Want to pray for your spouse, but can’t find the words? These will help.
Praying for your children? Most moms would agree that comes easy. But praying for your husband? Who does that regularly? In our busy lives, husbands sometimes get left behind. We find the time to pray for our children, and may even participate in mothers’ prayer groups, but praying for our husbands is a different matter. This can make it a struggle when we wake up to how important it is to pray for our spouse. So here are six short and effective prayers inspired by the letters of Saint Paul that you can try right away, without waiting for Father’s Day.
1. So my husband knows the love of God
“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 3: 17-19).
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I place myself in Your presence and beg you to enshroud the heart of my husband with Your Sacred Heart. Help him to have complete faith in You. May Your love be deeply rooted in him, and may this Love shines in our lives. Help my husband to know Your infinite mercy so he understands that Your Love is more real than any earthly experience. Amen.
2. So he can fulfill his vocation as husband
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 5: 25-28).
Prayer: Lord, according to Your will, help my husband to draw closer to holiness through the sacrament of our marriage. Fill his heart with Your Love, and help him to fulfill his vocation by following Your path. Amen.
3. For my husband to teach our children Your love
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 6: 4).
Prayer: Holy Spirit, fill the heart of my husband with Your peace, so that through him he may show your love to our children. Give him the patience and the necessary wisdom to raise our children in purity and in faith. Help him to guide our children towards the right path and to encourage them to stay close to You. Amen
4. For the well-being of our family
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Philippians 4: 19).
Prayer: Lord, You know what we truly need. I ask You to give my husband the grace to use our resources with wisdom, to be ‘poor in spirit’ (Matthew 5: 3) and to be generous towards those in need. Amen.
5. That he should be the man You called him to be
“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love” (First letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 16: 13-14).
Prayer: Lord, I entrust to You all the decisions of my husband, his projects, his worries, and his entire being. Help him to be strong in Your Love and anchored in faith. Give him the strength to be the man that You’ve called him to be: courageous, happy, and generous. Help him to grow in faith, hope, and charity. Amen.
6. That my husband acts with wisdom and discernment
“I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength.” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 1, 16-19).
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (Letter of Saint James the Apostle 1: 5).
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You who went about doing good, I ask You to give my husband the grace to follow in Your steps. Give him the strength to advance with wisdom and to have the awareness of how his choices will impact on our family. May his heart shine with the light of the Holy Spirit so he can move ahead with assurance and confidence, whatever the obstacles he might face. Amen.
And one last prayer asking for the Virgin Mary’s intercession:
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, place your mantle around my husband so that he will obtain the necessary graces to be the protector of our family, as Saint Joseph was. By your maternal embrace, O Mary, pray that he may be granted a great sense of security so he will never feel abandoned. Amen.
This article was originally published in the French edition of Aleteia.
aleteia.org
“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11(NASB)
My husband Monty and I are different. So very different. Early in our marriage, I loved those differences. But as the years have passed, they’ve been known to cause frustration … arguments, slammed doors, and words that can’t be taken back.
Sometimes toxic thoughts and words fill my heart and spew forth from my lips. Thoughts that linger and take root. Words that cut deep.
I’m too quick to take offense.
I asked him to do this. If he cared about me, he would. He knows it’s important to me. I shouldn’t even have to ask.I get annoyed.
He’s late for dinner … again. Couldn’t he call? He knows we eat at the same time every night.I replay the hurt in my mind, and at times it consumes me.
Please know that I share these thoughts as a wife who loves her husband deeply. But I’m also a wife who struggles to live out that love in a God-honoring way.
Maybe you can relate. I wrestle with thinking unkind thoughts about the man I love more than anyone else. And then I remember the truth of God’s Word, and He makes it personal:
Wendy … “whatever is in your heart determines what you say,” Matthew 12:34b (NLT).
Wendy … “give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life,” Proverbs 4:20-23 (NASB).
When I read that warning from Proverbs chapter 4, it signals me to change what fills my heart. It directs me to go to God’s Word and find words of life for my marriage and my husband.
So I’ve committed to pray God’s Word over my husband. Today, I’m sharing what I pray and invite you to join me in praying for your husband:
Father, give my husband a discerning heart to know Your great love for him and the great plans You have for him and our family. Plans to prosper and not to harm, to give us hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)Father, give my husband the mind of Christ, saturate it with godly wisdom. Help him to take every thought captive that is not in obedience to Your Word, and in so doing protect him from pride and temptation. (1 Corinthians 2:16, 2 Corinthians 10:5)Father, open the eyes of my husband’s heart to understand Your Word, so that he won’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of his mind so that he may know Your good, acceptable and perfect will for his life and our marriage. (Romans 12:2)Father, help my husband to trust in You with all his heart, not depending on his own understanding, but acknowledging You in all his ways, so he knows what direction our family should take. (Proverbs 3:5-6)Father, may the favor of the Lord rest on my husband. Bless and establish the work of his hands and his heart. (Psalm 90:17)Father, help us to live together in perfect unity by loving, honoring and respecting one another and serving each other for Your glory, honor and praise! (1 Thessalonians 5:13)Friend, when we replace our toxic thoughts with the precious Word of God and then pray those words, we pray the Word that is living and active, capable of changing hearts and minds. We are praying the mind and will of God, as revealed in His Word, into our marriages!
So pray with hope, boldness and confidence! God will be faithful to honor His Word.
Heavenly Father, replace my toxic thoughts with Your life-giving words and teach me to pray those words over my heart, my husband and my marriage. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
***
TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Proverbs 4:23, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” (NASB)
RELATED RESOURCES:
Ever struggled to practically apply God’s Word or pray more effectively? Wendy Blight has a new book, Living So That: Making Faith-Filled Choices in the Midst of a Messy Life, to help. Click here to order your copy. To sign up for her free companion devotional, Five Days to a Faith-Full Life, click here.
Stop by Wendy’s blog to share the verses you will be praying and for a free resource to help you pray for your marriage.
REFLECT AND RESPOND:
Do you feel like things will never change in your marriage? List what makes you feel this way.
Over the next week, pray boldly and confidently one or two of the above verses we prayed together. Write how God works in your heart and in your marriage.
© 2014 by Wendy Blight. All rights reserved.
proverbs31.org
Love…the first fruit of the spirit. The very characteristic of our God.
Join me in prayer. Let’s pray that our husbands grow in Christ-like love. We have powerful ministering opportunities through praying for our husbands. Mountains can moved, the evil one held at bay, his mind, body and soul protected by our sweet Jesus.
Prayer #17. Prayer for increased love
Father, You love us with a greater love than we could ever fathom. You are who You are, and You, oh Lord, are the epiphany of love. You gave Your perfect son, Who then lived a life of love and gave Himself up for us. I praise You for Your great and perfect example of love: to do for others what they don’t deserve. To love others the way they need to be loved and not how they deserve to be loved. I pray today You will put such a love into my husbands heart.
You have given my husband a heart of flesh, a teachable spirit. Teach him how to love unselfishly and without expecting anything in return. Teach him not to seek his own good or have ulterior motives when he serves others, but to be genuinely concerned about the well-being of others. (Phil.2:4) Teach him that love is patient and kind, not envying, boastful, proud, rude or easily angered. (1Cor.13:4-8) Teach him a Christ-like love.
Father, love must be sincere. I pray my husband will do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than himself. (Phil.2:3) Help him lay down his will and plans when it is edifying to others to do so. Help him to see that in humbling himself, he is not giving up or being shamed, but rather in he will receive a greater reward in the future.
When dealing with his children, help him to display unconditional love. When parenting is tough, give him wisdom and understanding, modeling You to his children, making You appealing and approachable to them.
As the leader of our marriage, help him to display love to me. Help us each be selfless, giving more than we takes. Help my husband see my requests as needs not demands. Father, soften his heart toward me and our children as he gives himself up for us.( Eph.5:25,28,29)
Help him trust You with what he can’t control. May he not condemn others when they don’t see things the way he does. Remind him often to love his neighbor as himself. (Matt.23:37-38) May he live in a way that outsiders may see You through his loving humble acts of service.
May he learn more and more each day to love You with all his heart, all his soul and all his mind. Remind him often that neither life nor death, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate him from Your great love. (Romans 8:38-39) Let him rest secure in that promise. In Jesus’ precious Name. Amen.
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