PRAYING FOR YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND, PRAYING, HUSBAND,

Praying for your husband

Anna Bachinsky / June 21, 2012

PRAYING FOR YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND, PRAYING, HUSBAND,

Half a year ago I was sitting in my room grading some worksheets we had given our teens from church as homework and I came across one of my girl’s papers on which I read something that made me put everything down and just stop and think. I don’t know what question it was responding to but she had written: “I’m praying that one day God will bless me with a good, godly husband and we’ll have a good family once we get married.”

All of a sudden I felt really convicted, because here I have one of my thirteen year old girls writing about how she’s praying for her future husband and it made me realize that half of the time I forget that I’m supposed to be praying for my own future husband as well.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been praying for my husband since I was a young girl too. If there’s anything I learned during my teenage years it was that it’s never too early to start praying for your future husband… whether you’re ten or fifteen. But thinking back on those years I realized that I haven’t exactly been praying the right way. My prayers would be something along these lines, “God, please make my husband exist out there somewhere, please help him come to me as fast as he possibly can, oh… and bless him too”. I sure hope my husband already “existed” when I was thirteen… or else I still have a LONG time to wait for him. ;)

I also remember talking to a few godly married women who told me about how much they prayed and fasted for their husbands before they came into their lives. One of them fasted once a week for a year. Another one had her family fast along with her. Me? I prayed for him when I remembered I was supposed to and I fasted a few times too, but never extensively. And as for the family part? The only time I’ve asked my family to pray with me for my future husband would be when my younger siblings would argue about which one of them would claim my room after I’m gone…I told them if they wanted to get my room anytime soon they’d better start praying that my husband would come quickly or else none of them would. ;)

So then came my question: how exactly DO I pray for my future husband? This man that I have never met or have already met but have no clue that he’s “the one”. When my friends ask me to pray for them I know exactly what to pray for, what they are struggling with… but how do I pray for someone when I don’t even really know what is going on in his life at this time?

I decided that it was time to do what I had to do in order to get answers: talk to God about it, find a good book on that topic, or the typical one… just google it. ;) So of course, I did all three.

After praying about it I decided that what I needed to do was come up with… “the list”. I know if you’re a guy… those two words just made you very happy. ;) This list though is a little different than the one girls typically create. It has nothing to do with his physical appearance, what his resume looks like, or how exciting his life is at the moment (although those things matter too) but it was more along the lines of what kind of qualities does this man need to have to be a good future husband, father and leader of the home based on God’s Word and what does he need to do to get those qualities if he doesn’t have them already. Then I have to pray for God to work on those things in his life every day.

Of course, it’s not fair to create “the list” for my future husband and have no list for myself. I’m far from perfect (and lucky me) I actually know the things I need to work on daily. I created my own list of qualities that a wife, mother, and “helper” should have and what I need to do to “get there”… and asked God to help me work on those areas in my life too.

As for the book… there are quite a few books out there written for wives who want to pray for their husbands, but not too many written for singles praying for their future husbands. But, I did find a book that is specifically written for this exact topic, “Praying for Your Future Husband” by Robin Jones Gunn and Tricia Goyer.

The interesting thing about this book is that it’s written for young teen girls who want to pray for their husbands. Not older girls who are already out of college, ready to get a real job as well as get on with life and settle down with their future spouse… but young girls: twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old whose dreams of walking down the aisle toward their Mr. Right won’t be happening in a long time.

And it made me wonder… what’s the point of praying for your future husband at such a young age before you even meet him? Why can’t you just start praying for him after you have already met him and are planning your wedding?

Before we answer that question we should take a good look at what men are in our world. Men are called to be our spiritual and earthly leaders. They are the backbone of the family, the nation, the body of Christ because God has a special calling upon each one of them and that is to lead the way with their God-given authority. It is men who take leading roles in determining how our nation should be run, how our children should be raised, what our churches should be grounded on. And Satan knows this very well, which is why from a very early age he bombards young boys with things that will stunt their growth in becoming the godly men and role models God created them to be. His plan is to take down these men before they can even rise to be who they are called to be because by making sure these men never rise to be truly God-fearing leaders that they need to be our families, churches, society will be weak along with their leaders.

This isn’t in any way to undermine the role of women in the world, in the church, and in the family. Women also play a significant role in all of these areas. And they also play a significant role in encouraging or discouraging the men in their lives in becoming the godly leaders they are called to be. Satan has his own attacks and schemes against women as well, but he knows that the best way to get to women is to first get to the men in their lives because it is the men in our lives that are our leaders and authority figures.Currently there seems to be a global problem for our present generation of Christian women and it is the unbalanced ratio between God-honoring woman and the males in their lives who aren’t as quick to become the men God called them to be. This leaves many young Christian women asking the question: what are we supposed to do? Sit back and worry about when these men will magically have an epiphany which will make them realize they need to step it up a little? Eat ice-cream while watching chick flicks and waiting for an un-realistic version of Prince Charming to appear in our lives? No. There is something we can do for our future (and present) husbands today and that is to enter into the war zone and fight for them in the one way that we can: pray for them.

We can’t step into their shoes and make the right decisions for them but we can pray for them every day as they battle against all of Satan’s attacks and schemes to bring them down and prevent them from growing. And the sooner you start praying, the better it is. Which is why it’s good (and important) for girls to pray for their husbands long before they meet them. By praying for them at an early age they are joining in the battle for their future husbands to develop into the godly men they should be and this will be a blessing to them and their family later on down the road.

Now… what should you pray for exactly? A few things outlined in this particular book include:

-His heart

-He will be a God lover

-Patience

-Understanding

-Trust

-Loyalty and faithfulness

-Strength

-Protection

-Intimacy

-“The list”

-Contentment

-Commitment

If you want a more extended and specific list I stumbled upon a great article titled “31 Days of Praying for Your Husband” and there is a specific thing to pray for written out for each day of the month. This list is actually geared more toward married women praying for their husbands rather than single women praying for their future husbands but it’s a great tool to use if you’re having trouble figuring out what you should be praying for and it covers every single topic listed in the book that I mentioned above. :)

Whether you’re single or married it’s important to remember the power and importance of praying for the men in our lives. It’s never too early or too late to start and by doing so we will play a vital role in helping them become the leaders for that God wants them to be.

It turns out my teen girl is on the right track with starting to pray for her future husband at her young age and one day (when I remember which girl it was) I’ll have to thank her for helping me discover the importance of always keeping my future husband in my daily prayers… ;)