Wise Quotes - POWER OF A PRAYING WIFE 25

DAY 25 - PRAY FOR HIS REPENTANCE

Everyone makes mistakes. That's not the issue. But there is an epidemic in the world today of people who can't admit they did something wrong. God says, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness " (I John 1:9). But first we have to be sorry about what we've done.

According to God's way of doing things, there are three steps to changing our behaviour. First there is confession , which is admitting what we did.  Next there is repentance, which is being sorry about what we did. Then there is asking forgiveness, which is being cleansed and released from what we did. The inability or resistance to do any of these three steps is rooted in pride. A man who can't humble himself to admit he's wrong before God and man will have problems in his life that never go away. "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him" (Proverbs 26:12).

Does your husband have trouble confessing his faults?  Or is he the kind of person who can say "I'm sorry" twenty times a day, yet the behaviour he apologies for never changes?  In either case, he needs a repentant heart. True repentance means having so much remorse over what you've done that you don't do it again.  Only God can cause us to see our sin for what it is, and feel about it the same way He does.

Pray for your husband to be convicted of his sin, to humbly confess it before Go, then turn from his error and cease to do it. God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9). This kind of prayer can be very annoying to the one being prayed for, but it's far easier to have God shine His light upon our sin that it is to experience the consequences of it. Your husband will be thankful in the end, even if he won't admit it.

PRAYER

Lord, I pray that You would convict my husband of any error in his life. Let there be "nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known" (Matthew 10:26). Cleanse him from any secret sins and teach him to be a person who is quick to confess when he is wrong (Psalm 19:12).

Help him to recognise his mistakes. Give him eyes to see Your truth and ears to hear Your voice. Bring him to full repentance before You. If there is suffering to be done, let it be suffering of a remorseful heart and not because the crushing hand of the enemy has found an opening into his life through unconfessed sin. Lord, I know that humility must come before honour (Proverbs 15:33). Take away all pride that would cause him to deny his faults and work into his soul a humility of heart so that he will receive the honour You have for him.
Amen.

SCRIPTURES FOR MEDITATION

I John 3:21,22
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Proverbs 28:13
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Psalm 139:23,24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 32:3-5
When I kept silent, my bones grew old. Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night. Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

II Timothy 2:24-26
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

#inspired...ann #WiseQuotes

*Stomie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Wife(2006)