Did you hear about my issue? That secret struggle I had for so long when it came respecting my husband. I confessed it all in my P31 devotion today. As I shared, I haven’t always been so good at following and trusting my man”s lead. BUT God has done an amazing work in me – and in my marriage – over the past 18 years.
I know marriage can be hard, and trusting someone to lead when there are things you struggle with together is really, really hard. But I also know God uses us in powerful ways to love our men like He does – unconditionally.
One of the best ways we can love our husbands is to pray for them. Praying for JJ has shown me all that he carried on his shoulders – at work, at home, at church, with our kids, etc. It’s also really helped me follow his lead. It assures me that he’s covered spiritually when I invite God to do His thing in JJ’s life.
Of course, it’s up to our husbands to respond to God’s work in their hearts but our part is not based on our husband’s response to God. It’s based on our surrendering and seeking God’s heart for our husbands – and trusting God to lead from there.
JJ has also told me that prayer is the best gift I can give him. Years ago I heard a concept about praying for our husbands – from head to toe. So, today I wanted to share some verses and prayers that fit with that concept:
Head
“Father, I ask that You would continually renew my husband’s mind, resulting in a transformed life. Help him bring every thought into captivity to Christ to make it obedient to You. Give him a greater understanding of Your Word. Help him to think on things that are pure and right and worthy of praise.” (Psalm 119:15, Rom 12:2, 2 Cor.10:5)
Eyes
“Lord, keep opening my husband’s eyes to deep spiritual truths. Help him to see things as You see them. Please guard his eyes from looking at worthless things. ” (Psalm 119:18, Psalm 119:37)
Ears
“Father, let my husband hear Your voice clearly. Help him to recognize your voice with certainty. Protect him from listening to anyone who is not seeking and walking with You. Help him not to be affected negatively by what others say and to discern between good and evil. Give him the ability to determine what is of You and what is not.” (Is 30:21, 1 Kings 3:9, 1 John 4:1)
Mouth
“Help my husband to speak the truth in love. Help him to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Give him the couraage to lovingly confront when necessary. Let the words he speaks be Yours, not his own. Help him speak words that bring grace and truth to the hearers. I also pray that you will help him to grow in his ability and desire to communicate with you and others.” (Psalm 19:14, 119:13, 41:3; Eph 4:15, 4:29; James 1:19)
Heart
“Give my husband a heart that seeks passionately after You. Teach him to guard his heart with diligence. Help him deal with anything in his heart that is not pleasing to You. Create in him a pure heart. Enable him to lead our family with integrity.” (Psalm 78:72, 119:10-11; Prov 4:23; 1 3:13)
Hands
“Lord, I pray that everything my husband does would be done with his whole heart, serving You rather than man. I pray that You will also help him to increase his skills and his abilities. Bless everything he puts his hands to.” (Psalm 24:3-4, Col 3:23)
Feet
I pray my husband would love Your Words and walk in Your ways. I pray He would be to walk in a manner that is worthy of You, bearing fruit in every good work. Jesus show him how to creatively share your truth with our kids as he does life with them each day. Father, when he walks through the valley of the shadow of doubt and difficulties, I pray he would fear no evil because He knows that you are with him. (Deut 6:7, 8:6, Col 1:10, Psalm 23:4)
I have seen prayer transform my marriage and my life. Whatever steps of faith God is calling you to take personally or with your husband, I want you to know that I am praying for you and your marriage today. We have an enemy set on destroying marriages and one of his tools is to pit husbands and wives against each other. I have experienced his efforts firsthand. What our husbands need most is our respect; what our marriages need most is prayer.
Let’s look for ways to build our husbands up – by giving them encouraging words and the gift of prayer – covering them from head to toe!
If you’d like a copy of my FREE Praying For Your Husband download to print with these prayers on it – click “Share Your Thoughts” and let me know. We’ll be happy to email it to you – although your email will not show in your comment. This will be sent out next week after the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!
Discover more from Renee Swope
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
That is just what I needed to hear and the head-to-toe prayers is just what I need to Do! Thanks!
Thanks Renee! Your message is timely and convicting.
I would like to save marriage , I have destroy my marriage with wrong though may Lord repair everything I have done, and help my family to come bag again in unity I was just ignorant, May the Lord bring back my husband and save my family , I have respectfulness my husband. I have just mess up all over the place by ignorance. MAY EVERY BODY PRAY FOR MY LOVELY wonderful FAMILY. Please could you help me to pray and ask Lord to repaired my husband heart who have suffer many years of my respectfulness. I am promising with Lord help I will do HIS will because of that he is living in me trough Jesus Christ. SEND ME A COPY FOR PRAYING FOR MY HUSBAND
Thank you Jesus for words of truth. Thank you for sharing, I needed to hear this and I do not want to be like Eve was in Genesis. God has a perfect plan .
God bless you for sharing. I would love to have a copy of this to share with others.
Hi,Renee,renewed and renewing others.Thank God who has a vessel like you to tell other women that they can build their home by wisdom.I love to share this with other women,quoting you.T hanks for the good works.
I have been really struggling with this issue lately. My husband has turned away from the Lord and it is breaking my heart and it is tearing our marriage apart. I truly do want to respect him, i just don’t know how. Just today I found out that he has lied to me, again, and told our children to lie also in order to cover his lie. This is yet another lie and it is causing me to not trust him. How do I respect a man I can’t trust? Lying has been an issue of his our entire 14 year marriage and I do realize that it is in part because in the past I have been critical about his decisions and he has resorted to lying in order to keep the peace. I know I need to change and allow him to lead, however, I don’t know if he knows the Lord and I’m afraid that he will lead our family away from the Lord. I feel so desperate and alone and betrayed and unloved. However, I do praise the Lord that He loves me and that is the only thing keeping me going.
I have been hurt by my something my husband has done and I am finding that as I draw close to God for healing this message of respect for my husband keeps coming up in my life. I have always respected him but because of what he’s done I believe God is giving me these things as reminders that my husband still needs this respect to get through his own struggles. It would be easy to give up on him, but I can’t. Thank you for all that you do, your online studies have been a real blessing to me!
Thank you for being willing to be so open with us!! I have been married 35 years now & sure wish I could of had some of these “tips” in our earlier years of marriage as I, too, learned how to honor God & my husband at the same time. It hasn’t been easy but so worthwhile & it does truly make a difference. Would love to have the prayer cards download. 🙂
I loved your devo today. I want to be the wife I should be. Although, it’s hard sometimes because my husband, while a believer, is not the spiritual head of our home. I am. And that is stressful, too! I am the example to my husband & children. I need to keep praying that my example will continue to nudge him in the right direction and that he would desire the Holy Spirit to come into his life & guide him & then us. I would love to receive your download. I also use “31 Days of Praying for Your Husband” from TrueWoman.com. The link is: http://www.truewoman.com/?id=366
Thank you, Renee!
My husband and I have been going through the same thing. God has showed me how to submit to him because he is the leader of the home however it if doesn’t line up with God’s Word then we talk about it. It’s a process and takes time but we are doing much better since God is number 1 and in control. I would like a copy of the download you’re offering. God bless you, your marriage, and your family! Happy Thanksgiving!
I absolutely love this prayer for your husband and would really like a copy to share with the women in our married couples class. Thanks so much for your work.
Thank you for words of encouragement. This morning when I clicked through to your blog your prior post appeared. It hit me right where I am…self-doubt, thank you for your ministry and for the 7-day doubt diet as well as the hubby head-to-toe connections.
Renee,
Thanks for the great devotion today. My husband and I have been married 31 years. We also have had some tough times. But, God has provided and prevailed. I would love to have the download you are offering today.
Blessings,
Becky B.
Renee
Thank you so much for your insight and for being obedient to God and sharing what you have learned. I think for women, we have all be taught to be strong and step up to the plate and some times take over, it’s okay, but the word really does tell us how we should obey and be submissive to our husband. Never in my 9 years of marriage did I understand how much prayer changes things in marraige and everything. it was written that way because of how God made them and how he made us. This marriage thing is so different than anything that I could have imagined. We hear how marriage is bad, but if we follow God’s plan, Marriage is WONDERFUL. thank you so much for being obedient in your sharing the “word”. God Bless ~ Zelda
Thank you for your RESPECT devotional and today’s prays. I know that I really needed that and since my husband is not a believer I pray constantly for him. I know that like you I need to keep my mouth shut and pray constantly. I know that I try to control the situations and I do need to give him more respect and build him up instead of making him feel like I am tearing him down. Please send me the prayer for my husband download.
Renee, Thank you for your words of wisdom and encouragement. There is a horrible war on marriage and family. My belief is prayer does change things.. I would like to receive more of your encouraging words and scripture reference to utilize in my own marriage and share with others.
Praise and Glory be to God for you and your ministry
Renee, I just wanted to let you know that I prayed today for God to help me in respecting my husband and letting him be the man God intended Him to be, not what I expected him to be or do! I prayed that God would show me, lead me, and bind me if necessary, and I open my email and there is your devotional about R-E-S-P-E-C-T. As I was reading it I was thinking that is me, that is me. What an encouragement to know your struggles and to know it isn’t only me struggling in this area and to hear your advice. Thank you so much!
LOVED this devotion. My husband and I have struggled over this for 27 years and beginning to get passed. Please send me more praying for him @ [email protected]
I urgently need prayer for my marriage. I have been married for 13 years. Alcohol has been an on-going issue for my husband. Although I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was a child, I drifted away from Him, went my own way and began living a life full of ugly sin. Although I was living with this man and KNEW it was against God’s best for me and my life, in my heart, I was afraid to marry him because of his lifestyle – even though he said he was a Christian. The Holy Spirit was calling me back and I really wanted to go to church Easter Sunday many years ago. My boyfriend (now husband) wanted to go with me, which he later told me was just to make me happy. God worked in both of our hearts and we were married a few weeks later.
My immediate prayer need is concerning the roller coaster ride I/we have been on since then.
My husband has gone back and forth with his drinking and, after this many years I can tell when he is drinking and lying, etc. He becomes angry, critical, moody, and is not much fun to share life with. I desperately need someone to understand what I have been/am going through. I’m on the verge of a breakdown and my prayers and Bible reading haven’t brought me peace that I need so badly. I don’t have another Christian woman I am able to openly talk to and pray with right now in my life for various reasons. (I don’t want to “betray” my husband or ruin his reputation at our church nor do I want to confide in my mom and add any burdens to her life)
I would really appreciate some strong faith-filled Christian ladies standing in the gap for me right now!
Thank you very much.
I will pray for you and your husband. Wwe.rejoicemarriageministries.org is also a wonderful christian website that xan help you with prayers for a hurting marriage. Remember God is with you and nothing is too hard for him too overcome.
Renee, your devotional was so wonderful and i would love to have a copy of the download so i can pray these prayers for my husband.
Thank you Rubi. Much appreciated. I’ll chck out the website you mentioned too.
Blessings to you and your marriage!
Hi Renee, I have been married 37 years and am always excited to learn about different ways to encourage my husband. I believe praying for our husbands is a powerful tool that we as wives can use. I would love to receive the prayer download. Thank you for sharing and encouraging us. Blessings!