The Power of a Praying Wife: Week 2

Chapter One: His Wife

Hey ladies, Stormie was reminding us in this chapter that before we lay our prayer requests before God, we need to remember to have clean, pure heart. This reminded me to remember to keep short accounts with God about sin in my life. Whether it be a bad attitude, a sharp tongue, gossiping, whatever it is that could hinder your prayer life we need to confess it to the Lord before expecting our prayers to be heard and answered. This also reminded me to keep short accounts with John this week. For me a big thing I struggle with is not being overly sensitive and watching my tone that it is not disrespectful.

Men spell love like this R E S P E C T. And if I am to be honest with you, which I promise to try to always be because I certainly am not perfect by any means, but I struggle with showing my husband the proper respect he deserves. I'm really good at encouraging him and supporting him and keeping a nice home, but really bad and need a lot of work on showing him respect especially in how I speak to him. So this week I want to really do an amazing job at showing John I love and respect him and therefore I am going to pray for God to help me with my words, my timing, and my tone. (Will you pray for me, friend?)

Stormie shared that at the beginning of her marriage her favorite three word prayer was, "Change him Lord"...and you know what I think if we are all honest with ourselves we all think we are pretty amazing wives and that our husbands are the ones that need all the changing, am I right? Okay, well, that's what I sometimes think. I usually think I am right, and he is wrong.

More times than not, I think we all look past our own sinful habits or bad behaviors and point fingers at our spouse. But Stormie reminded me in this chapter of a great verse: Psalm 66:18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear." If we don't want our prayers compromised then we need to confess our sin and seek His forgiveness. I love how God works too. Because I've found the more I pray for John or anyone I just learn to love them more and more and I just want to be a better person. I also know that the more times I am in His Word He is renewing my mind and changing the way I think so that I can think Biblically and not be swept away with worldly thinking and attitudes.

And the more I pray for John, the more love I have for him, the more my heart is softened towards him, and the more willing I am to change, let things go, and I find our relationship grows and matures. Also, I find that God helps me to be more forgiving of his faults when I am praying for him more.

Stormie had a challenge for us in this chapter. She challenges us to pray for our husband every day for 30 days...you know that the way to start a good habit is by doing it consistently for 30 days, right? It will help all of us to see our husbands through God's eyes.

Here are some verses to look up and pray into your own life today and your wonderful hubby's life:

*Galatians 5:22, 23 (Give us a new heart and fill us with your love, peace, joy)
*Amos 3:3 (unity in marriage, help us to be like-minded)
*Romans 15:5 (make us a team, working together, overlooking eachother's faults for the greater good of the marriage)
*Romans 14:19 (edify one another)
*1 Corinthians 1:10 (may we be joined perfectly together in the same mind)

I have a LOVE DARE for this week for you (This is from the movie Fireproof, I bought the LOVE DARE book and it is so fun to do some of these things for your guy)...Think of a specific way you'd like to GREET your spouse today (Like first thing in the morning or when they get home from work) Do it with a smile and with enthusiasm :)
1 Peter 5:14 Greet one another with a kiss of love.