A Prayer for a New Beginning in Christ

Jesus,

You alone are my Lord and my God.  I have sinned against You.  I confess all of these sins (here are some examples):

• unforgiveness
• bitterness
• greed
• selfishness
• the idol of trying to be in control of my husband/others
• PRIDE – thinking I am always right and I know better than my husband or anyone else and that I know better than You do
• a judgmental and critical spirit
• gossip
• rebellion against God’s Word and commands
• disrespect for my husband
• contempt towards my husband
• brazen disregard for Your commands to me as a wife for marriage
• justifying my sin and disrespect because of my husband’s sin against me
• thinking self-righteously that I am so much better than my husband
• thinking that I am somehow exempt from Your commands for wives and that I know better than You do for my marriage
• withholding my body from my husband to punish him
• making an idol out of my husband and expecting to find all of my happiness in him and making him totally responsible for my happiness instead of finding my identity and joy in Christ alone
• making idols from food, being thin, beauty, money, success, health, having children, being married, having a nice home and expensive things, ANYTHING that I have put ahead of You in my heart
• rushing ahead and trying to lead my own life and not wait on You and Your will and Your timing
• ignoring and rebelling against my husband’s God-given authority
• hatred towards my husband and maybe others in my life

I have missed the mark of Your standard of holiness and perfection by miles.

I am truly a wretched sinner.  There is no good in me on my own.  Isaiah declares that You say that my own attempts at being good are like “filthy, bloody menstrual rags” in Your holy sight.  I mourn deeply over my sins.  I know I have grieved Your heart.  Help me to be broken and humble before You and to see my sin the way that You do.

Thank You for Your blood – spilled for me –  and for the way You willingly paid the debt of sin I owed.  I don’t just owe you a few hundred or a few thousand “sin dollars”, I owe You BILLIONS – and I can never repay You.  THANK YOU for Your death for me.  Thank You for removing my sins as far from me as the East is from the West.  What JOY is mine to think of the weight and stain of my awful sin being completely removed by Your incredible power!  You didn’t have to do that for me.  But Your love for me is so unfathomable, that You were willing to die in my place to give me the chance to accept the gift of having a relationship with You forever.

I don’t want to live in sin anymore.  I want to honor and obey You.  I am turning today from my ways and my wickedness and turning to You!

I lay down all that I am before You.  Here is my heart, my soul, my life, my marriage, my children, my career, my future, my health, my body, my money, my trust, my plans, my dreams, my desires, my pain, my wisdom, my entire life.  I give it all to You.  I hold nothing back.  From this day forward, I want to learn to honor and please You.  I want to know You more.  I want to know the depth, height and width of Your amazing love for me.  I want to know Your Word.  I want to LIVE it.  I don’t want to disobey You and sin against You anymore.

I lay my life on the altar as a living sacrifice to You.  This life I live I want to live for You every moment.  And I pick up my cross and follow You.  I know that following You will mean sacrificing what I want and what I think is best.  But I want YOUR will, not mine anymore.  Even though I don’t know all the details of what Your will might mean – I want Your full, total will for my life and I want You to bring great glory to Yourself through me however You see fit.

I embrace Your wisdom, Your Word, Your ways, Your thoughts, Your paths, Your commands, Your presence, Your Spirit.  Cleanse me from my filthy sins with Your powerful blood and fill me completely with Your Spirit – empower me to be the wife, the woman, the mother that You desire me to be.

I want YOU more than ANYTHING in the world.  I set You firmly on the throne in my heart and set my heart on Christ alone.

Convict me of hidden sins.  Cleanse me completely.  Help me to see and tear down all the idols and pride that offend You so deeply and let me begin to have a new life in You.  Renew my heart and mind by Your Word.  Transform me to be more and more like Christ.

Use me to meet my husband’s needs.  I will stop expecting anything from him and lay down all of my expectations.  I will look to You to meet my needs for feeling loved, accepted, valuable, and precious.  I will find my joy and strength and identity solely in You from now on.

I trust YOU to handle my husband, His sin and His spiritual growth as a man, as a believer, as a husband, as a godly leader and as a father.  I will not interfere with what You want to do with him anymore.  I will support You and be Your partner in my marriage and do things Your way.  If my husband is far from God, I will obey I Peter 3:1-6 and not talk/lecture/nag him about the things of God, but silently allow him to see my joy, my respect and my Spirit-filled life.  I know that my voice will drown out Your voice in his soul.  And I know that  my respect and cooperation with his leadership will amplify Your voice in his soul and influence him to want to be a more godly man.

I want to obey Your commands for me – even when I don’t agree with them, even when they don’t make sense to me, even when what You ask me to do  “feels wrong,”  even if my husband NEVER changes.  I want to obey You because I love You and want to honor You with my whole life. And I want to stand before You in heaven when this life is over and hear You say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”  I know that I will be judged for my own sins and for my own obedience to God’s Word regardless of what my husband does or does not do.

I want to repay evil with good in my marriage and all of my relationships.  Empower me to respond without sin when others sin against me.  Let me keep my eyes on You.  Empower me to be full of Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.  I can’t do this in my own strength!  I need You, Jesus!

Help me to abide in You daily.  Help me to manage my time wisely and to make time for You and Your Word and prayer and praise music.  Fill my heart with Your songs of joy.  Open my eyes to all that You want me to learn each day.

I PRAISE You and THANK You for all You have done for me and all You are going to do!  Thank You for setting me free from my sin, worry, fear and misery!  I trust You completely, Jesus!  You alone are my Lord and my God.

I will wait on You – no matter how long it takes. I won’t run ahead of  You or my husband.  I trust that You are truly big enough to lead my through my husband and I know that to be in Your will, I must cooperate with the leadership of my husband (unless he asks me to sin)- and that You will speak to me through him.  I can’t wait to see all that You have in store for my life!

In the Name and power of Christ,

Amen!

GOD’S DESIGN FOR MARRIAGE

EPHESIANS 5:22-33 (ESV)

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

I CORINTHIANS 11:3 (ESV)

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.