The Power of a Praying® Wife

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After taking excerpts from the books, I want to now look at the book as a whole in context. This book does not apply to you if you are not a White, middle/upper class cishet able-bodied woman. If you are disabled, POC, queer, poor, or anything else, this does not apply to you. (I don't exactly hit all those marks either, but as I mentioned, I am doing research on religion, after growing up in a large Christian/Catholic community). Jennifer's review from October 17th 2014 is a spectacular review that covers these issues. This book has a lot of internal misogyny. This book is classist, it is ableist, it is many things. It ENCOURAGES women to remain in ABUSIVE relationships with their husband, despite everything. I really want to highlight that. Stormie Omartian ENCOURAGES you to stay in an abusive relationship. Omartian has, within this book, openly admitted many times that her husband, Michael, is abusive to her and their kids. But it is ok because it is under the guise of a good ole Christian marriage. To divorce grieves God. As I sat there, God also impressed upon my heart that if I would deliberately lay down my life before His throne, die to the desire to leave, and give my needs to Him, He would teach me how to lay down my life in prayer for Michael. He would show me how to really intercede for him as a son of God, and in the process He would revive my marriage and pour His blessings out on both of us. We would be better together, if we could get past this, than we could ever be separated and alone. He showed me that Michael was caught in a web from his past that rendered him incapable of being different from what he was at that moment, but God would use me as an instrument of His deliverance if I would consent to it. It hurt to say yes to this and I cried a lot. But when I did, I felt hopeful for the first time in years. Look to God as the source of all you want to see happen in your marriage, and don't worry about how it will happen." How is sometimes a good question to ask. Is counselling a helpful answer to you? God might be leading you to that. Is better communication what you need? How do you work toward that? Relationships take work and prayer. Lord, nothing in me wants to pray for this man. I confess my anger, hurt, unforgiveness, disappointment, resentment, and hardness of heart toward him. Forgive me and create in me a clean heart and right spirit before You. Give me a new, positive, joyful, loving, forgiving attitude toward him. Where he has erred, reveal it to him and convict his heart about it. Lead him through the paths of repentance and deliverance. Help me not to hold myself apart from him emotionally, mentally, or physically because of unforgiveness. Where either of us needs to ask forgiveness of the other, help us to do so.

A wife’s prayers have more power than anybody else’s. I always say, “Sorry, moms.” Even a mom’s prayers for her son are not as powerful as a wife’s for her husband, because God has made them one. So when a wife prays, it affects the husband so powerfully, because she’s in effect praying for herself too. I think that’s really important for a wife to realize. Whether you feel like it or not, it’s a ministry that you do to the Lord. You’re doing what God’s asking you to do. To her credit there is a final chapter in the book which has been added in later additions about how a wife needs communication, but it feels too little too late. Of course you can't force him to do something he doesn't' want to do, but you can access God's power through praying for His Voice to penetrate your husband's soul. I wrote a very long and thought out review that goodreads erased before I could hit the done button. The first one was a lot more articulate but it’s gone.**

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Stormie Omartian: It means you have got to surrender yourself to the Lord and say, “God, I’ll do what it takes to be a good wife, to be the kind of wife you want me to be.” That’s a hard decision to make, especially if you’ve had a lot of hurt and… you’ve had a lot of disappointments, anger, and unforgiveness. I have been a Christian the whole time I have been married, so I thought I was a forgiving person. I was working on that all the time, but I realized when I came to an impasse in my marriage that I wasn’t as forgiving as I thought. Without wanting to be too critic of Omartian, I also found she was a little "look what my prayers did for this person". She would use an example of someone (usually her husband, of course!) who she prayed for regarding the particular topic and explain how her prayer was answered in the future. Of course that's possible, but I felt she was saying it was her prayer, not God's power, that made the difference. It's hard to explain what I meant without sounding like I think prayer is redundant, because I absolutely don't believe that! I just mean that the way the author wrote, made it sound like it was all about her. In the opening introduction she says "You can ask him [to pray for you], and you can pray for him to pray for you, but you can't demand it of him. Regardless whether he does or doesn't is not your concern, it's God's. So release him from that obligation." You should expect your Christian husband to be trying to build you up spiritually. I feel like that's not an obligation you place on him, but one that God does. Which means you have no right to release him from it. With special thanks: • To my secretary, Susan Martinez, for bearing the load of another book deadline. Your love as a sister, faithfulness as a friend, and richness as a prayer partner can only be equaled by your effi ciency and dedication as my highly treasured and irreplaceable assistant. • To my prayer partners and fellow praying wives: Sally Anderson, Susan Martinez, Donna Summer, Katie Stewart, Roz Th ompson, and Jan Williamson, who have experienced along with me what gut-level, crying-out-to-God intercession for our husbands really means. The Power of a Praying Wife PDF

I will not allow confusion, miscommunication, wrong attitudes, and bad choices to erode what we are trying to build together. Every day I would pray, “God, give him the desire to do this; give him the desire to take care of his body. Give him a vision for what it’s going to be like if he doesn’t.” And I remember one time I was in prayer and I heard this roaring upstairs, and I thought, what in the world is that noise? Come to find out, it was him on the treadmill. Of course, I did everything to resist saying, “I told you so.” I know it was just an answer to prayer.If there is something I’m not seeing that’s adding to this problem, reveal it to me and help me to understand it. Remove any wedge of confusion that has created misunderstanding or miscommunication. Where there is behavior that needs to change in either of us, I pray You would enable that change to happen. As much as I want to hang on to my anger toward him because I feel it’s justified, I want to do what You want. I release all those feelings to You. Give me a renewed sense of love for him and words to heal this situation.” A Challenge Let me put a huge disclaimer on this and say, if any of the lovely women who did this with me for a prayer group see this, I was so encouraged and uplifted by our discussions and prayers, and I believe we got some good things out of this book. My critique of this book is in no way a critique of our group or the talks we had, and I was so happy to do it with you all. There is some good stuff in this book, and I've rethought how I pray for my husband through it. But enough of the content worries me that I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone.