The Power of the Praying Wife: We go through the pain to get to the joy

As we prepare to start "The power of the praying wife", please bear in mind that it is not a means of gaining control over your husband. It’s laying down all claim to power in and of yourself, and relying on God’s power to transform you, your husband, your circumstances, and your marriage. It’s a gentle tool of restoration appropriated through the prayers of a wife who longs to do right more than be right, and to give life more than get even.

Praying for your husband will be an act of unselfish, unconditional love and sacrifice on your part. You must make this commitment knowing he may never make the same commitment concerning you- so release him from that obligation. If he doesn't pray for you, it’s his loss more than yours. Your happiness and fulfilment will not ride on whether he prays; it will depend on your own relationship with the Lord.

We don’t have authority over our husbands. However, we have been given authority “over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19) and can do great damage to the enemy’s plans when we pray. But we can say: “I will not allow anything to destroy my marriage”, “I will not sit idle while an invisible wall goes up between us”, “I will not allow confusion, miscommunication, wrong attitudes, and bad choices to erode what we are trying to build together”

You have authority in the name of Jesus to stop evil and permit good. You can submit to God in prayer whatever controls your husband- alcoholism, workaholism, laziness, depression, infirmity, abusiveness, anxiety, fear, bad financial management – and pray for him to be released from it.

The strength of a man and wife joined together in God’s sight is far greater than the sum of the strength of each of the two individuals. That is because the Holy Spirit unites them and gives added power to their prayers. This oneness gives power that the enemy doesn’t like. That why he devises ways to weaken it. He gives us whatever we will fall for- low self esteem, pride, the need to be right, miscommunication, or the bowing to our own selfish desires. He will tell likes like:

“Nothing will ever change”, “You failures are irreparable”, ”There’s no hope for reconciliation”, “You’d be happier with someone else”. – If you believe the lies, your heart will eventually be hardened against God’s truth, and you may be cutting off the future of your marriage. When the heart becomes hardened, there is no vision from God’s perspective, you only see the way it is, not the way God wants it to become.- In such instances, you need to deliberately lay down your life before His throne, die to your desires, pain- and give your needs to Him. When you begin to trust God, you are then able to envision His ability to resurrect love and life from the deadest of places. You will then experience firsthand the resurrecting power of the Lord- the power that raised Christ from the dead in just 3 days!

But it doesn't happen without a heart for God that is willing to gut it out in prayer, grow through tough times, and wait for love to be resurrected. We have to go through the pain to get to the joy. Pray to the Lord for an end to the conflict and breaking hold of the strife in your lives. For Him to take away the hurt and armour you've put up to protect yourselves.

As you begin this journey and discover the power of the praying wife, don’t give place to impatience and don’t worry about how it will happen. It’s your responsibility to pray. It’s God’s job to answer. Leave it in His hands.

Extracted from The Power of A Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian

The Power of the Praying Wife

I don’t know about everyone else, but i’ve been really disturbed by the stories i’ve been hearing in the past year. Last year a guy pretending to be a Pastor brutally murdered his wife, this year another one smashed his wife’s head against the wall and the last i heard over the weekend- a man burnt his wife’s body with a hot iron while she was sleeping!

As saddening as this is, it’s obvious that the enemy is really at war. He knows he can get to people by destroying the foundation of family. But we will not let him, so we will start with our own families. In May, we’ll be praying for our husbands (future husbands for those not married). We’ll be laying down all claim to power in and of ourselves, and relying on God’s power to transform us, our husbands (future husband), our circumstances and our marriages.

                 

This is a way to invite God’s power into our husband’s life for his greatest blessing, which is ultimately ours, too.

We’ll pray for our husbands concerning key areas in their lives, including their....

• ·         spiritual walk
• ·         emotions
• ·         roles as a father, leader, and decision maker
• ·         security in work and finances
• ·         health and physical protection
• ·         faith and his future

To be part of the programme, all you have to do is sign up to the Power of the Praying Wife newsletter (by filling the form below), to receive free daily prayers and scriptures- the programme starts on the 1^st of May.

Remember

Worrying about your marriage changes nothing, but praying about it can change everything.

FINDING “THE ONE” YOU ARE TO MARRY

Marriage seems to be the hot topic these days, maybe it's because there seems to be one wedding or another every other Saturday. I often wonder about peoples experiences and how they end up at the alter- here is an interesting article from Marriage Missions International , which gives a somewhat different perspective than what people i know have experienced. 

Loving Jesus must be your number one priority in life if you’re going to become the kind of person God wants you to become and be able to give and receive love in your marriage the way you should. So reach out to Jesus with all of your heart, devoting the best of your time and energy to pursuing a closer relationship with Him. Place your relationship with Jesus at the centre of your life and revolve everything else around it.

Find your “two.” If you’re not yet married and are looking for a spouse, search for a spouse carefully, in ways that honour God.

Don’t even consider marrying someone who’s not a Christian because you can’t ever truly be compatible with someone who doesn’t share your spiritual connect with Jesus, and marrying a non-Christian can only bring misery into your life that will grow.

Beyond choosing a person who’s a Christian, you should also look for someone who shares common interests with you, whose personality fits well with yours, and to whom you’re physically attracted. Don’t rush the process, and don’t settle for less than God’s best for you simply to marry by a certain time.

Move a relationship with a potential spouse through first gear. In first gear, when your relationship with a potential future spouse is just beginning, work to get to know each other well and build a strong foundation of friendship. Rather than spending time alone, try to spend most of your time together with groups of people. If your discover that you’re not interested in taking the relationship to the next gear, then don’t lead the other person on; be honest about how you feel to avoid hurting that person more deeply later on.

Move a relationship with a potential spouse through second gear. In second gear, as you sense God blessing your friendship, you can spend more time alone together. But continue to guard your heart, and avoid discussing marriage at this point. However, ask yourself questions like:

“Is this person becoming more like Christ?”
“Does this person have a strong and growing character?”
“Does this person have the right kind of friends?”
“Is this person responsible —financially, relationally, emotionally, intellectually?”
“Is our attraction increasing?”
“Are we helping each other grow closer to God, rather than drawing each other away from Him?”

If the person you’re dating isn’t helping you move closer to God or isn’t right for you, break up with him or her as soon as you know.

Move a relationship with a potential spouse through third gear. In third gear, you should discuss the possibility of getting married and explore it with the help of prayer, advice from mentors, getting to know each other’s families, and talking openly about how each of you have been both hurt and helped in life and what dreams each of you are hoping will come true in your lives. Don’t hesitate to break up if God isn’t clearly leading the two of you to get married; it’s better to end the relationship (and grieve and heal) before making a lifetime commitment than to marry when you know you shouldn’t.

Source: Pinterest

Move into fourth gear: engagement. If it’s clear to you both that marriage is where God is leading your relationship, then set a wedding date. But use the time during your engagement to plan your marriage —not just your wedding. Participate in premarital counseling, and discuss issues about which you’ll have to make decisions about together in married life, like: career choices, where you’ll live once you’re married, how you’ll share and manage your finances, your philosophy for bearing and raising children, which church you’ll be a part of together, and how you plan to grow spiritually together.

Continue to protect your sexual purity during your entire engagement until you’re actually married, so you can enjoy God’s best during your marriage. The fifth gear is marriage itself!

Pursue sexual purity. Keep in mind that you can’t have premarital sex without consequences (physical, emotional, and spiritual), so your future marriage will be affected in significant ways if you and your future spouse have sex before your wedding. Realize that you can’t have premarital sex without intimacy, either, since God designed sex to develop intimacy between people, so if you end up breaking up with the person you had sex with it, the breakup will hurt badly.

Ask God to help you make and keep a commitment to abstain from sexual behavior of any kind until your wedding night. You’ll gain many benefits if you do, including trust between you and your spouse (if you compromise sexually before marriage, you may compromise after marriage by having affairs) and an exciting sex life (that you’ll never have to compare to the thrill of dangerous sex before marriage and are free to build with real intimacy between you). Set clear boundaries of behavior in your relationship to guard your sexual purity (such as no sleepovers) and ask some trusted friends to hold you both accountable to respect those boundaries.

Identify sins and wounds and pursue repentance and healing. Both you and the person you’re considering marrying need to confess sins to God regularly, repent of them, and accept God’s forgiveness and strength to make better decisions. You all should also talk honestly with God and each other about the emotional wounds you’ve suffered in life, and seek God’s healing for them, perhaps through Christian counseling. This will help you both begin married life as healthy as possible.

Keep passion alive after you’re married. Every new day that God gives you and your spouse during your marriage, pursue each other like you did when you were dating, seeking to learn something new about each other, and nurture the passion and deepen the intimacy between you. Don’t keep sins or secrets from each other; confess them to each other and pray for each other regularly.

Submit to God together. Rather than trying to convince each other to make decisions that either you want or that your spouse wants, commit to seeking God’s will together regularly and basing your decisions on the guidance He gives you. Learn how to pray together, listen carefully to each other and to God, and work through conflicts with love and respect.

This article is adapted from the book, Love, Sex, and Happily Ever After: Preparing for a Marriage That Goes the Distance, written by Craig Groeschel, published by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing. “Craig Groeschel’s practical book should be a mandatory read for anyone who wants to be happily married someday. It is a rare author who can lead you into some very challenging places and have you laughing out loud while he does it” -Shaunti Feldhahn, nationally syndicated columnist and best-selling author of For Women Only.