Free The Power of a Praying Wife Devotional by Stormie Omartian Page A

heart.
In Jesus’ name I pray.

33

When We Must Make Each Other a Priority
    Many waters cannot quench love,
nor can the floods drown it.
If a man would give for love
all the wealth of his house,
it would be utterly despised.

    S ONG OF S OLOMON 8:7

    A S S OLOMAN SAID , none of the situations that wash over our lives can put out the flame of love, nor can problems drown it. If you had to give up everything for the love of your life, the wealth you had would be worth nothing to you. And if you kept your wealth and gave up your love, you would come to despise your wealth. Nothing that you have—or have to do—is worth more than the love between you and your husband. That’s why you must make each other a priority.
    We all know how easy it is to devote so much time to work, career, business, children, friends, church, or various activities that we neglect each other. In our busy lives, it takes a concentrated and specific effort to stay connected to each other in deep and meaningful ways. But when you both are drowning in exhaustion at the end of the day and flooded with stress and preoccupation, meaningful connecting with your spouse may seem like more effort than you have the strength to put into it. But your love may be drowning and your heart flooded with regret if you don’t. And if love fades or dies, it’s devastating. If that has happened to you, ask God to help you both become each other’s priority again. Even if it hasn’t happened, ask God to help you continue to make each other a top priority.
    If you haven’t been each other’s top priority for a while, ask God to enable you to break that cycle and start devoting time to each other. Even if you feel the marriage has died and it is too late, God can resurrect it. It is one of His specialties. Invite the Holy Spirit to rekindle your love and communication. No matter how busy and tired you are, set aside time together alone. Dinner out once a week is so much cheaper than a marriage counselor or a divorce lawyer. The money you save by not doing that will mean nothing if you lose the love of your life.
My Prayer to God
L ORD , I pray You would help my husband and me to make each other a priority. Teach us to lay down our work and responsibilities for special times to be together alone. I know we cannot have the marriage You want us to have if we are never spending quality time together. Enable us to affirm each other by communicating the deep thoughts and feelings that need to be expressed and seldom are because there just isn’t time or inclination. Remind each of us why we chose to marry in the first place.
Keep our love and attraction for each other alive so that we don’t allow each other to slip from a place of top priority. Where that has already happened, help us to change it by deliberately setting aside time for each other, to build each other up, and to clear the air of any miscommunication or unloving thoughts we have acquired. Help us to take the time to peacefully talk everything out so we are current on all emotions and no specter of the past can rise up to steal our joy. Most of all, enable us to fully treasure each other more than all the wealth that we have, or people that we know, or dreams that we follow.
In Jesus’ name I pray.

34

When I Want Reassurance of My Place in the Marriage
    A man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and they shall become one flesh.

    G ENESIS 2:24

    T OO OFTEN WHEN WOMEN READ the Bible, certain passages that have the word “man” in them seem to say that it is not applicable to a woman. While there are a number of Scriptures where this is true—such as the one above—the Bible also says, “He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created” (Genesis 5:2, emphasis added). From the beginning we were made in God’s image and were called “Mankind”—later in common usage it was shortened to man. When we refer to “all