struggles with attack daily. Your husband may not talk with you about it, but
the struggle is real. Sometimes the attack is from his own flesh. Sometimes it’s
a natural consequence of living in a sinful world.
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8,
ESV).
What can you as his wife do to help him?
You can grab hold of a
strategy outlined in Scripture to thwart Satan’s attack against your husband.
Scripture commands believers to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of
his might” and to “put on the whole armor of God” so that we can “stand against
the schemes of the devil.” Furthermore, we are told that “we do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:10-13, ESV).
When we,
as wives, suit up in the armor of God (which basically means to cover ourselves
in the character of Christ and pray in the Spirit at all times), we can—through
faith and God’s Word – “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (verse
16).
Those flaming darts are hurled at several areas of your husband’s
life. So here are 10 areas of your husband’s life to pray against Satan’s
attack:
1. His Drive For Success
Most men want to feel
successful and do well in their careers, but some take it too far and become
obsessed with climbing the corporate ladder to the harm of family and friends.
This is the lure of status, prestige, and power. The world will tell him this is
important and this is where he finds his value and significance.
Pray
that your husband clearly sees his worth and significance in Christ, not in the
accolades from the workplace or an area in which he excels. Ask God to press
upon him to want to succeed as a man of God, and to realize he will be held
accountable before God not for how many hours he put into the office but for how
he invested in what God gave him (his wife, family, and talents to serve the
body of Christ).
PRAY: Lord, cultivate in my husband a drive and
desire to serve You more than any other person or thing. Close his ears to how
the world around him defines success and whisper to Him how You define it – to
do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with his God(Micah
6:8).
Is your man content? If so, that’s an
area that Satan wants to undermine by convincing him he needs more –more
electronic gadgets, more sound in his home theater, more stuff in his garage,
more toys out on the lake, and so on.
Scripture says “But godliness with
contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot
take anything out of the world” (1 Timothy 6:6-7).
PRAY: Lord, help my
husband to be content with all You have given him, and to ignore Satan’s – and
the world’s – lure that he must have more. Help him to be eternally minded, not
wanting to store up treasures on earth, but desiring treasure in heaven where
neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal
(Matthew 6:19-20).
If Satan can isolate your
man he can more easily divide him. My husband calls this area of a man’s life
“The Rambo Reflex” and said “It’s the error of thinking a man doesn’t need help,
doesn’t need advice, and can handle all of his problems on his own. Besides,
there’s no one I can trust anyway, he thinks. That’s a lie. And it’s from the
pit of hell.”
God designed us to live in community. First and foremost,
he gave your husband a helper – you (Genesis 2:18). He also designed the church
to come alongside one another and support each other. Pray that your husband
will receive help, friendship, support, and encouragement from his brothers in
Christ (if he is a believer) or from godly men who care about him.
PRAY:
Lord, surround my husband with men of God who will care deeply about him,
reach out to him, and remind him he is not alone.
4. S*xual
Temptation, Physically & In The Media
Because he’s a man, your husband is visually wired in a
way that you and I, as women, will never fully understand. Therefore, the
temptation for s*xual lust is waiting for him around every corner. Every man
faces s*xual temptation whether it’s in print, digitally, or a real woman he
sees from a distance or works with closely. Your man is bombarded with s*xual
images every day on television, on freeway billboards, or on social media. What
once was available only by walking into an adult theatre or through purchasing
an adult magazine, is now easily accessible on any laptop or smartphone. So,
pray for him to surrender his temptations to God as soon as lustful thoughts
begin to enter his mind.
PRAY: Lord, guard my husband’s eyes, filter
his thoughts, and convict his heart so that he immediately surrenders to You
whatever causes him to begin to lust. Keep his mind pure and don’t let images
stay in his mind and begin to lure his heart away.
5. His Fear of
Failure
Men dread failure and appearing weak or not having what it
takes, so the enemy aims his attack at your husband’s self-confidence and
character. He also feels the attack when it comes to his sense of responsibility
(“I’m a horrible provider,” “I’ll never get ahead of these bills,” “My wife and
kids deserve better,” “I’ll never achieve my dreams”).
Henry David
Thoreau wrote: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called
resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city, you go into the
desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and
muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are
called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this
comes after work.”
PRAY: Lord, may my husband find his sense of worth
not in what he does (or in what he succeeds at), but in Whom he knows. Remind
him that as he brings his heart before You, You are pleased, regardless of how
he performs. And help him to remember that He is “fearfully and wonderfully”
made (Psalm 139:14), and whatever he fails at is part of Your overall design to
shape his character and teach him to lean on You for his
strength.
6. His Male Ego
Some men are raised to believe
they’re supposed to be bullies, tough to the point where they don’t have any
empathy or sympathy. It’s a “big boys don’t cry” attitude and it’s based in
pride and a lack of compassion. “Never display any weakness” they are taught.
And every issue is solved best by a fist-fight.
This may not be your
man. But the temptation is there to default into the tough guy who must prove
his manliness through brute force. Pray that your husband embraces the fruits of
the Spirit that will make him more like Christ.
PRAY: Lord, help my
husband to surrender to Your Spirit’s control and develop Your character,
particularly love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
I often hear from wives whose husbands once
loved and served God with a passion, but something happened to steal their
hearts away. Sometimes it’s PTSD, a slow-growing addiction, the lure of another
woman, another “high”, or another lifestyle.
Pray that your husband’s
heart will constantly seek God, and never settle for less.
PRAY:
Lord, keep my husband’s heart close to you. Don’t let him entertain anything
that will divide his heart and cause him to compromise his faith, his marriage,
his parenting, his work, or his health. Convince him that his greatest “high”
and his deepest sense of fulfillment will only be found in You. Be his joy, his
Rock, his Loving Father, his Warrior King and his heart’s delight.
[written by Cindi McMenamin, an award-winning writer]
