Saturday, July 11, 2009

My Marriage Resurrected: Part III Powerful Prayer for Marital Triumph









Photo Courtesy of clarita via Morguefile.com

Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

A few months after Michael and I began attending church the walls began to cave in around my miracle. Michael sat me down on the couch in our living room and calmly announced to me that there was someone else. He didn’t say he was divorcing me. He just told me that he was having an affair and then he walked out of the front door.

I did not know what to do. I was not prepared for this bombshell. I called his cell phone and he had turned it off. I began to panic and run around the apartment hyperventilating. I was so mad and confused. We were going to church. I was trying to be good. This is not how my miracle would die. I was not going to stand back and watch my marriage fall a final time.

Then I called a young couple that we had just met. The wife was much younger than me and they were barely newlyweds but I knew that she would be able to help me. I had heard her talk about her quiet times with the Lord, and the faith in her eyes could light up a room. I told her what was happening. She immediately knew what to do. She told me that we needed to pray and she set her husband to praying at that moment also. She picked up her copy of The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian and began to read the prayers to me over the phone. She took my husband and placed him before the throne of God. She lifted me up there to intercede for our union. She raised my expectation of what God could do.

That couple then came directly to my home and brought me my own copy of this wonderful book to study for myself. My husband was in the arms of another woman and I was in the throes of battle. Even though it seemed I would have to pray every chapter in the book to cover all my bases, I was given peace that things would turn out in God’s favor.

He came home that night. I was never so happy as when he came home. I still thank God often when Michael comes home. Many men don’t.

From that point forward, I knew the war was already won. I prayed hard. I didn’t like him but I prayed for him. He hurt me deeply but I prayed for him. And most importantly I prayed for his wife. I needed serious change. I needed a change in perspective and focus. Despite my growth in the things of God I was still focusing on changing my husband. I began to see the darkness in my own heart. It was ugly.

Even so, I am hard-headed and stubborn and I hate to lose. It was my new mission to convince him through my actions, demeanor and spiritual warfare that I was a wife worth having and he was a lucky man.

The enemy fought a vicious fight. He attacked what seemed to be a weak point – our marriage. We had been through so many marital issues that it seemed an obvious strategy. But God is so much smarter. He had placed it on Stormie Omartian’s heart to write an amazing, life-changing book. God had put that book in the possession of the young newlyweds. And He brought that book to me to transform the way I prayed.

The miracle of this story is that God continues to renew and strengthen our marriage when I remember to focus my prayers for Michael toward God changing Michael’s wife.

1 comment:

  1. WOW!!! I am so touched by your story here...I am literally pausing in typing because I feel so much right now...thank you for sharing this, I need to get that book.

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