The Power Of The Wife's Prayer Mantleಮಾದರಿ

Whenever someone hears the word helper today, wouldn’t you agree that it often brings up negative emotions, perhaps even with a touch of a despising attitude. Who looks up to, respects, or wants to be a helper?

When I began studying what the Bible teaches about marriage, I studied every verse on the topic, including the key Hebrew and Greek words behind our English translations. Helper is obviously one of the key marriage words, so I traced the original Hebrew word behind helper in every verse in the Old Testament and other related texts . What I learned radically changed my attitudes about the helper from a negative to a shining positive. Let me explain.

Your overall attitude about being the “helper” while your husband is the primary “provider” controls your attitude and therefore your actions. If you despise a role, then you certainly won’t put much effort into fulfilling it, nor gain much joy from it, because you won’t think very highly about it.

So, who does the Bible refer to as “helper” and is seen more than anyone else as the one who helps?

The answer is God Himself.

Over and over again you find God helping others, coming to their rescue, providing what they need, protecting them. Now think about that for a moment. To help is to be like God! How about that paradigm shift, from despising the concept of helper to embracing it as godly?

In the Old Testament, God the Father is directly involved in helping and serving many different people. David stated it this way in Psalm 54:4: “Behold, God is my helper” (nkjv).

In the Gospels, God the Son is always serving (another word related to helping) other people. In fact, Jesus said that He was sent by the Father to serve others and to sacrifice Himself for our sins—giving His life to help others with their sin problem. Jesus referred to Himself as a “Helper” in John 14:16: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (nkjv).

In the New Testament epistles, the Holy Spirit is given to us to be our Helper in John 14:26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (nkjv). Also in John 16:7: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (nkjv).

And one of the most straightforward revelations about how we are to think about the role of helper is in Hebrews 13:6: “So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” (nkjv).

Examining all these passages caused me to totally reevaluate my attitudes toward the concept of “helper.” I realized that to be like God, I must be a servant and help others. Jesus even stated that the greatest among us will be servants of all (Matthew 23:11).

Will you then change your mind and heart about your God-given role in marriage and embrace the nobility and God-like nature of serving as your husband’s helper? Always keep in mind that you don’t help your husband because he deserves it, but because it’s the Lord’s will for you!

Open your heart right now, and if you need to, ask the Lord to forgive your past misunderstanding and lack of wholeheartedhelping of your husband. Embrace fully the Lord’s call on your life with your Mantle shining brightly!

Become even more godly than you are at this moment, because you chose to run toward the role of helper as God runs toward you to help you succeed.

There is one last passage of the Bible that surprisingly reveals how God helps people help others from the life of King David in 1 Chronicles 12:18:

Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the captains, and he said:

“We are yours, O David;

We are on your side, O son of Jesse!

Peace, peace to you,

And peace to your helpers!

For your God helps you.”

So David received them, and made them captains of the troop (nkjv)."

When you rejoice and thank God for your godly role, then heaven will rejoice and your husband won’t know what hit him! He will be amazed as his life becomes maximized at a greater level and you will witness the overflow of this joy in your home.

Pray regularly for your husband. You are the most influential person in his life. Use that influence for good.

If you enjoyed this devotional thought and want to discover more ways to pray for your husband, we want to help you meditate and listen to Scripture on marriage read by Heather Hair by clicking here. You can also find daily prayer posts on IG: @capandbuttercup

Many thanks to Harvest House Publishers for the use of this material.