Book Reviews

The Power of a Praying Husband (ISBN 0-7369-0532-4) and The Power of a Praying Wife (ISBN 1-56507-572-2)

Stormie Omartian, Harvest House Publishers

Do you want nothing more than to see your partner happy and growing together with you? Then the best way to love your partner is to pray for him/her. In these books you’ll find the excitement and hope that come from inviting the God who hears and answers prayer into your marriage.

In approximately 20 (Husbands) or 30 (Wives) short and easy to read chapters, each covering a different topic, Stormie shares how you can intercede for your partner in the areas where he/she longs for your prayers. These areas include your partner’s emotions, moods, priorities, s*xuality, spiritual walk, fears, decision-making and fatherhood/motherhood.

Stormie includes in her books some personal advice, Scripture references and prayer ideas to help you shape your requests to God.

By the time you marry, you bring many years of experience, habits, personality traits, memories, preconceived notions and personal ambitions with you into the marriage. You are joined for a lifetime to a mate who brings in the same from his/her side. Now you are faced with the need to communicate, to compromise and to submit to one another. Communication with your partner is dependent upon your communication with the Father. Without prayer, the success of your marriage or relationship depends on your own wisdom and effort.

Stormie shares that in the first ten or more years of her marriage to her husband Michael, they experienced great strife and misery because they did things in the flesh and not in the spirit. Each wanted the other to be a certain way and tried to make that happen themselves, instead of relying on the power of God to accomplish it. At a time of great strife between them, she cried out to the Lord for help. God impressed on her that if she would be willing to lay down her life in prayer for Michael, He would use her to help Michael to become all God had made him to be.

Are there things about your partner you would like to see changed? When you pray for your partner, you are inviting God to exercise His power in his/her life. However, God will never override a person’s own will. If anyone is determined to live outside of God’s will, He will let that person do it. God wants us to pray about all things, but He wants us to pray according to His will. That’s why it’s important to ask God to reveal His will to you and help you pray accordingly.

In Matthew 19:4-6 God declared that you and your partner are one in His sight. Thus, when your partner is happy and blessed, you are happy and blessed. No matter what has happened between you, God can fix it.

Out of hundreds of surveys Stormie made, and which to her surprise were basically the same everywhere, she shares how women want their husbands to prey for them, as well as testimonies of how men prayed for their wives and about the answers they have seen to their prayers. With the women she shares how they can develop a deeper relationship with their husbands by praying for them.

Stormie says: “Sometimes prayers are answered quickly, but many are not. Jesus said ‘Men always ought to pray and not lose heart’ (Luke 18:1). Keep praying and you will see God answer. And don’t worry about how the answer will be manifested. You don’t have to make them happen. It’s your job to pray. It’s God’s job to answer. Trust Him to do His job.”

Although primarily aimed at married couples, these books can equally well be applied by engaged couples or couples in courtship. What’s more, if you are single at present, these books will help you shape you views and attitudes of marriage and prepare you to receive a new partner into your life.

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