About a year ago, I began reading the book Power of a Praying Wife, and I never finished it. Yesterday's dare reminds me about that book because the dare challenged me to “begin praying today for your spouse’s heart. Pray for three specific areas where you desire for God to work in your spouse’s life and in your marriage.” Both Power of a Praying Wife and The Love Dare make me think there must be something to praying for my spouse. As if as a wife, I am made to lift him up in prayer.
The chapter mentions that we as spouses recognize all of the negative traits and habits of our spouses. The reason the book gives for this insight and awareness is that I am supposed to be the best possible person to lift up my husband in prayer. Since I know him more intimately than any other person, I can pray for him better than any other person.
Let me tell you, when I notice one of James’s negative traits, my first thought is not to drop to my knees in prayer. Even if I did pray, my first tendency would be to ask God why and to pray that God fixes him. However, that is not what the love dare is suggesting. As his teammate, I should recognize his faults and lift them up to God for his power. Sometimes in lifting them up to God, God might show me that I am the one who has the faulty thinking and not James. In addition, God can work in James’s heart where I cannot, and He can work in my heart when I cannot. Prayer invites God into the situation. Prayer invites God into the marriage.
I feel challenged to step up my praying in regards to James. While I have a whole section of my prayer journal dedicated to James, sometimes I skip over it in order to pray for "more pressing matters". What is more pressing than my husband and my marriage? Sometimes I think I have more important things going on in the day than to stop to pray at all. I love a quote that I found from Martin Luther, it reads, “Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer.” I want to have this attitude about prayer! In John 15:5, Jesus says that we can do nothing apart from him, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” I want a fruitful life and a fruitful marriage. Prayer is essential, just as vital as bread and water. As a wife, I must pray for my husband and my marriage. As a human, I must pray for those around me and the world.
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