The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional (38 page)

L
ORD
, I pray You would keep my husband on the path You have for Him. Take away all deception and open his eyes to see Your truth. Fill him with Your Spirit so that he will move in wisdom. Where there is stubbornness or rebellion in him, break down those walls of resistance to Your ways. Don’t let him be so self-reliant that he refuses to depend on You. Surround him with wise men so that he will make wise choices (Proverbs 13:20). I pray he will see that You, Lord, are the way, and he must walk close to You.

Where he has already gotten on the wrong path and we are experiencing the consequences of that, I pray You would enable him to be on the right path—the path You have for him—and that You would help him stay on it. Keep him on the road that leads to life. Convict his heart strongly and quickly whenever he strays from Your will. Give him a thoroughly repentant heart for all that has been wasted whenever he has walked willfully and not prayerfully. Help me to maintain a right heart before You and not fall into resentment because of consequences I am experiencing due to mistakes he has made. Lead him, Holy Spirit, for only then will
all
his steps be headed in the right direction (Galatians 5:25). I know we cannot walk the narrow path You have for us without Your guidance.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

72

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything
by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God;
and the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.

P
HILIPPIANS
4:6-7

A
NXIETY IS SUCH
a waste of time and energy for a believer. It is not only exhausting and depleting, it doesn’t get us anywhere. Of course, if we didn’t know the Lord and did not have His Holy Spirit living in us, we would certainly have reason to be anxious. For then our life would be on the line every day and one failure could destroy it. But not so with those of us who walk with God. We already recognize that
without Him
we can do nothing lasting and good. And we also know that when tough times happen, we can pray and God will give us a peace that cannot be found any other way.

When difficult things happen in your life, go immediately to God and give your burden to Him. Offer up praise and worship, no matter how low you feel. Thank Him that He is the God of the universe for whom nothing is impossible. Pray specifically about the situation you are in, tell Him what you want Him to do, explain to Him how you feel, and don’t stop until you have that peace that is beyond comprehension. This means it won’t make sense that you have such peace in the situation you’re in except that it has come from God.

The peace God gives you puts a shield around your heart and mind. It takes control away from your fear and doubt. It evaporates anxiety. There is a distinct connection between prayer and the peace of God. So at the first sign of anxiety, go where you know peace can be found. Why give anxiety a moment of your time when you can pray about what is making you anxious? Pray for yourself and your husband that anxiety has no place in either of your hearts. Pray you will not waste your time and energy on something so unnecessary.

My Prayer to God

L
ORD
, I pray You would help my husband and me to reject anxiety at the first sign of it. No matter what is happening, help us to turn to You in prayer. Teach us how to truly cast our fears, cares, and burdens on You. Enable us to pray in power about the things that are heavy on our hearts, always praising and thanking You that You hear our prayers and answer in Your way and Your time.

I specifically lift up to You the concerns that are heaviest on our hearts right now. Thank You that as we give these cares to You, You will give us Your peace that is beyond what we could ever know on our own. I pray Your peace will be so deep in our hearts that it will protect our minds from being eaten up with fearful thoughts and our strength from being depleted by exhausting worry. Remind us to share our concerns with You right away and not waste valuable time and energy entertaining anxiety. Help us to be anxious for nothing. Thank You for Your amazing peace that triumphs over all our fears.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

73

To the married I command,
yet not I but the Lord: a wife is not to depart
from her husband. But even if she
does depart, let her remain unmarried
or be reconciled to her husband. And a
husband is not to divorce his wife.

1 C
ORINTHIANS
7:10-11

G
OD IS CLEAR ABOUT
His attitude regarding divorce. He hates it. “The L
ORD
God of Israel says that He hates divorce” (Malachi 2:16). “Hate” is a strong word. In fact, we don’t like the idea that the almighty God of the universe might hate anything we do. But when a marriage becomes like hell on earth, and the pain of it is more than we can bear, and it seems like there is no way of reconciliation available to us, our thoughts can turn to the “D” word as a way out.

The best way to combat thoughts of divorce is to bring them to the Lord in confession and prayer
immediately
when they come to mind and not allow them to fester and grow into something big. One of the reasons we don’t do that is because we are either already totally convinced there is no other way, or we are embarrassed before God to even confess to Him that we have those thoughts. It also could be that we long so to be free of the pain the marriage is causing that we want out no matter what. But God wants us to expose that dark thinking to His light so He can burn it out of us and change the situation.

If you ever begin thinking of divorce as an option, don’t give that thought a chance to grow. The enemy of your soul and your marriage will take the thought as a seed and plant it in your heart, and feed it with lies until it grows into something bigger than you ever thought it could. Ask God to help you crush that seed while it is still small. He is more than pleased to enable you to stand strong against something He so adamantly hates.

My Prayer to God