any vile thing. (Psalm 101:3)


• That YOU would bless his work and show him daily to honor YOU in the way he lives. (Psalm 90:16-17; Daniel 6)


• That YOU would develop strong relationships with other godly men. (Eph. 4:24-25)


• That YOU would give him a desire to teach and model a godly lifestyle for our children. (Deut. 6; Psalm 78:5-7)

I could go on and on.

Do you pray for your husband on a regular basis? If not, why? Is it because you are quite certain, he's probably not praying for you? Are you too busy? Or is it that you just don't know where to start?

I encourage you to pick a day of the week and cover your man and marriage in prayer. The prayer prompts above, are a great starting point. And then make sure that everyday, you continue to utter several sentences of prayer over him.

We live in an evil world. If you aren't praying for him, WHO IS?

Happy Valentines Weekend... Pill #3 comes next week -