I'm a day late. But I'm still writing about my week of prayer and I'm looking back on what I learned.
I'm gonna count that as a win.
Anyway, the verse that stuck out to me the most through this week was Proverbs 1:7:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. (NASB)
Very familiar, to me at least, yet always power packed. Always a convicting reminder to not live on your own strength, which is essentially what I was praying for Ben this week.
The key points I picked up from this chapter were this:
- Pray that God will guide your husband's decisions, that the discernment of the Holy Spirit would be given to him. God wants to impart His wisdom to us and when we ask for it we are inviting Him to guide us. Why not ask for it for your husband?
- There are times your husband will engage in foolish behavior (aka unwise decisions). He's human. Don't try to fix him, that is up to God. Pray and ask God for change to be brought about in those areas.
- Just because you pray that your husband will have God's discerning spirit doesn't mean that it will happen. Your husband must be willing to follow the Holy Spirit's counsel. However, if you are praying for it, even when bad decisions are made, you can have the peace of knowing you did everything you were able.
- Your husband's decisions directly affect you and your family. Why not pray that those decisions are godly and made with the wisdom of God?
All the while I was praying for Ben, I found myself asking God that I do the same. That I stay stuned in the the Spirit 24/7 so that everything I do might be backed by Him. I found myself desiring to be a lamp burning bright so that even when Ben seems to lose his way or isn't 100% hearing God's guiding voice, I might be able to help him tune in. I won't be a stumbling block.
The more I read these tiny, power-packed chapters, the more I find myself thinking of how much a team praying alone makes me feel with Ben. I feel even more a team when we pray together, and we earnestly strive to every day, but to do it for him even when he's not around, there is a sense of fighting for your best friend. You, God, and Him.
I don't know about you, but I need that reminder. Many days I need it because my human, fleshly side is winning the battle and I begin to wonder what on earth kind of mess did I get myself into. Yet, if I choose to pray for him, those thoughts flee quickly. Satan can't stand around in the midst of all that. If he tries, he's left standing dumb struck with no power to use against you. His efforts will fail.
And that, my friends, is so worth inviting into your life.
Prayer unites me with the One who has already fought for me and won and it unites me with the one person God intended for me to serve Him with every day that I'm given.
I may need to post that on a mirror or fridge or conspicuous place so that I'm constantly reminded to build this God-glorifying habit...
___________________________________________________________
Over a 30 week period, which I started with an intro on May 1st, I will be doing a weekly series where I talk about my journey through Stormie Omartian's Power of a Praying Wife. I felt led to pray for my husband, wanted to incorporate the book, but knew that doing a 30 day challenge was next to impossible. (Let's face it: life with a baby just-turned-Toddler changes and there are still nights with many wake up calls due to teething or illness. I'd already tried once and failed.) So this series was born as a way to share, encourage, and hold me accountable to the commitment I made. I'll keep a list of links for the series on each post so you can easily access them all. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment
I appreciate you taking time to comment :) I do not allow anonymous comments. Thank you for understanding!