Bring Power To Your Marriage

Generally, I like to write articles that reach out to everyone in the NWBC family. This month, however, I want to address just the husbands – of all ages.  I have been married for forty-two years to an incredible, though imperfect, lady who has endured for all of these years my imperfections, few though they may be.

During these years, I have learned many things about my wife and about myself.  I have read books and I have gone to seminars about learning how to be a better husband and father. There was a time when we even went to counseling when raising teenagers was pushing us toward insanity, if not murder itself.  I have worked at being a good listener and at expressing myself in ways that I can be heard in a non-offensive way.  I have learned so many things – and forgotten so many things. But in this brief article, I want to share with you probably the most important thing that couples can do to bring growth and power to their marriages and families.

Praying together is an incredibly intimate activity done by a man and a woman that has the potential of revolutionizing a relationship.  Honest prayer by two people with each other and for each other can set the tone for an entire relationship.  It is amazing how differently I look at my wife after we have spent a few minutes in prayer in the morning.  There is a spiritual bonding that impacts me to my very soul.  After praying with my wife and for my wife, it is much more difficult for me to be selfish or curt with her.  She calls it being “snarky.”  It is harder for me to be angry and unforgiving when I sit next to her on our couch and call upon the Lord to bless our day.  Obviously, it is not the praying itself that makes the difference, but the recognition that God is at the other end of the prayer.  God not only listens but touches our hearts through His Spirit so that we want to be more like Him.

Every couple, when they get married, desires to have a happy and fulfilling marriage.  I don’t believe that, until a husband learns how to lead his family and especially his wife into times of prayer, he can really experience that sense of fulfillment.  Sadly to say, most Christian men struggle with this practice and Satan does all he can to keep us from this powerful activity.  He really works on our pride to convince us that praying with our wives is too hard or too uncomfortable.  I mean, many men would rather step in front of a bus than kneel with his wife in prayer.  Let me encourage you to pray with your spouse.  It may have been years since you have done so.  Maybe you have never prayed together.  Physically it is not a hard thing to do.  Breaking through the pride and uneasiness is the hard part.

Start by humbling yourself before the Lord and your wife.  Apologize for not being the spiritual leader in this area that you would like to be, but that you would like to change the future by beginning to pray today.  Hold hands when you pray and then talk honestly with the Lord in a conversational language.  Pray for God’s blessing on your wife and kids and for specific things that each might be facing during the day.  Then pray, as Paul prayed in Ephesians, that each member of the family might have a heart to know and love God more by the end of the day.

I can’t make any promises, guys, but I would guess that if we began each day in prayer our day would go much better regardless of what might occur.

Pastor Doug Dennee