You are welcome to fast with me as we pray today for our marriages and marriages of believers around the world and as we pray for God to send a Great Awakening and powerful move of His Holy Spirit to draw many to Himself. This world so DESPERATELY needs Jesus!
PRAYING WITH RESPECT FOR GOD
The first respect issue we must properly understand is that we must approach our holy, omnipotent, sovereign, omniscient, righteous, mighty God with trembling, reverence, fear and awe.
- Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. – Isaiah 66:2
- But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple. Psalm 5:7
- Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, Hebrews 12:28
- The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7
- The Lord opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. James 4:6
If I approach God flippantly, or disrespectfully, as if I have the right or position to order Him and command Him and as if He must submit to me – I am not approaching God with a proper spirit of humility and contrition.
I must rid myself of every trace of pride and humble myself, realizing Whose presence I am in and my actual relationship to God. He is holy, powerful and wise. I am none of those things. I must see myself as tiny, weak, foolish and powerless next to this AWESOME God.
The only proper position for me to assume before God is to be on my face in reverence before Him.
I have no rights to demand anything of Him.
I have the duty, responsibility, blessing and joy of surrendering and yielding all of myself to Him, being fully submitted to Him. Now I seek His will, not my own.
PRAYING WITH RESPECT FOR MY HUSBAND
Instead of bringing a long list of demands/commands to God for Him to zap and change my husband to be what I want him to be, I humble myself and only approach God with reverence for God and respect for the position of God-given spiritual authority my husband has over me.
I go THROUGH my husband’s authority over me, I don’t try to go around it anymore.
- I thank God for my husband.
- I praise Him for my husband’s strengths.
- I thank God that He is able to use even my husband’s weaknesses/sins for my ultimate good, to make me more like Christ.
- I do not complain to God about my husband, but rather, I lift my husband up, asking God to give him godly wisdom, divine protection, God’s direction, God’s power, God’s spiritual blessings and God’s favor.
- I stand in the gap for my husband against the enemy’s attacks.
- I speak highly of him to God.
- I am on my husband’s team and God’s team.
- I do not look down on my husband, but recognize that we are of equal worth and value before Christ and that we are equally sinful on our own at the foot of the cross.
- I see him as a fellow traveler on this road who has his own journey to make towards God – and I desire to bless him on his journey, not to set any stumbling blocks before him.
- I see my husband through God’s eyes of GRACE.
- I have access to God’s forgiveness and mercy for myself, and I allow my husband access to forgiveness and mercy from me.
Then my prayers of faith open the floodgates of heaven to accomplish God’s will, His purposes and His glory in my husband’s life in God’s power and in His timing.
Another way to show respect for our husbands’ God-given spiritual authority over us as we pray is for us to cover our heads as we pray in accordance with I Corinthians 11:3-16. When I discovered this New Testament practice it was such a help for me – a tangible way to remind me to have the proper attitude before God. I needed ALL the help I could get with learning to respect Greg and God. Respect and biblical submission does not come naturally to any of us – it sure didn’t for me! You can read about when I wrestled with this passage here.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Lord,
We praise and magnify Your holy Name together. You alone are God, there is no other. You alone are sovereign. You alone have all wisdom. We come together to praise You and to tremble in awe and reverence before You. You are worthy of our highest praise. You are worthy of our greatest devotion and sacrifice. You are worthy of our obedience. Make us a holy people, set apart for Your purposes and Your glory!
We lift up ourselves as wives and our fellow wives to You, Lord. Transform our hearts, minds and souls by the power of Your Spirit and Your Word working in our lives. Let us become the women You command us to be as Your disciples. Make us more and more like Christ! Open our eyes to any sin and let us humbly repent. Flood us with the power of Your Spirit. Let this generation rise up to become a godly generation by Your power. We are in DESPERATE need of Your power in our lives and in our midst! We can do nothing apart from You, Jesus. Cleanse us. Stir Your people with Your Spirit. Bring a Great Awakening this year among Your people around the world that we might cast off worldliness and ungodliness and sin and that we might live holy lives that please and honor You.
We lift up our husbands to Your throne room in heaven, Lord! We stand in the gap, pleading that You might remove and tear down every stronghold that is in their lives and our lives and in Your church around the world. Free people from the power of Satan and sin. Let our men become the men of God You desire them to be. Let them hear Your voice and have willing hearts to submit themselves fully to You. We trust You to draw them to Yourself without our help. We are not the Holy Spirit. You are! You don’t need our verbal prodding or coaching or preaching. Help us to live out godly lives by Your power and help us to obey I Peter 3:1-2 when our husbands seem far from You. Let us get out of Your way so that You can work without us making things more difficult for our husbands spiritually. Use us to bless our husbands. Let us have gentle and peaceful spirits. Let us respect our husbands in ways that are meaningful to them. Let us honor them and learn to understand their perspective. Let us do what is right and not give way to fear. Let us put all of our power and strength behind our husbands and all of our trust in You. Give us the power to be meek – to have our strength under control and bridled – to be used for GOOD – for GREAT GOOD in our husbands’ lives instead of destruction. Give our husbands Your wisdom and direction as they seek to lead our families and represent Christ in our homes. Let us make their assignments from You a joy. Use us to teach our children to honor and respect their fathers. Help us to build up the authority of our husbands and our children’s fathers. Help us to set a godly example of biblical submission to Christ and to those in spiritual authority over us – our husbands, pastors, church leaders, bosses at work, government leaders, etc. Help us to have a friendly facial expression with our husbands most of the time and a pleasant tone of voice. Help us to stop the nonverbal disrespect of eye-rolling and making hateful faces and sighing in frustration. Change our hearts! Let us see the good in our husbands. Help us to focus on the Philippians 4:8 things and not complain or argue. Let Your will be done in our marriages and our families as it is done in heaven. We completely submit ourselves to You, Jesus!
In the Name and power of Christ!
Amen!
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEAVE A PRAYER OR REQUEST IN THE COMMENTS – YOU ARE WELCOME TO!
I would ask that we keep the prayers and requests about marriage and about the gospel being spread to the world. Thank you so much!