Talk about It Tuesdays: Five Ways to Love Your Husband (pt. 3)

(This has been posted on Wednesday due to the busyness of this past Tuesday.  Forgive me.)

As I mentioned last week, if you’re any sort of feminist, I would recommend you pass over today’s writing. I’m pretty sure you won’t appreciate the topic, nor the emphasis I put on Biblical relationship roles, which, believe it or not, still apply to today and to the husband-wife relationship.

These past two weeks we have discussed two aspects of loving your husband.  They have been respect and trust, two principles that I believe are at the root of a healthy marriage. Today, my topic might seem a little more obscure, but without this principle, there is a serious aspect missing from the wife’s understanding of her purpose as her husband’s helpmate.

Today’s topic is prayer.  Again, although seemingly obscure, the necessity for a wife to faithfully beseech the throne on

behalf of her husband is as important as or more important than any direct husband-to-wife or wife-to-husband communication.

I know that’s a big claim to make, but let me explain:

The primary concern a wife should have for her husband involves his spiritual life. In actuality, this is the concern all of us as believers should have for any of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  However, as a wife, specifically offered to your husband as a helper and completer, your concern–my concern–should be to help your/my husband grow to be more and more like Christ in every aspect of his life. How can you better do that than to first of all, pursue Christ yourself  through a healthy relationship with Him?  Part of that relationship is prayer.  Prayer on behalf of your husband specifically can be life-changing.

James 5:16b tells us:

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Looking up the definition of prayer tells us that the Greek word used here is δέησις, (pronounced deēsis), which means “a seeking, asking, entreating, entreaty to God or to man”.

This is the same word used in reference to Zecharia and Elizabeth’s (John the Baptist’s parents) petition to God for a son in Luke 1:13.  It is the same word used to discuss prayer as the alternative to anxiety and worry in Philippians 4:6 and the topic of God’s promise to hear His children’s prayers in 1 Peter 3:12.

Therefore, coming before throne of the Father in the righteousness of the Son (2 Cor. 5:21), we are promised that God will work in and through our prayers to accomplish His Will.  We know that it is His Will that your husband grow in Him and glorify God with His life (The full counsel of Scripture tells us that).

More specifically, let’s read 1 Timothy 2:1-4:

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,

for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

So, if you have been called to pray for those in authority (1 Cor 11) and if you have (as you have been) offered the wondrous promise from the Lord to answer according to His perfect Will, why not beseech Him on your husband’s behalf?  Why not bombard the throne asking for growth, wisdom, and the filling of the Holy Spirit for your husband?

Can you really love him any more than to be completely concerned for his spiritual growth?  Will not your prayers for him only encourage you to love him more like Christ, to respect him for not only who he is but the position God’s given him as spiritual leader, and to trust God’s Holy Spirit working in and through him?

When was the last time you prayed for your husband?

Pray today for

• Wisdom for your husband as he leads you as a couple/family.
• A God-filled, eternal perspective for your husband as he goes through his day.
• A soft heart for him to hear the Holy Spirit in his life.
• Him to be faithful in the Word and on his knees in order to keep his life focused on Christ.

I put down my pen now to bend the knee for my own husband.  This is not a practice I have perfected but one I want to learn to be faithful in.  Join me in this desire.  Let’s bombard heaven and love our husbands.