Pausing to Pray

Are you taking the time to pray? Are you pausing from the hecticness of your busy day/week to talk to God about that, which concerns you and your spouse the most? We hope so! Now is an especially great time to do just that, as the year ends and another appears to stretch out before us.

“Prayer is your declaration of Dependence. When you don’t pray it’s your declaration of independence. It’s your way of saying, ‘I can do this without God.'” (Unknown)

There are a lot of couples that are intentionally making this an extended time of prayer. What better way is there to usher in the New Year?

Are You Pausing to Pray?

God prompted us to encourage you to pray for your spouse (or the person you will marry) and for yourselves this week. If you aren’t regularly praying for your spouse we hope this will be a new beginning for you. Your marital partner needs you to uphold him/her in prayer. If not you… then who will? Also, who should?

For those of you who do pray often for your spouse we hope this message will bless your heart. And for those of you who aren’t yet married, you can pray for your future spouse.

The prayers we will feature for this message are found in the excellent books, The Power of a Praying Wife and The Power of a Praying Husband. (We highly recommend that you obtain them.) Both are written by Stormie Omartian, along with her husband Michael. The first is for the wife to pray. You can use it as an outline, to pray as God inspires, or use these very words, putting your heart into it.

Pausing to Pray

“Lord, help me to be a good wife. I fully realize that I don’t have what it takes to be one without Your help. Take my selfishness, impatience, and irritability and turn them into kindness, long-suffering, and the willingness to bear all things.

“Take the hardness of my heart and break down the walls with Your battering ram of revelation. Give me a new heart and work in me Your love, peace, and joy (See: Galatians 5:22-23). I am not able to rise above who I am at this moment. Only You can transform me. Show me where there is sin in my heart, especially with regard to my husband.

“I confess the times I’ve been unloving, critical, angry, resentful, disrespectful, or unforgiving toward him. Help me to put aside any hurt, anger, or disappointment I feel and forgive him the way You do —totally and completely, no looking back. Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace, and healing in this marriage.

“I pray for Your protection on my husband’s mind. Shield him from the lies of the enemy. Help him to clearly discern between your voice and any other, and show him how to take every thought captive as You have instructed us to do.

Pausing in Petition

“Lord, You’ve said in Your Word that ‘there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear‘ because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love’ (I John 4:18). I pray You will perfect my husband in your love so that tormenting fear finds no place in him. I know you have not given him a spirit of fear. You’ve given him power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). I pray in the name of Jesus that fear will not rule over my husband. Instead, may Your Word penetrate every fiber of his being, convincing him that Your love for him is far greater than anything he faces and nothing can separate him from it.

“Tune up the ears of my husband’s heart to hear the call You have on his life. Help him to realize who he is in Christ and give him certainty that he was created for a high purpose. May the eyes of his understanding be enlightened so that he will know what is the hope of Your calling (Ephesians 1:18).

“Lord, when you call us, You also enable us. Enable him to walk worthy of his calling and become the man of God You made him to be. Continue to remind him of what You’ve called him to and don’t let him get sidetracked with things that are unessential to your purpose. Strike down discouragement so that it will not defeat him. Lift his eyes above the circumstances of the moment so he can see the purpose for which You created him.”

Additional Pausing in Prayer

The following are prayers for the husband to use as an outline during prayer time for your wife, or to use these words to express your heart to God for your his wife:

“Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me (Psalm 51:10). Show me where my attitude and thoughts are not what You would have them to be, especially toward my wife. Convict me when I am being unforgiving. Help me to let go of any anger, so that confusion will not have a place in her mind. If there is behavior in me that needs to change, enable me to make changes that last. Whatever You reveal to me, I will confess to You as sin. Make me a man after your own heart.

“I pray that You will bring my wife and me to a place of unity with one another. Make us be of the same mind. Show me what I need to do in order to make that come about. Give me words that heal, not wound. Fill my heart with Your love so that what overflows through my speech will be words that build up, not tear down. Convict my heart when I don’t live your way. Help me to be the man and husband that You want me to be.

Additionally, I Pray:

“Lord, as much as I love my wife, I know You love her more. I realize that I cannot meet her every need and expectation, but you can. I pray that You will give her the fulfillment of knowing You in a deeper and richer way than she ever has before. Help her to be diligent and steadfast in her walk with You. Make her strong in spirit and give her an ever-increasing faith that always believes that You will answer her prayers.

Pausing in Loving Prayer

“Father, I pray for my wife and ask that You would calm her spirit, soothe her soul, and give her peace today. Drown out the voice of the enemy, who seeks to entrap her with lies. Help her to take every thought captive so she is not led astray (2 Corinthians 10:5). Where there is error in her thinking, I pray You would reveal it to her and set her back on course. Help her to hear Your voice only. Fill her afresh with Your Holy Spirit and wash away anything in her that is not of You.

“Lord, I pray that You would help my wife to ‘be anxious for nothing’ (Philippians 4:6). Remind her to bring all her concerns to You in prayer so that Your peace that passes all understanding will permanently reside in her heart.

“Teach me to recognize the ploy of the enemy every time he tries to steal life from my wife by bringing fear to torment her. I stand against any enemy attacks targeted at my wife, and I say that a spirit of fear will have no place in her life. Strengthen her faith in You, Lord, to be her Defender.”

Prayerful, Pausing Petition for Spouse

There is nothing better you can do for your marriage than to pray for and pray with one another. When you do, God draws you closer together as you unite your heart with His.

FYI: Here’s an additional prayer “tool” you can also find to be helpful:

• 10 TIPS FOR PRAYING WITH YOUR SPOUSE

There’s no doubt:

“Something amazing happens to our hearts when we pray for another person. The hardness melts. We become able to get beyond the hurts, and forgive. We even end up loving the person we’re praying for. It’s miraculous! It happens because when we pray we enter into the presence of God and He fills us with His Spirit of love.” (Stormie Omartian)

It is the prayer of our hearts that God will bless you in such a way that as others see how you treat your spouse, they will be attracted to the love of God, and will want to know our God better!

Cindy and Steve Wright

— ADDITIONALLY —

To help you further, we give a lot of personal stories, humor, and more practical tips in our book, 7 ESSENTIALS to Grow Your Marriage. We hope you will pick up a copy for yourself. (It’s available both electronically and in print form.) Plus, it can make a great gift for someone else. It gives you the opportunity to help them grow their marriage. And who doesn’t need that? Just click on the linked title or the picture below:

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