CHAPTER ONE | HER HUSBAND
Your marriage is like a football game. You and your wife are a team. She wants the security of knowing that when things are tough, you have the faith to believe that everything can turn around.
She wants you to trust that with God nothing is impossible, and because of that you will never give up hoping for the impossible to happen.
When your wife knows you are praying, she is confident.
To become the man, husband, and head of the home God wants you to be, is the most important place for a man to begin praying.
What is in our hearts when we pray has more effect on whether our prayers are answered than the actual prayer itself.
One of the best ways to honor your wife is to pray for her from a heart that is clean before God.
Praying for your wife must begin with praying for yourself.
Satan doesn't want your marriage to succeed and has set up a plan for its destruction. When you pray for your wife, it keeps the world at bay, it transforms selfish hearts, and it derails the devil's plans.
FIVE WAYS TO BE THE HUSBAND GOD WANTS YOU TO BE
1. BE OF ONE MIND
Prayer is the key by which unity in the marriage relationship can be maintained.
You and your wife may have separate work, interests, and activities, but if you are praying with and for one another regularly, it will keep you in tune and on the same path.
It is especially important to be of the same faith and beliefs. Your entire relationship is compromised if you are not on the same page in this area.
Your marriage will be a strong force for good if the two of you are of one mind.
2. BE COMPASSIONATE
To be compassionate toward your wife is to have a deep sympathy for any area in which she suffers and to have a strong desire to alleviate that suffering.
Part of being compassionate has to do with simply listening. Your wife is not expecting you to fix everything. She just needs to know that you hear her heart and care about how she feels.
Pray that God will give you a heart of compassion toward your wife and the patience to listen to her when she needs you to do so. It's a fine art worth cultivating. It can get you places with her where you've dreamed of being.
3. BE LOVING
Jack Hayford always said he could tell when a woman was truly loved by her husband, because she grew more beautiful as the years went on - an inner beauty that doesn't fade, but rather increases with time when a woman is loved.
You have no idea how much your love means to your wife.
Ask God to increase your love for your wife and enable you to show it in a way that makes her beautiful.
4. BE TENDERHEARTED
Prayer is a more tender and more certain way to see changes happen in your wife.
Criticism intended to make your wife change doesn't work. It will never give you the results you want. The only thing that works is prayer.
Remember that, though the ways you and your wife are the same can unite you, the ways you are different can keep things interesting.
5. BE COURTEOUS
Nothing is more upsetting, defeating, tormenting, suffocating, or emotion-provoking, nothing does more to bring out the worst in us, than a marriage where one of the partners is lacking in common courtesy.
Most men have no idea about the power of their voice. When a man speaks, his words have the power to create and the power to destroy.
It's not the words you speak, it's the power of God behind them that will make the difference. Praying first, before you talk about a sensitive subject, will give your words power and ensure that you speak them from a right heart.
Your wife will prove to be your greatest asset if you value and honor her.
Pray for God to help you speak to your wife in a courteous way that is pleasing in His sight, and to convict your heart when you do not.
As we improve individually, our marriages will also improve. Next to your love for her, the greatest gift you can give your wife is your own wholeness.
Please pray for yourself that:
1. You will be the husband God wants you to be.
2. You will know how to really love your wife.
3. You will be led by the Holy Spirit in all decisions.
4. You will be delivered from negative behavior.
5. You will speak words that build and not destroy.
6. You will have the desire to pray for your wife.
7. You will grow spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.
POWER TOOLS
Ephesians 5:31,33
Proverbs 28:9
Ephesians 5:25
James 5:16
Ephesians 5:28,29
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