How do you get your husband to pray with you? What if you have gotten into the habit of never praying together? How do you break this cycle?
How to Get Your Husband to Pray with You
- Love and accept him for who he is. Ask God to change you so that you have a high opinion about your husband.
- Don’t guilt trip your husband during your prayer. (I explain this more in the audio.)
- Be vulnerable. An atmosphere of vulnerability deepens your love for each other.
- Get rid of all bitterness toward your spouse.
- Don’t use religious language, but pray the way that you talk, especially if this is the way your husband prays. This will make him not feel out of place while praying with you. Honesty trumps religiosity of language. Just be real so that he can relate to you.
- Don’t characterize your husband as evil because of habits of sin in his life. He is a new creation and wants to please the Lord, but he is trapped in his flesh. You don’t want him to characterize you as evil because of your sin that he sees that he will not tell you about, because you will defend yourself. Look up to your husband and respect him, even if he sins. (I tell you how to do this in the audio.)
- Understand that your husband is not inferior to you spiritually. Looking down on others is sin. Philippians 2 commands us to see other people as better than ourselves.
- Admit your own shortcomings.
- Pray that God will help you to draw together spiritually through prayer.
- Allow your husband to lead you spiritually by following him spiritually. Even if he is a new believer, God has equipped him to lead you spiritually. If you allow him to lead, he is more likely to pray with you.
Here is the 30-minute audio workshop to help you pray together as husband and wife:
Right-click the link, “Save as,” and choose “Desktop” to download the audio. To listen to more audios on prayer and get a free e-book on prayer, like my Prayer Page.
I love it. This goes along with a post I just made the other day.
“A Gallup Poll done in 1997 by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement in Phoenix, AZ, showed the divorce rate among couples who pray out loud together regularly is 1 out of 1,152. That’s a rate of less than one/tenth of one percent.”
Wow! Research proves that prayer matters!
Ultimately we must recognize that it is part of the devils plan to put bitterness and enmity between us. It’s often hard to remember that as Dobson said husbands and wives are on the same team, we are not on opposing teams. I really like how your post gently points out, points of contention. Blessings! Kyle
Yes, we’re on the same team. Bitterness has no place when you realize that you’re on the same team.
accepting him as he is… that piece has changed everything for us… though he still doesn’t pray with me. I know it will come one day in his and God’s time.
God is able to move the heart of a king, like a river of water. He is also able to move in our husbands. We just need patience and lots of prayer.
Praying with your spouse is such an amazing way to grow closer as a couple and in your relationship with God.
We are to be of one mind and heart and purpose with each other in the body of Christ, and nowhere is this more important than in a marriage.
I love how you give advice how to get him to pray and what not to do! This is an area my husband and I need to work on!
I’ve learned what not to do through trial and error.
“Don’t use religious language, but pray the way that you talk, especially if this is the way your husband prays.” ABSOLUTELY. This was one of the struggles as we started out in our marriage. My language intimidated him, and made him feel his prayers weren’t reaching heaven. This discouraged our prayer life as couple. This is such sound advice Susan!
God loves an honest heart that cries out to Him!
I really like your last point…allowing him to lead. I have found that to be hard…sometimes I just bite my tongue because it is more important for him to lead then me to knit pick. Thanks!!
People with different personalities lead in different ways. We need to allow our husbands to lead using their strengths and their own personality. They don’t have to do everything the way we do.