How often do you cry out to the Lord on your husband’s behalf? Do your prayers for your husband look like a laundry list of complaints, unmet expectations, and discontented laments? Are you always asking the Lord to change your husband to match your ideals, or are your prayers focused on his growth and wellbeing. Prayer changes things. Often what God needs to change is me! Consider this quote from Soren Kierkegaard:
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be changed. I want my prayers for my husband to exhibit the heart of Christ. Only God knows what growth and change needs to occur in my husband’s life. When I am convinced that I know what he needs, how he should change, and what isn’t fitting in his life, I am simply arrogant. Oh for a heart of humility that prays for God’s best for my husband. God’s best as defined by God, Himself, not by me, a sorry substitute for God.
So, does that mean that I can never pray for specifics in my husband’s life. Not at all. The Word of God provides ample material for prayer. Consider this scripture from Ephesians 1.
(Paul) Do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working the strength of His might.
According to this scripture, I can always pray that my husband would have a spirit of wisdom. I can pray that he would have the knowledge of Christ. I can pray that his heart would be enlightened, that he would know the hope of His calling, that he would know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in Christ. And finally, I can pray that that he would understand the surpassing greatness of God’s power toward Him. When I discipline myself to pray these wonderful truths for my husband, I can trust that God is going to do a great and marvelous work in my husband’s life. What a great God we serve!
Don’t allow your prayers to become a lengthy list of unfulfilled expectations! Instead, fill your prayers with thankfulness for the many blessings you receive through your relationship with your husband. Fill your prayers with God’s Words of blessing toward your husband. Fill your prayers with trust in God’s direction, faith in God’s goodness, and gratitude for God’s blessings.
Allow God to change you and honoring prayer on your husband’s behalf will become one of your most delightful ministries!
Megan Scheibner 