The Power of a Praying Wife

By Stormie Omartian

Summary: The Power of a Praying Wife is essentially a compilation of prayers that a wife can use to bless her husband.  It breaks down his life into areas such as work, finances, sexuality, integrity, past, reputation, and a wealth of other defining aspects of a man’s life.

Value: I could spend hours writing about the value of this book, but for the sake of my readers, I’ll capture it in four points:

The first is that all of her prayers are rooted in Scripture.  Praying God’s Word packs a punch!  She takes passages and paraphrases them with room for our husbands’ names.  We know that God’s Word does not come back void, so we know we can pray these prayers with faith that God will cherish them and answer them.

The second is that she spends the beginning of the book on the attitudes of a wife.  Without having the right heart, a wife’s prayers can act against her.  Omartian delves into the responsibilities of a wife, as well as into the attitudes of the heart that wives often have.  Her very first prayer is for “His Wife,” meaning us, the readers.  As much as prayer can change a person, we must never go into our prayers for our husbands as a means of manipulating them into the men we want them to be.  We are instead to “release them to God so He can get them to do what He wants”(35).

Omartian, herself, went through a breaking point in her marriage when she didn’t like her husband and wanted out.  Praying earnestly for his good was the furthest thing from her heart, but she knew she was called in obedience to pray for him after she first confessed her own sins towards him.  Her marriage and her spirit were changed.  Thus, she writes from a the point of view of a wife who has been there and back.  When she talks about the attitudes of the heart that can sabotage a wife’s prayers, it is easy to receive her wisdom because she is clearly teaching from her mistakes rather than judging from on high.

Third, the times in my marriage when my emotions are spiraling against my husband are the very ones I need to be interceding for him (and confessing my sins), but my negative emotions get in the way.  My prayers become manipulative and angry, leaving me in greater turmoil than when I started praying.  I have found that having a script allows me to pray earnestly for my husband without having to find the words myself.  Knowing that my lips were speaking good, even if my heart hadn’t yet caught up, allows me in those times to hope for him and for my own heart without spiraling into an emotional abyss.

Fourth, each chapter has an anecdotal and scriptural discussion about that chapter’s topic prior to the prayer.  After the prayer are several key Scripture passages on that topic.  Keeping the book compartmentalized like this, such that each chapter stands alone, allows it to become a reference book.  I can go to the topic of the day and pray, pray, pray without having to read through multiple other pages that don’t connect as strongly to me.  (The funny thing is, I go to the book intending to pray just one topic and end up getting pulled into the other prayers as well.  All the topics are SO relevant for our husbands!)

Highlights: The highlight of the book (in my opinion) is the prayer for His Wife.  I know it’s not the most fun to pray prayers of examination and confession, but it is profoundly important and effective.  When our own sin is removed and our own attitudes are changed, our faith in Who the Lord is strengthens.  We approach our husbands differently with this strengthened faith because we have become more trusting, more hopeful, more gracious, and more humble.  Praying for our husbands becomes a gift and privilege rather than a burden

Rating: 5 stars.  I ate this book for breakfast early on in our marriage.  It has since sat on the shelf until recently.  When I picked it up again, I was utterly renewed in my prayer life for my husband.  Different chapters were standing out to me, and typically after praying through one topic, I am drawn to pray through several others.  Any book that can bring me on my knees in prayer (especially using Scripture) for my husband is a 5 star book!

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