Day 10 Godliness 1 Timothy 3 (40 Prayers for my Husband)

I find that whenever I commit to pray for someone, as I keep that commitment, my relationship with that person becomes healthier.  As in most marriages, I can become lazy, and take for granted my husband’s love and commitment to me.  Often this leads to me being short, impatient, and irritated by my spouse.  But when I determine to pray daily for him, I find I pray about how I love him, how I can support and encourage him, and I see myself becoming a better wife through prayer.

I also find that if I choose to start my morning in prayer, it makes my whole day go a lot smoother.  I am not a morning person.  My husband and I have lived most of our marriage as night owls.  He works third shift, and so I often stay up late.  In more recent years, I just don’t have that same stamina we had when we were young, so I often go to bed much earlier than we used to.  But, even when we were more late owls, I found that to have my prayer time at bedtime I would often fall asleep.  Now, I will admit that is a very restful way to fall asleep, but it doesn’t always allow me to focus and pray as I should.

I have learned that Yehovah truly wants my full attention when I come to visit with Him.  He wants me to be alert to the moving of His Spirit, and He cares to hear all that is on my heart and mind.  So, I find it is best to be fully awake and alert when being intentional about prayer.  So, every morning before I do anything else, I connect with my Creator and Redeemer.  This morning prayer is when I greet my Lord, and check in with Him and His plans for my day.  I take those I love to Him in prayer at this time, and I thank Him for another day to serve Him.

This is our moment.  By starting my day like this, it is the beginning of a continuous conversation that runs through my whole day.  I can only explain it like this.  Each morning I say good morning to my children.  Then we all get busy about our day, but throughout the day they talk to me.  Some talk to me through text or phone calls.  Those who live at home come to me often through the day to talk about schoolwork, chores, life, ideas, and more.  This is how it is with me and my Heavenly Father.  I keep a constant conversation going with Him all day.  But, it begins with a morning prayer of intent.  I thank Him, I praise Him, and then I bring my requests before Him for this day.  I listen for Him, I open His Word, and I meditate on it.  This is prayer.

Prayer isn’t just asking for things, it is being in communication with God.  Listening, Speaking, Learning, Sharing, and being ever aware of His presence.

Today’s prayer for my husband is very similar to yesterday’s.  Yesterday, I read the book of Titus, and focused on the passages of an elder, overseer, shepherd.  Today, I am in 1 Timothy.  When reading Paul’s letters, I prefer to always read the whole letter, before focusing in on a specific passage.  This helps me have a fuller understanding of the message Paul was trying to convey.  So, after reading 1 Timothy, I went back to chapter three and focused my prayers for my husband on the passages describing an overseer and deacons.

Abba Father,

Thank you for your Word that brings life and clarity.  Thank you for those who wrote to the early churches and gave guidance to them on how to care for the body of believers.  I pray that not only my husband, but also my sons, would seek to be men who meet the qualifications given by Paul to Timothy for overseers as he established churches among the believers.  

Lord, make my husband and sons, men that live above reproach, committed to their wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to strong drink, gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.  Help them manage their homes well, training up well mannered children.  Keep them from conceit and condemnation.  Pour Your favor on them, that they would have a good reputation with all men.  Lord, give them dignity, let them not be double tongued, and do not let them fall in to the temptations of ill gotten gains.   Instead, let them hold fast to the faith with a clear consciousness. 

And Lord, help me and my daughters be woman that encourage and support our men.  Help us to do the work that you lay before us each day.  Let us live above reproach and dignified in our actions.  Keep us from gossip and malicious conduct, and give us patience and temperance.  Let us do do all things faithfully.  

Father, give us a deep desire that reaches into our very core to walk upright and set apart unto you inside and outside of our home.  

Amen

Written by Katie