Genesis 18:27-28

Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

If you read this whole story, Abraham was told by God that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham took it upon himself to plead the case of the people there begging for their lives.  He went back to God time after time asking if God would spare the people if he found 50 righteous people and then 45, then 40, and 30, how about 20, and then he finally said, “please don’t be angry but what if I find 10 righteous people there, will you spare them?”  The only person he really knew there was Lot, but he was pleading with God for their sakes.

How do you pray and who do you pray for?  When you pray for your spouse how do you pray?  Do you let God know all the things He needs to “fix” in him?  When you pray for your children what do you ask for?  Do you ever take the time out of your busy schedule to pray for people you barely know or is that somehow an inconvenience or not really your style?

God really spoke to my heart the other day about this, we need to learn to stop praying with a critical spirit and learn to pray with a heart that is pleading for God to show grace and mercy in dealing with others especially our spouses!  We may think at times we would just love to have God “show” him or her something but just think about what you are saying!  If you love your spouse and you know what, even if for the moment you don’t feel like you do, you are still ONE flesh!  What are you thinking?  You should be praying for blessing not cursing on your spouse.  You should be begging God to show them the lessons they need to learn through His love, grace and extreme patience and for God to bless them on a daily basis and for God to help you to be who and what you need to be in the process!  Be careful what you ask for, you could bring more stress into your life by your prayers than you may want.

Do you ask God to bless your spouse each day and to give him wisdom and grace in His day and for him to see the hand of God’s blessing on his life throughout his day?  When God is blessing your spouse He is blessing you as well and trust me He enjoys blessing you when you are doing what is right even in your prayers much more than He will just hearing you tell Him how He can “fix” him.  God knows your spouse needs to be “fixed” we are human we all need to be fixed!  He also knows the best ways to do that and He is more likely to take care of things in a gracious way if you give Him the opportunity.  What kind of man do you think will come home from work today if he has a day of God’s goodness poured all over Him instead of God’s wrath?  What kind of wife would you be if your husband prayed continuously for you to be blessed on every level of your life?  How do you think your finances would be if you are praying for blessing daily for your spouse?  We have to choose ladies, we can’t have God’s wrath poured out on our husbands and have God’s blessing on our lives at the same time.

Pray for your marriage, your husband, your children, your friends and pastor and the list goes on daily.  Plead their case before God and ask God to show them His goodness and wisdom and to give them grace and strength in areas they are struggling in.  Pray for them the way you would want someone else to pray for you!  The best is yet to come but you must pray for it.

Quote:

Charles R. Swindoll-I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me, or say about me, my circumstances, or my position…It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.