The Power of a Praying® Wife

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After taking excerpts from the books, I want to now look at the book as a whole in context. This book does not apply to you if you are not a White, middle/upper class cishet able-bodied woman. If you are disabled, POC, queer, poor, or anything else, this does not apply to you. (I don't exactly hit all those marks either, but as I mentioned, I am doing research on religion, after growing up in a large Christian/Catholic community). Jennifer's review from October 17th 2014 is a spectacular review that covers these issues. This book has a lot of internal misogyny. This book is classist, it is ableist, it is many things. It ENCOURAGES women to remain in ABUSIVE relationships with their husband, despite everything. I really want to highlight that. Stormie Omartian ENCOURAGES you to stay in an abusive relationship. Omartian has, within this book, openly admitted many times that her husband, Michael, is abusive to her and their kids. But it is ok because it is under the guise of a good ole Christian marriage. To divorce grieves God. These easy-to-read devotions will increase any wife’s understanding, strength, and peace, as well as provide her with perspective on the situations and challenges she faces. And each prayer will help both husbands and wives be more attuned to the Holy Spirit so they can do what’s right without allowing negative emotions or unclear thinking to get in the way. Chapter 1: "My husband will not do something he doesn't want to do. And if he ends up doing something he doesn't want to do, his immediate family members will pay for it. I've learned to pray about it until I have God's peace in my heart before I ask." Author Stormie Omartian has done it again! Taking The Power of a Praying Wife a step further, this devotional captures all the feel of her former books, with a practical method for putting these prayers into regular daily use. The topics are divided into three categories--me, him, and us--which rotate throughout the 100 days. This takes the focus off of "God, fix him," types of prayers and invites the reader to look inward and see where God might be wanting to work in her own life, and then to look at her marriage as a partnership. Stormie: Yes. That’s when I would say, “God, I don’t feel like praying for him. I want lightning to strike and convict him of the way he is.” I would just confess that to the Lord and say, “God, I don’t feel like praying. So help me, God, to have the kind of attitude I need to make this thing happen.” And God would do that.

Of course you can't force him to do something he doesn't' want to do, but you can access God's power through praying for His Voice to penetrate your husband's soul. In every broken marriage, there is at least one person whose heart is hard against God. When a heart becomes hard, there is no vision from God’s perspective. When we’re miserable in a marriage, we feel that anything will be an improvement over what we’re experiencing. But we don’t see the whole picture. We only see the way it is, not the way God wants it to become. When we pray, however, our hearts become soft toward God and we get a vision. We see there is hope. We have faith that He will restore all that has been devoured, destroyed, and eaten away from the marriage. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten (Joel 2:25). We can trust Him to take away the pain, hopelessness, hardness, and unforgiveness. We are able to envision His ability to resurrect love and life from the deadest of places.

The power of the praying woman

The Lord showed me if I would really lay down my desire to leave and give that part to the Lord, He would show me how to pray for my husband, and in the process He would resurrect this marriage and restore it. That really hurt to say yes to because, first of all, God was saying I had to stop praying my favorite three-word prayer, which is the “Change him, Lord” prayer that I had been praying for fifteen years. I had been praying that a long time, and God was not answering that. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Power_of_a_Praying_Wife_Devotional_-_Stormie_Omartian.pdf, The_Power_of_a_Praying_Wife_Devotional_-_Stormie_Omartian.epub What about the majority of women in poor countries, who don’t have the money or even the access to stores to buy sexy lingerie, or a special perfume to be worn for him alone, or skin care products that make my skin look dewy and fresh?

I began to pray every day for Michael, like I had never prayed before. Each time, though, I had to confess my own hardness of heart. I saw how deeply hurt and unforgiving of him I was. I don’t want to pray for him. I don’t want to ask God to bless him. I only want God to strike his heart with lightning and convict him of how cruel he has been, I thought. I had to say over and over, God, I confess my unforgiveness toward my husband. Deliver me from all of it. Chapter 13 "If your husband is going through a difficult time, carry it in prayer, but don't carry the burden. Even though you may want to, don't try to take away his load and make it yours. That will ultimately leave him feeling weak or like a failure." Galations 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. That's it. That's the Bible. Marriage is a partnership, and you help each other through it. Each devotional starts out with a verse, a devotional that includes guides on how to pray for your husband, and a prayer. Kimberly Fritts: Stormie, you’ve written this book “The Power of a Praying Wife.” What does it mean to be a praying wife? Chapter 1: "I don't care how liberated you are, when you are married there will always be two areas that will ultimately be your responsibility: home and children. Even if you are the only one working and your husband stays home to keep the house and tend the kids, you will still be expected to see that the heart of your home is a peaceful sanctuary- a source of contentment, acceptance, rejuvenation, nurturing, rest, and love for your family. On top of this, you will also be expected to be sexually appealing, a good cook, a great mother, and physically, emotionally, and spiritually fit." Even if you're the breadwinner these are the expectations that she's placing on you. She's saying EVEN IF YOU HAVE A STAY AT HOME HUSBAND, you're supposed to do all this. And I can't for the life of me find the quote in her book about how husbands just aren't as good as cleaning, but I could have sworn I read something about that in there. And also, men can be in charge of the cooking, it's not a gender based thing.

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There is a constant feeling in this book, a previously mentioned, that prayer is a special power you can tap into. She talks about what makes your prayers stronger or weaker, as if we have any control over God and how he responds to us. Indeed, the focus often isn't on God and what he can do, but what YOU can do through prayer, which is a totally wrong focus on things. It also constantly dips into the charismatic, prosperity gospel outlook that good things will come to you if you just pray.

So a man is always a sex-fiend, and if he's not, there's something wrong with the marriage??? What a way to ruin a wife's self-esteem!To her credit there is a final chapter in the book which has been added in later additions about how a wife needs communication, but it feels too little too late.

After a number of years, with little change, I cried out to the Lord one day in despair, saying, God, I can’t live this way anymore. I know what You’ve said about divorce, but I can’t live in the same house with him. Help me, Lord. I sat on the bed holding my Bible for hours as I struggled with the strongest desire to take the children and leave. I believe that because I came to God in total honesty about what I felt, He allowed me to thoroughly and clearly envision what life would be like if I left: Where I would live, how I would support myself and care for the children, who would still be my friends, and worst of all, how a heritage of divorce would affect my son and daughter. It was the most horrible and unspeakably sad picture. If I left I would find some relief, but at the price of everything dear to me. I knew it wasn’t God’s plan for us. Praying for your husband and your marriage is one of the toughest things we must do as a wife. Stormie shares the details of events that have taken place in her life and the strategies she put in place to receive the change she needed not only from her husband, but also herself to better their marriage and relationship with one other. You have to decide if you want your marriage to work, and if you want it badly enough to do whatever is necessary, within healthy parameters, to see it happen. You have to believe the part of your relationship that has been eaten away by pain, indifference, and selfishness can be restored. You have to trust that what has swarmed over you, such as abuse, death of a child, infidelity, poverty, loss, catastrophic illness, or accident, can be relieved of its death grip. You have to determine that everything consuming you and your husband, such as workaholism, alcoholism, drug abuse, or depression, can be destroyed. You have to know that whatever has crept into your relationship so silently and stealthily as to not even be perceived as a threat until it is clearly present—such as making idols of your career, your dreams, your kids, or your selfish desires—can be removed. You have to trust that God is big enough to accomplish all this and more. Those are the kinds of prayers we’re supposed to be praying… not “meet my needs.” I found it was difficult to do because every time I started to pray, I would still have this little wall of irritation that would rise to [about the top of my head] and choke off my prayers. So I’d have to do a confession session before, and say, “God, I just confess my anger over this thing. I confess my unforgiveness over this. I confess I still hurt over this.” Chapter 10: "If your husband is not a full-time fool, so to speak but he does occasionally engage in foolish behavior, don't try to fix him. God is the only one who can do that." And maybe lovingly correct him and try to point out the error of his ways?

One of the last 20 days mentioned negative emotions being “not from God” and something you should just pray away. God literally created us with all our emotions including fear, anger, and sadness. These should be prayed through and worked through not avoided.