This is my beloved, and this is my friend...(Song of Solomon 5:16)
Friends can be completely honest with each other, but friendships are strained when truth is not spoken in love. How are you speaking to your beloved? Are you so "used to him" that you don't appreciate the wonder of his friendship?
That is your challenge today.
Is your sweetheart your best friend? Does he know this? Have you told him, or do you assume he just knows?
Friendship is something that is cultivated through the good times and the bad. Friends can share their hearts, but they don't step on each other's hearts. The way to have and be a good friend is to cultivate and celebrate the relationship.
As you end this 30 day prayer and encouragement challenge, celebrate your friendship with your husband. Get alone and reflect on your beloved friend.
Write him a letter, listing the qualities you admire and appreciate about him. If you are creative with words, write and frame a poem about him. Perhaps you can prepare a special meal, just for the two of you, and read the letter or poem to him.
Ask if you can pray for him, and if he is willing, thank God for your love and friendship, asking for His blessing on your home.
Encouragement, as you have seen these past 30 days, is a synonym for love in action.
How has this challenge changed your heart and life? Did God encourage you as you planned ways to encourage your husband? Were there difficult days where you simply needed to trust that God was working? Days when it was hard to leave the results to God? Remember that God is faithful, and He will bless you for your willingness to obey Him.
His ways are not our ways, and perhaps He will honor you in ways you do not expect, but one thing is sure, you will never be the same because of your commitment to be more like Christ!
What kind of victories have you experienced in your home since you started the 30 day prayer and encouragement challenge? If you're willing, please take a moment to share these victories with me! I would love to hear a testimony of God's faithfulness from you!
While praying for your husband today, ask that the favor of the Lord be with him, and that the work of his hands be confirmed when he is diligent. Pray that your husband will serve God and others with pure motives. Pray that he will obey the Lord from his heart, and glorify Him in everything. Pray that your husband will recognize the lies of the Enemy in his life. Pray that his attitudes and actions will be guided by the truth as he brings his thoughts into captivity to the Word of God.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
(Psalm 90:17)
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
(1 Corinthians 10:13)
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
(John 7:17-18)
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
(Colossians 3:23-24)
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
(John 8:44)
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
(2 Corinthians 10:3-6)
Whether your husband already has a strong root in doing these things, or is an unsaved sinner running from God, prayers seeking these things with selfless humility will uplift and encourage him to become or continue to be a spiritual leader and guardian of the home as God has designed him to be!
Just a reminder about this 30 Days of Covering Our Husbands in Prayer:
Each day for 30 consecutive days, I will be posting a husband related topic, devotion, motivator, and/or encouragement here on my blog. Please feel free to access this prayer challenge any time you feel ready to start, or even to re-do the challenge to enforce the strength of the Lord in your marriage. You can click here for a printable calendar to view each day when going to prayer for your husband. Each day provides specific biblical prayer topics with bible verse references that seek God to touch the lives of our husbands.
In addition to specific prayer each day, there is a daily two-part challenge for you that will build up your husband through your own spoken (and unspoken) words:
Feel free to join me at any time in this prayer venture over your husband. You can always refer to my blog archives (the beginning post is May 24, 2012) if you're starting day one while my posts are further ahead in the challenge. If you have a blog, you're welcome to take the "30 Days of Covering Our Husbands in Prayer" graphic above and link it back to this topic's starting post (here), to encourage others to meet the Lord in prayer over their husbands too. If you decide to make this a goal for the next month in your life, whether you have a blog of your own or not, please comment or send me a message, I would be honored to pray for you by name as you seek God through the journey... regardless of when you begin it!
May your marriage be blessed!
Prayer studies are adapted from ©Revive Our Hearts and ©Diving Deeper Ministries.
Used with permission.
