How To Pray For A Christian Husband

Here’s how you can pray for a Christian husband of yours.

That he’d put God First

I would certainly pray that a Christian husband would put God first. Jesus Himself tells us to not worry about our needs in life but “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33), so a husband that puts God first is in a better position to love his wife like Christ loved the church and that’s an extremely high mark because Christ died for the church! The Apostle Paul writes; “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Eph 5:22). If a husband puts a wife above God, isn’t that idolatry? I would suggest to Christian wives to pray for a godly husband who seeks the kingdom first, and that means seeking the King of that kingdom, Who is Jesus Christ.

Avoiding Temptation

It’s a little hard to avoid temptation these days because all you have to do is open your eyes and you’re already being exposed to sexually explicit images. What was banned years ago is openly flaunted today and without a blush. It seems our sexual images have grown more and more graphic in the last fifty years. There leaves little to the imagination anymore, but tragically, this is how many young boys and girls get hooked on pornography. Some call it “soft porn” but images today are much less inhibited today than even 10 years ago and that can lead boys and girls into an adulthood of having an addiction to pornography. This wrecks many a marriage, causing thousands to divorce every year. What is unacceptable today will quickly be the norm tomorrow. That’s how fast it’s moving. That means the Christian wife and her husband are going through a field of temptation landmines where they’ve got to keep their eyes open, but also know when to look away. Job once wrote “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin” (Job 31:1)? What he may mean is when he saw a beautiful woman, he’d immediately look away because he had made a vow to never look at another in the way that he looked at his own wife. He must have already known, thousands of years before Jesus’ teaching, that we can commit adultery in our hearts (Matt 5:28), and remember Job was married. We know it is primarily the “eye gate” where temptations enter in, so by Job’s looking away, he’d be less likely to lust after another woman, therefore a Christian wife should pray that her husband avoids temptation and if he is tempted, that he might not sin.

A Good Father

The only way a Christian mother can model parenting is by being one, and so the Christian wife can pray for that same thing for her husband; that he would be a good father to their children and that he’d spend time with them and teach them certain morals and values that God expects of them. Pray that he’d incorporate biblical teachings throughout the day and night (as much as possible) because the Bible instructs fathers to do this. This was part of the Old Testament’s non-Mosaic portions of the law as written in Deuteronomy 11:19 which says, “You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” That sounds a lot like a 24/7 duty. When children hear and read a lot about Jesus from their father, then they’ll probably hear and read a lot more about Him later in life. In the least, they’ll have a biblical foundation upon which to live their lives. Pray that the Christian father would be a godly father and do as the Bible instructs fathers to do, however to not go too far as Paul wrote, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4).

Divine Appointments

Finally, but certainly not least, Christian wives should pray for their husbands to have encounters throughout the day with people that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray for divine appointments for those with disappointments. Since we know that God is sovereign over all things and there’s not one random molecule that’s acting contrary to the will of God, pray for those times where people are brought into the Christian husband’s path so that he might open his mouth and bring eternal healing to those who trust in Christ. The gospel offers hope because it doesn’t focus only today but also the future, where the Apostle John writes, “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4). God loves to answer the prayer to seek and to save that which is lost.

Conclusion

Ephesians 5:33 tells us husbands and wives, “Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband,” so apparently men need respect and women need love. Perhaps it’s because to men, being respected makes them feel loved, and for women, being loved makes them feel respected. I don’t know exactly how that works…I just know it does…and all to the glory of God.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.