“…prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.” Ephesians 6:18 (The Message)
I think it’s easy to forget how much our spouses can worry. They are supposed to be strong and even immune to the minor irritations of regular life. When I pray, I ask God to help me with His strength and to show me the right direction. Now that my husband is home I don’t pray for him as often or in the same way that I prayed for him while he was deployed. I realize that the dangers and issues that he is facing here are in a completely different category than they were while he was in Iraq. But, as much as I hate to admit it, I’m selfish enough that once he came home, I was a little too satisfied with him just being here. Once the reintegration issues were resolved, I began to forget how much he still needs God’s help as much as I do.
My husband is very much the strong, silent type. He doesn’t say much to folks, and when he does it’s usually important. One exception to that rule is me. He talks to me non-stop when we are together with no kids to interrupt. It’s usually just chatter, stuff he wants to do on the weekend, something he thought of while he was making the hour drive home etc. But the big stuff, well, he tends to bottle things just a teensy bit. So, when he admits to me that he is starting to worry, that gets to me.
Our servicemen are trained to be strong. They are trained to be tough, and they are trained to never show weakness. To some of them, admitting that they are worried could be considered a weakness and they would never even think of it. They are also trained to never go anywhere alone. They are trained to stay with their ‘Battle Buddy’. These times are tough for everyone. War, economic troubles, natural disasters. We are in spiritual warfare daily. When you made the commitment of marriage (even if, like me, you weren’t aware that you would end up as a military wife), you agreed to be your husband’s spiritual battle buddy.
With that said, I’m issuing a challenge to each of you. Never leave your spouse spiritually alone. Make it a point to lift up your spouse in prayer right now and each and every day for the next week as often as you think about him. Then keep going to the next week and the next. Pray that he will become God strong. Pray that he will see God working in your lives. Pray specifically for needs that you know he has. Even if you don’t know what to say, pray that to God, because He does know.
Just as our worries become less when we focus on God in worshipful obedience, our personal problems become paler when we focus our attention on serving others. Focus on your spouse tonight. Listen when he talks, even if it isn’t about “the big stuff”. Go out of your way to make his day special, even if it’s just getting up early to fix his coffee or picking up his favorite meal on the way home from work.
Paul prayed this prayer for the spiritual strength of the Ephesians. It applies to our lives today just as it did nearly 2,000 years ago to the lives of his friends.
Ephesians 3:14-20 (NIV)
A Prayer for the Ephesians
14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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