My husband informed me of an agreement he was about to finalize without discussing it with me first. From the moment he told me, I felt an inner discomfort. I found the idea good, and his vision was excellent, but I couldn’t shake off this unpleasant feeling. I wasn’t at peace. In fact, the more I prayed, the more this discomfort increased. When I shared it with him, he defensively replied, “Don’t you trust me when I make decisions and choices?” It was clear that it was something he was attached to and that he was not ready to accept my reservations.

My only recourse was to pray, which I did. I kept saying to the Lord, “Show me if I’m wrong about this matter. I would really like it to go well because I think it’s a great idea. But if what I feel is accurate, reveal it to him too so that he stops while there’s still time. Show him the truth and close the door.”

At the very last moment, just before signing the contracts, Michael’s eyes suddenly opened to a number of incidents casting doubt on the true intentions of the other parties involved. God’s revelation exposed it all to him, so he withdrew from the deal at the eleventh hour. As difficult as it was for him at the time to accept this situation, he is grateful to have spared himself a lot of trouble. Some time later, as I was writing this book, I asked my husband what my prayers for him had brought.

One of the things he mentioned was that it had helped him face the decisions he had to make: “When I was facing big decisions and offers were made to me, your prayers opened my eyes and kept me from getting into deals that would have been trouble,” he explained.

We must remember that every man thinks what he is doing is right. “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes” (Proverbs 21:2). But only God can give us true discernment. He can give us wisdom when we ask for it. Wisdom leads to success (Ecclesiastes 10:10), and it enables us to learn from experience (Proverbs 15:31). We want our husbands to be filled with wisdom.

The opposite of a wise man is a fool. The Bible describes him as “trust[ing] in his own heart” (Proverbs 28:26). He despises wisdom (Proverbs 23:9). He only wants to argue and doesn’t know how to listen (Proverbs 18:2). In other words, you can’t tell him anything. He is quarrelsome (Proverbs 20:3), angry, and arrogant when you try to reason with him (Proverbs 14:16). A fool is someone who cannot weigh the consequences of his actions, resulting in poor choices.

If your husband is like this, pray for him so that God may give him wisdom. If your husband is not a full-time fool, so to speak, but simply exhibits foolish behavior at times, don’t try to change him. Only God can do that. Your role is to love him and pray for him. The Bible says:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). This means you can start by praying that the fear of the Lord fills him. Then, pray that he receives good counsel: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked” (Psalm 1:1).

If you persist in prayer for your husband to have wisdom and good counsel, even if he persists in making bad decisions, you will have the comfort of knowing that you have done your part and God will bring something good out of it.

A large part of our lives is affected by choices and decisions made by our husbands. We would do well to pray that they make good ones!

This text is an excerpt from the book “The Power Of A Praying Wife” written by Stormie Omartian.

We invite you to read the following article “A Wife’s Effective Prayer in Her Husband’s Trials“.

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