By Robin Sam
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
DO you know you are obligated to pray for your wife from the day you clasped her hand in marriage?
You need to understand that it was God’s eternal will and plan that woman shall be man’s helper comparable to him. Marriage was instituted by God. We read in Genesis 2:18, And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” The English Standard Version says, ‘a helper fit for him.” The Message gives out the much simpler translation, ‘I’ll make him a helper, a companion.” God planned marriage for men and women of marriageable age not as an afterthought but as a forethought from the foundations of the earth.
It doesn’t matter whether you found the woman that is your wife now on your own accord or whether your parents or relatives found her for you. If you and your wife have come together under the covenant relationship of marriage, you are obliged to pray for her, and she for you. That you will pray to Him for each other, yourselves and the world at large is what God expects from you and your family.
We have enough evidence in the Bible to think that God will ask of the man (that is the husband) for reasons if his family is torn apart. When the first man and his wife ate of the forbidden fruit in the center of the Garden of Eden, we read in Genesis that God looked for Adam. Genesis 3:9 says: Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
When we read this verse, two questions will spring immediately in our minds. The first question is this: Didn’t God who created the Garden of Eden and Adam know where he was? Of course, He knew where Adam was. The crux of his question was this: ‘Adam, do you know where you are in your relationship with Me? Do you know you have strayed away from me by disobeying my command not to eat or touch the forbidden fruit? By violating my law, do you know how far you have gone from My presence? Do you know where you are now, Adam?’
The second question is this: When both Adam and Eve disobeyed, why didn’t God question Eve? Although the Scriptures do not tell us why, according to Biblical scholars the reason why God chose to confront Adam with His questions was because it was to him that He gave the command. Eve must have in all probability learned of God’s command through Adam. That being the case, the righteous God that He is, He must have found it fit to question Adam and not Eve.
If you have come this far into the article, I want to tell you my brother: ‘Don’t forget the fact that God has chosen you and made you the head of the family for a purpose. It doesn’t matter if you are married for six months or six years or sixty years, the title of ‘head of the family’ belongs to you not just because the government says so in your ration card but because God has ordained you to be it.
Will you take some time and pray for your wife as follows? May the Lord Himself bless you.
My Father God,
Change me to be the man according to your own heart, Lord. Help me not to shirk off this great responsibility or handle it carelessly.
Give me the grace to understand the needs, desires and expectations of my wife in marriage and in the family. Help me to be an attentive listener to her.
Give me the light of your Word to help discern whether the counsel that she gives me is according to your will for our lives. Give me the grace to consider her likes and dislikes above mine because she is the bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
Reveal to me how I hurt her by words and actions and help me rid them from my life.
Pour out your selfless and sacrificial love into my heart so I may love her just as you love us, your body.
I am ashamed of the way I treated her in the past. I repent of my actions, Lord. I seek the help of the Holy Spirit to honor her and love her from this day onwards.
Help me to serve her in her weakness realizing that she is inferior to me in physical strength. Help me also to encourage and equip her and make her work better in areas where she excels.
When she is tired physically, help me to lift her up by being with her and lending her a helping hand. When she is distressed spiritually, help me to pray along with her. Help me also to find time to pray for her alone in my private chamber.
Let my children and other family members honor her and treat her respectfully by seeing the way I treat her. Help me to make my children walk in the ways of righteousness so she will never be put to shame by them.
In good times and bad times, prosperity and poverty, health and sickness help me to be with her and lift up your Name and worship you alone, Father.
Help me to praise you always by realizing that you have given me my helper fit for me. Guard my mind and eyes so I will not look lustfully at other women.
I pray to you, Father, in the Name of Jesus Christ who considers me as His own body. Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer sincerely and faithfully, God will by His Holy Spirit make you a man of honor and a good husband and a committed Father. I pray to God that your family will be bound by the love of Jesus Christ and that you will inherit God’s blessings. Will you also pray for me, my family and our ministries?
I remain your brother in Christ’s vineyard. For more articles by Robin Sam, click here.
