5 Important Ways to Pray for Your Husband
Prayer is one of our greatest weapons in the spiritual battle for our marriage. There is an overwhelming number of cases when the Lord listens to the prayers of His people and it changes the course of history. We need to take our prayers seriously. We need to consider how we can strengthen our marriages and support our husbands in prayer.
Your prayers, they aren’t just a moment at the end of the day where you lay our a Santa Claus wish list before God. Prayer is a weapon. It is a craft that you must learn and wield.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 6:12, ESV
Prayer is not an afterthought. It is not the least you can do, it is one of the most effective, meaningful things you can do for your marriage.
1. Pray for his heart to be captivated by God
King David was a man of many shortcomings. But his legacy wasn’t his shortcomings or his sinful nature but the way that his heart was devoted wholly to God. If we care about our husband’s lives and legacies, we need to be on our knees praying that their hearts will be more captivated by God than they are by us.
We need to surrender the number one spot for the One who should be preeminent in both of our lives. Our individual lives and marriages must take place in a larger Gospel-narrative where we realize that Christ will reign over Heaven and Earth fully one day and must reign in our heart now.
His heart must belong to God. We need to pray that God will capture the affections and devotion of our husbands and we need to turn and point out the goodness of God regularly to our families.
2. Pray for his wisdom to increase
Proverbs is full of promises that, when we ask for wisdom, God will answer us. In a world that is constantly bombarding our husbands with enticements to lure them from the things of God, we need to pray that they will be given wisdom.
Wisdom floods into every area of our life. From our spiritual life to our work to our relationships, there is no place where wisdom does not aid us. True wisdom, wisdom from God, is something we all must be pursuing. One of the primary ways we can practically love our husbands is by praying for God to increase their wisdom.
Prayer is not an afterthought. It is not the least you can do, it is one of the most effective, meaningful things you can do. Click To Tweet3. Pray for his willingness to exercise his spiritual gifts
It can be so hard to step out in faith and embrace what God is calling us to. Stepping out into the unknown is intimidating. Women as a whole tend to be better about grouping with one another and acknowledging our shortcomings. Men tend to be expected to hide their vulnerabilities.
Stepping into what God is calling us to do is often unsettling. In our culture, it can be especially hard for men to step into a position where they have to depend on something other than themselves to come through.
4. Pray for his ability to encourage you spiritually
This is one of the hardest things I can pray for my husband. Because often, spiritual growth does not come from gentle encouragement to read my Bible but from someone who intimately knows me looking at my life and showing me where my actions aren’t lining up with my words and beliefs.
On the new season of the Netflix series The Crown, there is an insightful moment when Prince Phillip says that he knows his wife better than she knows herself because he can see her fully with all of her strengths and weaknesses. We need to ask God to give our husbands insights int our lives.
Pray that your husband will be able to encourage you in your own walk with the Lord. Ask God to give him wisdom as he looks at your life to encourage and grow you as you’re being conformed into the image of Christ.
5. Pray for his understanding of Christ to deepen through your marriage
Our marriages are not lived out in a vacuum. Love cannot sustain itself because it is not an end, but a beautiful beginning that points us to Christ. We should be praying that our marriages show our husbands the bigger picture. The love the Christ has for His Church, His persistence in pursuing us despite our endless list of failures, is shown in our marriages.
Pray that God will use your marriage to impress in His heart a deeper understanding of the sacrifice that Christ made for His bride, the Church. Ask God to show them just how wide and deep and faithful His love is for your husband. May the beautiful image of Christ’s love for the Church inspire and encourage your husband in his pursuit of holiness.
The Comments
Nadia
I absolutely loved this! My prayers life has been struggling a bit lately. I don’t know why. Although, everywhere I go and no matter what I read, it’s about prayer. What a reminder to pray more! I love praying for my hubby so thank you for these amazing ideas <3
xox Nadia
(Miel and Mint blog)
Diane
This was a great resource. Sometimes I feel like my prayers for my husband get stagnant so it is great to have some fresh ways to pray so I don’t feel like it is just a rote prayer and my heart isn’t into it…it just gets repetitive and then it isn’t from the heart.
Bailey
DianeI’m so glad this encouraged you to pray in new ways, Diane.
Keri Lynn
This is so good! I have been wanting to focus on praying for my husband more so I will definitely be using these prompts.
Bailey
Keri LynnKeri, I hope this is a helpful resource as you focus more on praying for your husband.
Heather @ A Heart of Humility
So Good girl! Pinned this tonshare with others! We have to be willing to fight for our marriages and our families and it is imperative that we start by praying for them! Thanks for sharing!
Bailey
Heather @ A Heart of HumilityI’m so glad this meant so much to you, Heather. It’s important that we fight for our marriages through prayer. Prayer isn’t the least we can do, it’s a crucial starting point!
HomeAfterThree
I absolutely love that you say prayer is not the least you can do. Prayer is a weapon. I tweeted your blog, again! Always such great stuff.
Bailey
HomeAfterThreeThanks for the tweet! It’s a powerful weapon and we need to utilize it!
sruszkowski
YES!!! So good. Thank you for the reminders!!!! <3 🙂
Bailey
sruszkowskiI hope this encourages you to fight for your husband and marriage through prayer.
gracefulandfree
This is beautifully written! I love this and need to continue to read through this and use it in my life daily!
Bailey
gracefulandfreeThank you! I hope this sparks a new daily practice of diligent prayer for you husband.
Nadia
LOVED this post, Bailey.
I always make sure to pray for my hubby and there are so many wonderful ways to do it <3
So thankful for him and how his faith is so strong & he's exercising the gifts God has given him. I look up to him in so many ways.
This week (mon-fri) he's taking kids meetings to help out one church – please pray for those meetings to go well and for someone to trust in Christ for salvation 🙂
xox Nadia
{Miel and Mint blog}
Bailey
NadiaI will absolutely be praying for those meetings! Keep encouraging your husband to do what God created him to do!
Lisa
Excellent reminder of why it’s so important to pray for our spouse, and some inspiring ways to do just that.
Bailey
LisaThanks, Lisa!
annemarkey1
I absolutely love these! Pray is so important and is one way we can encourage our husbands. I also pray that The Lord will give my husband wisdom and patience at work. Thanks for sharing.
Bailey
annemarkey1It’s so important to pray for our husbands at work! Thank you for reminding me.
Jennifer Love
Love this Bailey, especially”we need to be on our knees praying that their hearts will be more captivated by God than they are by us” and encouraging him in using his gifts! I’m trying to make this a daily priority, especially focusing on some physical healing for him too.
Bailey
Jennifer LoveI know I often take my husband for granted and forget to pray for his spiritual growth but it’s so important. Encouraging him and praying for the development is so important!
Haley
Oh this is so powerful! I love this and will reference this often!!!
Bailey
HaleyI’m so glad it encouraged you, Haley!
Katie
LOVE this! Especially the encouragement that our marriages are supposed to strengthen our personal walks with Christ! They are meant to showcase Christ’s love for His church. Keeping that in mind has had a transformative effect on my own marriage… I love the idea of praying specifically to that end!
Bailey
KatieAmen! It’s so important to keep that truth front and center in our minds and marriages.
Tracey Rosenberger
These are incredible prayers for our husbands. I shared your article with my followers!
Bailey
Tracey RosenbergerThanks, Tracey! I’m glad it spoke to you.
kage2015
All of these are wonderful ways to pray for your husband. Don’t forget to pray together as well.
Marilyn
Yes! I keep saying this, prayer is the most useful, unused weapon we have for our marriage! I have witnessed this many times in my own marriage.
Marilyn
Thank you for the reminder to pray that he will encourage me spiritually, to see me as a whole with my shortcomings and my gifts.