Praying for Your Husband: 6 Prayer Priorities for a Godly Marriage

As wives, we have a responsibility to be helpmeets to our husbands. One of the best ways to help our husbands is to pray for them. We need to do all we can do to ensure a godly marriage.

As I was preparing to write this post, I thought to ask my husband what one thing he wanted me to pray for him. He said that the thing that impacts him the most is his self-image. He said that he needs to feel like he is accomplishing something and that he is able to take care of his family. I have to be honest and tell you that his self-image wasn’t even on my original list of things I thought he needed prayer for.

Now I present to you my list of 6 things we should pray for our husbands!

His self-image

I should have known that he would say this is his biggest prayer need. After all, I saw how it affected him when he was left without the ability to provide for his family and unable to get any kind of job at all for many months. He felt utterly worthless, useless, and hopeless!

I prayed for him without ceasing, because he was desperately unhappy and downright angry. He was certainly not fun to be around.

I had to do spiritual warfare for him. I could see that the enemy was taking advantage of his weakness and could have caused him to do something crazy. So I prayed for him, fought for him, and loved him the best I could. I took his post as head of our house while he was unable to do it himself. I prayed that God would reveal to him how much He loved him and our family and that He would provide for us. I prayed that my husband would see himself as God sees him and show him that he was worth more than his ability to work and produce income for our family.

Eventually, God did move for him and provided a job for him. And it has been an ongoing revelation in his life how God sees him and feels about him. So I continue to pray that God will heal the image he has of himself and see himself as a son of God, highly favored, approved and loved by Him.

I think this is an extremely important prayer for us to pray for our husbands.

Thanks for reminding me, honey!

His spiritual life

This part of his life is extremely important as it shapes every other area of his life. So let’s make sure we pray for this diligently. We know that putting God first makes a big difference. When we don’t, we muddle through life, and sometimes wonder if we can keep on going or if it’s even worth trying! Our men are trying to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. They want to be strong and show that they are tough and able to succeed. They want to win!

But so many times, they try to do most things through their own efforts. They don’t want to appear weak or dependent on anyone else – even God! Let’s pray for our men to understand that it is not weak at all to turn to God in prayer and ask for help and wisdom. They may not want to ask for directions – but let’s pray that they will humble themselves enough to ask their heavenly Father for direction, wisdom, strength, and power to accomplish His plans for their lives and families. Let’s pray that they will see themselves as God sees them. That they will know the height, the depth, the length and the width of his love for them. And that they will live in such a way that men and their families will see the love of the Father in them and are drawn to Him.

How he treats his wife

This may sound like a selfish prayer, but it’s not really. We had mentors tell us that the way a man treats his wife shows in her face, so people know what a man is really like by looking at the expression on his wife’s face. They also reminded us of 1 Peter 3:7 which says “Husbands, you in turn must treat your wives with tenderness, viewing them as feminine partners who deserve to be honored, for they are co-heirs with you of the “divine grace of life,” so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” From The Passion Translation. Simply put, if they want their prayers answered, they need to treat their wives right! So for their sakes, let’s pray that our husbands will find out how to treat us right, as God would have them treat us, and then do it with all their might. Then there will be blessings all around! And one of the best fruits will be a godly marriage.

How he treats his children

The Bible is clear about fathers not exasperating their children. “Fathers, don’t exasperate your children, but raise them up with loving discipline and counsel that brings the revelation of our Lord.” Eph. 6:4 TPT Colossians 3:21 also says “And fathers, don’t have unrealistic expectations for your children or else they may become discouraged.” TPT

These are some great starting places for our husbands to work from in developing good relationships with their children. We can encourage our husbands in these practices if they don’t come by them naturally. But our biggest part in this is to pray that God will reveal to our husbands how to relate to their children and to fill them with a fatherly love and desire to see their children not only succeed in this world but to thrive in their personal lives.

We should pray that he will learn to help, affirm, support, forgive, and give unconditional love to his children like the father of The Prodigal Son did.

His priorities

Sometimes, it seems that men have a hard time figuring out what really matters. Like their marriage, their children, their relationships with people, or their relationship with God. In order to have a godly marriage, we need to put God first.

They may even have difficulty understanding what is good for them. Like taking care of themselves physically, not taking unnecessary risks, or practicing self-control and discipline in areas that could harm them in some way. I’m just being honest here. There is a reason God gave them a helpmate, you know!

As wives, let’s pray for our husband to have knowledge and discernment and understanding of what his priorities should be. And let’s pray that God will help him to live out those godly priorities and have a successful, fulfilling life because of it.

His role as spiritual head of the family

It seems that many men are confused these days about what their role is in the family. Many are convinced that their only job in the family is to provide financially for their family. They don’t know what the Bible says about the role of the husband and father.

From my reading of the Bible, I believe that men are called to do many things for their families besides providing financially.

These responsibilities include:

A. Praying for his family

Praying with his wife

Praying with his family

B. Leading by example

Reading the word

Spending time praying and worshiping

C. Speaking to his children and instructing them about spiritual principles and moral truths

Correcting and instructing them in righteousness

D. Showing them unconditional love like the father of the Prodigal Son

Keeping the connection strong between himself and his wife, between himself and each of his children

Working on and improving his relationships within the family

E. Acting as the head of the family as high priest and as counselor and co-head of the family with the wife in making decisions about the direction and management of the family

Finding out God’s will and purposes for the family and administrating the carrying out of His will

Carrying out spiritual warfare for the family

We see that our husbands need our prayers for them to recognize and understand their roles and responsibilities to their families. There are so many things that we need to pray about for our husbands. If we do our part in praying, God will do His part in enlightening the eyes of the understanding of our husbands so that together we can attain a godly marriage.

The Lord downloaded a prayer in poem form into my heart one day, and I posted it here.

Many women have been touched by it and have shared their stories with me, requesting prayer, and I have written specific prayers for them. If you would like me to pray for your marriage, go to that post and leave a comment, and I will be happy to pray for you.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Penney Douglas

If you like to read, discuss, and consider marriage and family topics and how to improve relationships, please come and see me at my blog at http://penneydouglas.com. I have 29 years of marriage and 10 children that I have gleaned lots of experience from. I write about these things and more, as well as give glimpses of the crazy, funny, hectic life we live with our super size family.

Latest posts by Penney Douglas (see all)

• Hold On To Your Covenant - February 10, 2020
• When Your Husband Loses His Faith - February 23, 2019
• Women Who Walked with Jesus - May 25, 2018