The Power of Prayer in Marriage

Many times women ask me how they can improve their marriages and influence their husbands. The power of prayer is usually one of the first tools that comes to my mind. Prayer is so powerful. Never underestimate it.

In this episode of the podcast I will share how I learned to pray and rely on God to rescue my marriage. And how I continue to use it today for everyday life.

We will also talk about how to use prayer to grow closer to your husband.

I hope it helps you in your marriage, as well.

If you would like more inspiration, download my Ultimate Guide to Guilt-Free Self-Care HERE!

And join us in the Life Designed Community on Facebook!

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to A Life Designed.
 
My name is Tina Haisman. I teach busy moms how to get everything done and still have time and energy for themselves. My passion is for helping women create more heart-to-heart connection with their husband and children so they can feel deeply fulfilled in those most important relationships.
 
The topic of today’s podcast is The Power of Prayer in Marriage
 
But before we get started I want to let you know I have a FREE private group on Facebook where you can come to get inspiration for your life. It’s called A Life Designed. I hope you’ll join us!
 
Also, I have created a free download call the Ultimate Guide to Guilt-Free Self-Care. It’s a Guide to help you take care of yourself in mind, body and spirit so you can feel like your best self every day. And in case you didn’t know, self-care is the very first step in taking care of your marriage! Visit my website tinahaisman.com to download it.
 
Now let’s Dive IN and talk about The Power of Prayer in Marriage.
 
I was thinking the o­­ther day about what makes a marriage beautiful? 
 
Is it Honesty? 
Kindness?
Generosity?
Grace?
 
Is it Connectedness?
Is it the Love?
 
All of these are important, but there’s one specific thing that really makes a marriage beautiful: the presence of God. 
 
Because although marriage is beautiful, it can get messy, and grow weeds just like a garden that is not tended to. 
 
In marriage, weeds might look like disappointment, conflict, or pain. 
 
But what I have learned in life is that it’s not WHAT happens to us. It’s HOW we handle what happens to us that makes a difference. 
 
And how we handle challenges in marriage is so much different when we God is present in our marriages.
 
Over the years, I’ve learned to look at marriage not as a union of two, but of three – God, husband and wife.

I might have said something different years ago, before I experienced my marriage crisis, but now I know it is the presence of God that helps a marriage thrive. 
 
I’m not going to get all preachy here on you. But let me tell you what happened to me.
 
Many years ago my husband left our marriage. And I suddenly realized that I could not control ANYTHING in this world. My heart was broken as I realized there was nothing I could do to make him decide to love me. 
 
I was staring at a new reality of myself and my two children. A life significantly different than I had ever anticipated. It was so incredibly sad.
 
But. It caused me to understand for the first time what it means to put God first, and family second. I always knew it intellectually, but I didn’t understand it in my heart until this happened. Until everything was taken away from me.
 
I turned to God during this time for peace and strength. And he showed up. He spoke to me in a very elementary way – probably at the kindergarten level – right where my understanding was – with rainbows.
 
He kept showing them to me, and I remembered that when you see or hear something multiple times that you should pay attention, that God might be giving you messages. So I looked up the meaning of the rainbow. It means God’s promise that everything will be OK after the storm.
 
Boy, was I in a storm. I was so grateful for this message. It brought me great peace. I didn’t know if God meant that my husband would come home or not, but I knew it meant that I would be OK either way. And I trusted that.
 
It was a huge time of growth for me in my relationship with God. Thankfully, God sent him back to me. And we began the work of building a more solid, healthy marriage. 
 
This whole experience taught me to put God first. And everything else will fall into place. Although it was a painful experience, our marriage was made more beautiful by it. We were made better people by it. And we both grew closer to God. My friends, God is good. All the time.
 
It reminds me of the story of Job. About how he suffered greatly, but proved his faith in God – even through all of that loss – and then God blessed him with double what he initially lost. That’s how I feel about my marriage experience. I think I got more than double, actually.
 
Now, your storm in life might not be within your marriage relationship. Maybe it is with a sick child. Or a loss of a job. Or the current situation with COVID.
 
Regardless of what your storm is, when you and your husband can trust God and turn to Him first, you will know so much more peace in your life. 
 
You might be asking, how do I get there? How do I get that trust in God? Or how do I nurture it? Or hold on to it during tough times. 
 
We use our most important tool. Prayer. We can pray for our husbands and with our husbands. 
 
Both of these methods of prayer dramatically improve our peace of mind and our marriages.
 
Prayer is so powerful. Never underestimate the power of it.
 
I believe it is a huge component of what brought my husband back to me during that time when he left. 
 
I prayed for him. A lot.
 
I asked God to help him make the right choice for himself and his family. I fully believed the right choice was his coming home, and I prayed God did, too. 
 
I also had a lot of other people praying. There’s power in numbers you know.
 
The cool thing about prayer is that it’s like doing something when you feel like you can’t do anything. 
 
Praying is doing something! There isn’t anything more peaceful or powerful you could do.
 
But you don’t have to be in a marriage crisis to pray for your husband. Heck no! 
 
You can pray for him every day.
 
Pray for his wishes and wellness. 
For his hopes and dreams. 
For help with his challenges at work. 
For his protection in all that he does. 
For healing from his past hurts.
For his relationship with God. For his vocation as a father.
 
You can also pray for him to make the wisest choices in his work, home and social life. 
 
And for him to be the man that God designed him to be.
 
Prayer is a great tool if you and your husband are disagreeing on something. Say a financial issue. Or a parenting issue.
 
Ask God to help your husband make the best decision for your family. 
 
I don’t mean to make this sound selfish. That you’re praying for God to make your husband do what YOU want him to do. But rather that God would lead him to the best decision for the family.
 
I have personally seen this work. And let me say this. This technique goes a lot further than bickering with your husband about it. 
 
So, in addition to praying for our husbands, we can pray WITH them. 
 
Praying with our husband can increase our intimacy, our faith, our connectedness, our dreams, our direction and our love, among the many stresses of life.
 
Prayer is really worth it. So why don’t more of us couples pray together?
 
Are we too busy? Do we underestimate its power? Or maybe we are uncomfortable praying out loud and revealing our hearts out loud?
 
I will be honest. As a couple we are not where I would like to be yet. It’s a work in progress.
 
I think there are some ways that you can try to work up to it if it’s something you desire.
 
You can ask your husband how you can pray for him when he is leaving for work in the morning. 
 
Or another great time would be in the dark as you go to bed at night.
 
You could do it at dinner when you are saying grace.
 
You could read prayers – those can feel more safe than speaking your heart and getting really vulnerable. Hopefully it could lead to the heart opening in the future.
 
Maybe you don’t know what to pray about. Here are some ideas:
Pray for your marriage.
Pray for each other.
Pray for your family.
Pray for discernment on decisions.
Pray for your dreams and desires.
And be sure to pray prayers of thanksgiving for all of the blessings God has bestowed up on you.
 
So much to pray for. I hope this has helped.
 
If you want to work more on your marriage, reach out to me for a complimentaryconsultation. We can talk about your unique situation and the solutions you need. 
 
In the meantime. Remember! I have created the Ultimate Guide to Guilt-Free Self-Care to help you feel like your best self every day. You will find it on my website.
 
Don’t forget to join the Life Designed Community on Facebook! 
 
Thank you! See you next week!