The Power of Prayer

For several days, the Lord has really been on my heart about my prayer life. [Notice, the prayer journal post from earlier today] He is really starting to drill into me the importance of maintaining a constant, open line of communication with him throughout each and every day. Becoming more of the Proverbs 31 woman is starting to become more and more of a determination for me. And I believe it starts with Prayer.

Several, several months ago I bought “The Power of a Praying Wife” by Stormie Omartian with the intentions of starting it and amping up my prayer life. It didn’t work out so well. I made it about 6 days in and stopped. No excuses. No reasons. Just stopped. Tonight, I picked it back up again and am making it a GOAL-a big goal-to finish it and implement it into my daily life. How am I going to do that? Easy. Not only to I plan to pray that God allows me the continued drive & motivation to accomplish this, but I’m also going to blog it so you wonderful ladies can follow along this journey with me. Each night [sometimes it may be every other night and I’ll just post twice] I plan to post about WHAT specifically I am praying for in my husbands life. I can’t write out the book word for word (apparently there is this thing called a copyright?) so I encourage you, if you are interested to purchase the book. They run $6.99 for the book, and $14.99 for the book at workbook at CBD.

I finished Chapter One a few minutes ago and God really hit some nails on the head. The first chapter is about praying for your husbands WIFE. Yea. That would be you. The one reading [or in my case, typing] this. The hardest part in praying diligently for your husband, aside from setting aside the time, is to do it with a clean heart. I know, I know. That bonehead ticked you off, hurt your feelings, or did something utterly stupid that caused you more pain than you could ever imagine. It doesn’t make them right, but they’re human. By praying with a hurt, broken, unforgiving heart we run the risk of sabotaging our own prayers. God wants us to pray with clean hearts. With hearts like his that don’t hold grudges and past mistakes against our husbands.

The second point made in this chapter, was that we can’t expect our husbands to change. We don’t have the power to change them…only God does. But, if we start asking for God’s interception in our husbands lives, don’t be surprised if he starts somewhere else first. Say, with you? Although we would never admit it to our husbands, we are not right about everything. Quite the contrary actually [atleast in my case]. We have burdens and hurts and baggage that we carry with us. We are stubborn and hard-headed, we are goal-oriented and want things OUR way. (Please tell me I’m not just referencing myself here.) The first thing we have to do is acknowledge that. Come face to face with our imperfections and allow God to fix the things in our lives that he knows needs work. I can automatically come up with several in my own life that God is working on with me as I type this. Little things that he keeps drilling into my mind that I need to be more aware of. We have to learn to let God soften our hearts, humble us, mold us and reconstruct us into what HE sees as the ideal wife for our husbands before he can ever begin to do a work in them.

So, yea. No matter what THEY do, we have to learn to love them as God does, see past our ideas of perfection and allow God to do his work. Even if our husbands aren’t deserving of it. Even if they are the ones that are wrong. Stormie makes an excellent point here when she is referencing a conversation she was having with God, “The point is not who needs to change. The point is who is willing to change.” We have to be willing to take that leap of Faith, go out on a limb, and say, “Hey. My husband deserves what I can give him.” And what better can we give them than to lay them into the hands of the Almighty day in and day out. We should do it without reserve and without expectation. They may never pray for us the way we pray for them, but as is with anything of the Lord, our rewards aren’t reaped here on this Earth, but in Heaven.

Prayer is the ultimate [unspoken] love language between a husband and wife. The bitterness and unforgiveness we harden in our hearts fades and we are truly able to love as God intended us to. We are able to go beyond hurt feelings and past pains, and forgive. “This happens, because when we pray we enter into the presence of God and He fills us with His Spirit of love. When you pray for your husband, the love of God will grow in your heart for him. Not only that, you will find love growing in his heart for you” (29). Prayer communicates things in ways we can’t. Prayer overpowers nagging, begging, pleading, fussing, fighting and even the silent treatment. Prayer is the single barrier that can break through even the most stubborn corners of your husbands heart. Praying for our husbands is an act of love. “Prayer gives rise to love, love begets more prayer, which in turn gives rise to more love” (29). We have to learn to let go, turn everything over to God-the pain, the unforgiven hurts, the bitterness, the resentment, the hate, the unburried hatchets-and let him heal us. When we do that, his power will overtake it all.

God is already teaching me so much. Teaching me to let go of our past. The hurts and the scars from pain I have experienced. I’m not perfect either. I’m learning to let go of my expectations and simply allow GOD to mold this marriage into something beautiful in his sight. Tonights prayer-a broken spirit and an open heart for me to become the wife that my husband deserves. Prayer can move mountains, save the sick and heal the broken. My marriage isn’t broken, so I can’t wait to see how wonderful God is going to make it! Hope you ladies will join in with me as we pray for our husbands. It would be awesome to hear some of your stories and experiences with this as well.