I have a confession to make. I do not pray for my husband like I should. At the end of 2009, God and I spent some time together doing a little spiritual “evaluation” and setting some goals for 2010. One thing in particular that He impressed on me is the need for me to do a better job praying for Wayne. Of all the people in my life, my husband is the most important (besides God of course). He should always be at the top of my prayer list.
Unfortunately, over the years I’ve allowed the urgent and the critical to crowd out the important and the necessary. I’ve spent more time in “reactive” praying and less in “proactive” praying. If someone was dealing with an illness or faced a difficult decision I focused on those pressing needs. So when my husband seemed to be doing fine, prayer time for him was spent elsewhere.
I couldn’t have been more wrong! As his wife, it is my primary responsibility to pray proactively for Wayne.
As his help mate, it is my job to intercede with the Father on his behalf – to cover every area of my husband’s life in prayer. To anticipate challenges, problems, temptations, and difficulties and pray about them in advance.
God’s Word provides us with many ways to pray for our husbands’ physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs. One thing I plan to do is include a page in my prayer notebook just for Scriptures to use to pray specifically for Wayne. Maybe you can incorporate something like that in whatever system you use for prayer. (If you missed Teri Lynne’s blog on her prayer calendar yesterday, check it out here!) Here is a sample list of things to pray about for your husband along with the source Scriptures.
- Guard his spirit and not break faith in his relationships (Mal 2:13-15)
- Protection from temptation/strength in temptation (1 Corinthians 7:5) – this would include all kinds of temptations, but specifically sexual temptation
- Wisdom in his leadership of his family (Eph 5:22-24) – on a similar note, we should pray that God would help us respect and yield to our husband’s leadership
- Deeper love for his wife – that’s you! (Eph 5:25)
- Patience, wisdom, and discernment in raising your children (Col 3:19-21)
- Strong moral character, gentle spirit, disciplined, and self-controlled (1 Tim 3:1-3)
- Wisdom in managing family finances and his family (1 Tim 3:4-5)
- Committed to the deep truths of the faith and lives a life of repentance (1Tim 3:9)
These things are just a beginning. Whenever you read your Bible, look for more ways to pray for your spouse, then add them to your prayer system. There is a resource on my website that will lists 20 things from Scripture to pray for other Christians. You can use this to also pray for your husband. Feel free to download it and print it off!
I probably need more help and encouragement than you on this topic! I’d love to hear about how you pray for your husbands and what you pray for them.
Blessings! Kathy
I must admit I sometimes also forget to pray as fervently and frequently for my husband as I should. We are a military family and right now my husband is deployed to a not so friendly location so I spend alot of time praying for him. I pray for his spiritual, mental, and physical safety. Each day of the week I also have a more targeted prayer for him. I found this on another website but I can’t remember where, sorry. Mon=mental well being Tues= his time usage Wed=his weaknesses Thurs= his thought life Fri= his friends Sat= his sexuality Sun=his spiritual life. I also try to say a prayer for him when he comes to my mind. I do the same with my friends, if one comes to mind, not matter the reason, I pray for them!
Jenn, I love this weekly schedule of prayer for our husbands. Thanks for sharing it. I’d like to lift a prayer now for your husband. “Father, you are sovereign and all-powerful. We know that you hold Jenn’s husband in your hands and love him more than even Jenn does. Please keep him safe. Let him feel your presence with him today in a very real way. Fill him with your joy and peace. Bring him home soon. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.”
Ohhhhh, thank you so very much for your prayer for my husband!!! Sometimes I forget that God loves him even more than I do and it was a good reminder to see it. Thank you again!
Kathy, thank you for this. I was just spending some time praying for my hubby this morning, and I even made a page in my prayer journal for him just before I read the Dig today! :) Our hearts are on the same track. It has been one of my goals this year too. I feel like our husbands need our prayers more than ever. It is NOT easy to be a godly, faithful man in our time and culture. Who better to pray with devotion for our men than us – their wives? Great encouragement. Thanks!
Julie, you are so right about the need for us to pray for our husbands. While I was working on the blog I was particularly struck by the thought of “proactive” rather than “reactive” praying. I shouldn’t merely pray about current needs but must pray offensively too.
I needed to read this today. Thank you for sharing. I’ve been so focused on everyone else that I’ve neglected praying for my husband too.
Joy, I don’t know it’s so easy to sometimes forget those that are closest to us! I do it too!
I often tell people that most of my married life has been spent praying for my man. Sometimes for God to mold him into the man He created him to be. But, I confess, other times I find myself asking God to show him that I’m right. ;-)
Honestly, I do pray for my hubby, but not nearly enough. I don’t even think there’s such a thing as “enough.”
I wrote a blog sometime back entitled, “Praying for My Man.”
Kathy, it sounds like we’re on the same page…again. :-)
GREAT POST!
Stephanie, oh my, I’ve been guilty of praying “my will” for my husband too! I have to remind myself that I’m not perfect and God always knows best.
I have been guilty of not praying for my husband more than I have prayed for him – proactively or reactively. The times when I have been most efficient at praying for him is when I follow a Scripture prayer calendar. I like to use The Power of a Praying Wife, Revive Our Hearts – 31 Days of Praying for Your Husband, or other Scripture prayer resource. I find that having a structured plan for proactive prayer, especially when it’s praying the Scripture, helps me to be more faithful in this “helpmate” task.
Ashley, thanks for sharing those resources! I just printed off the “31 Days of Praying for Your husband.”
Thank you for sharing this link to 31 days of prayer for your spouse!! I plan to impliment it into my prayer time. :)
I love your honesty! It’s so easy in the blogging world to come across like you have it all together. Knowing that I’m not the only one who drops the ball in this area is encouraging and challenging.
Thanks for the reminder! My husband once told me that the greatest encouragement in the world is knowing that I’m praying for him. I can’t say I pray for him every, single day without fail, but when I do, I always text him at work and say, “You’re all prayed up!” He loves that! He even does it to me sometimes.
I love your list of Scripture prayers. I’ll be using those prayer points in upcoming prayer letters for sure!
Blessings to you and all your fellow diggers! :) LeeBird