The Power of a Praying Wife: 30 Day Challenge

I have always loved to pray.  Even as a little girl I remember just being in constant communication with God.  It's just part of who I am.  I really don't know how anyone gets through one day without talking to God about everything. Yes, I am that person who might look a little crazy as you pull up next to me at a stoplight and see know one else in the car yet I am talking away like my best friend is in the seat next to me.  It's because my best friend is in the car and his name is Jesus. I'm not trying to sound super spiritual about that it's just all I know and I am so thankful for it because with him as my sidekick I always have so much peace.

A little over two years ago my husband and I were really struggling in many areas of our lives. We had bought a business that was struggling we saw very little of each other because my husband would work all day then come home and take over kid duties so I could go up to the business and work on books and bills, we were in a tiny house with 3 kids basically sleeping on top of each other, medical bills from my miscarriage, husband had a chronic cough...you get the picture.  I am not telling you all this to say we had it so rough because in hindsight we really didn't have it that bad but sometimes when you are walking through circumstances in life it's easy to think you are the only one going through this and you become bitter of others who aren't.  By the way, that is a lie.  Everyone is facing a battle of some kind.  Some may be bigger than others but still everyone has seasons in life where they are fighting for their marriage and family.

On one of those nights when I felt so hopeless as I worked late into the night at the clinic I cried out to God knowing deep down that this was not his best for us.  He had opened so many doors to buy this business yet things were not lining up with what his word said about us.  His word said he had plans to prosper us and not harm us, plans for hope and a future(Jer.29:11).  But as I looked at our circumstances I could not see this prospering or hope...in fact I just felt hopeless.  So I began do what I know best...pray.  As I prayed over my husband the Lord gave me a vision of a sea of men marching forward in battle.  They were strong and fearless. As they marched I saw this ray of light surrounding them like a shield. The Lord showed me as we pray for our husbands this is the shield that is surrounding them as they go into battle. He also showed me this battle isn't just their daily battle(which is a big part of it) but it's also the army of men God is rising up to take back ownership of God's world and people.

In that same moment of praying the Lord showed me this wasn't just for me and he asked me to rally some girls to pray with me. I have been a boot camp instructor for several years so to me it only makes sense to do things as a challenge because people love to rise to a challenge. So he put on my heart a 30 day challenge and I happened to have the Power of a Praying Wife book sitting next to me and as I opened it up noticed it had 30 chapters in it...a topic for each day.

As I tend to do, I argued with God. I said out loud "God, you know I am a mom of 3 young kids(2 toddlers and a baby) AND we are running this business...how in the world am I supposed to find time to start a prayer group?!"  And just like that he showed me to put it on Facebook because I could do it late at night or early in the morning when my kids were sleeping.  So I got right on Facebook, started the group and invited 10 friends to join me.  In my small mind I was excited at the thought of 10 women praying together!  But God had other plans.  Two days later over 400 women asked to join the group.  And now two years later we have over 2,000 women in the group.  This just confirmed to me that the Lord is stirring multiple women's hearts over this same subject and I get so excited as I think of all the men who are rising up and walking in God's calling on their life.

Since the challenge has been going on for so long we no longer follow the book just because we felt we wanted to it to be Holy Spirit inspired so it doesn't become dry and dull.  Over the last two years several different ladies have contributed to writing the daily posts.  I have been amazed at the testimonies that have poured in about marriages being saved, husbands gaining freedom and even single ladies praying over their future spouse!

Last summer Pastor Mallory Bassham asked us to do a Power of a Praying Wife class at church and it was amazing!  The hunger in women to fight for their marriage and husbands is just incredible.  We will be doing the class again this summer and my prayer is that the women who come have something ignited in them that spreads like a forest fire and that the number of women praying just continues to multiply.  If you are in the DFW area this summer please come join us on Tuesday mornings at Gateway Church as we come together and lift our husbands and marriages up!

I leave you with this final thought:  What has God put on your heart that you have been scared to step out in faith and do?  I never would have dreamed that something so small in my mind would make such an impact. God is not a man and his ways are higher than ours.  Trust him today and take a step of faith, you just may be someone else's answer to a prayer.