God’s Advice For Wives 預覽

Be a Warrior  

You may be wondering why I am talking about having a warrior mentality in a study on marriage. It’s because I believe we’re at war. Marriages today are falling apart at an alarming rate. Some experts now say that as many as two-thirds of all divorces are initiated by wives. 

It’s time we take seriously our job to keep watch over our marriages and our families. And it’s time to stay strong in our faith. Just the other day, I heard about four more broken marriages in my circle of acquaintances. Sadly, the list of casualties keeps growing.

Let’s remember that we’re emphasizing honor—something we find in short supply these days. I’ve discovered that honoring my husband in today’s culture requires something of a fight. It should sober us to realize we have enemies. Not just enemies of our soul, but also of our marriage. 

We wage war on several fronts. Some of our fights are against our own selfish nature, our “flesh.” Honoring our husbands can sometimes go against the grain of our flesh. So our battle for a strong marriage is a battle against our own selfish tendencies, such as self-centeredness, pride, disrespect, laziness, and impatience.

We also find ourselves up against a world that degrades and disrespects marriage. God calls us to resist the world’s wrong messages about marriage and even about men—including the generally disrespectful treatment of men in the popular media.

Finally, we wrestle against the spiritual forces of darkness who would seek to divide our home. The devil is an accuser and a divider who’d love nothing more than to break up our marriages. The Bible tells us he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 NIV). 

Quite simply, the enemy wants your mind and your marriage. Another version of the same verse warns us to “Stay alert!” and “watch out for your great enemy, the devil” (1 Peter 5:8 NLT). We’re to remain ready and prepared to fight.

This reality is a call to prayer. If you were to ask me what’s the single most important thing you can do to strengthen your marriage and to honor your husband, I would simply say this: Pray for him. Pray like you mean it. Pray like you believe prayer works. Pray like you believe God works through your prayers. And make prayer for your husband a priority.

• Part of being your husband’s helper is having a warrior mentality that desires to protect your marriage. What are some of the “enemies” that threaten to tear down your marriage?
• What weapons do we have to defend ourselves and our marriages?
• The single most important thing you can do to strengthen your marriage and honor your husband is to pray for him. How does your husband need your prayers today?
• What are some ways you can be more intentional about praying for your husband? Commit to one or two of those ideas and make them a daily practice—starting today.