Family Series 6 – How to pray and intercede for your wife, husband – 2 books in pdf format

Author: Andrew Case. (source)

Water of the Word

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. ~Ephesians 5:25-26

Let Us Imitate Christ as He Prays for His Bride “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Rom 8:34).
“He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25).
Jesus Christ prays for us. He prays for His Bride. He sets the glorious example of the husband who never tires in making intercession for her. It is a breathless wonder, a staggering and stupefying truth. Are you a husband like Jesus? Do you want to be?

Every earthly marriage has been ordained to point to the perfect union in the age to come—to reflect, albeit dimly, the intimacy and ecstasy of knowing our Saviour face to face. And if we are to be obedient to the command, “Love your wives as Christ loved the church” (Eph 5:25) we must not only show a cruciform, sacrificial love, but must also follow Christ’s precedent of continual intercession for our wives, pleading constantly for their sanctification (Eph 5:26). When we pray like this we imitate Jesus’ beautiful example of praying for His Bride. Click icon on the left to read the rest of the book (in pdf format).

Prayers of the excellent wife

She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. ~Proverbs 31:12

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And He made everything in the heavens and on the earth. And God saw that it was good. All of it. Except one thing: “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone’” (Gen 2:18). This staggering declaration has never stopped resounding throughout history as man senses again and again his keen need of a “helper fit for him.” And she is indeed fit for him, having been built from his own body to build him up.
The primeval story of her creation is nearly too good to be true. As Martin Luther comments, “Perhaps no one would believe the account of how Eve was created, were it not clearly taught in Scripture.” The account reads as follows:Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Gen 2:19-25)

There is a beautiful, purposeful meaning to be seen in how God brings her into being. The story has a “poetic flavor” that leads to the outburst of poetry from the man. In an attempt to bring out some of this meaning and flavor, Matthew Henry comments that the woman was “not made out of [the man’s] head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”

Under divinely induced sleep,a rib is taken out of the man. This should not be seen merely as a surgical operation, but as a brilliant depiction of the relationship between a man and his wife. She is intricately woven out of his very substance, one flesh with him, ontologically bound to him as the helper who stands always at his side. Calvin observes that something was taken from the man in order that he might embrace, with greater benevolence, a part of himself. He lost, therefore, one of his ribs; but, instead of it, a far richer reward was granted him, since he obtained a faithful associate of life; for he now saw himself, who had before been imperfect, rendered complete in his wife.

God deliberately did not form her out of the dust from the ground, but instead built her from the man’s living, organized substance. Neither did God create her out of nothing. Thus, among all the living creatures, woman remains entirely unique in her origin and at the same time inextricably linked to the man, deriving her spiritual and material nature from him.

A theology of headship is portrayed beautifully by the depiction of the woman being built from the man. In his letter to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul references this account to make a point: “For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man” (I Cor 11:8-9). Previously in the same chapter Paul has just said that “the head of a wife is her husband” (I Cor 11:3), to which he now adds primordial support.

The implications of woman’s origin are profound. Her dignity and worth, her necessity, her role in life and marriage, and her unique beauty have been established by God from the beginning. She was made to be a man’s faithful helper. And there is no greater help she can offer him than her prayers on his behalf to the One who alone can provide perfect, sovereign help. When the psalmist sings, “I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” he answers his own question with the words, “My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth.” You are not sufficient succor for him. A stronger Hand must come to his aid.

Blessed is the wife who pleads often for this mighty Hand to keep her husband’s life; who begs for him at the gates of Grace. This is the sort of woman who fears the LORD, feels her own weakness, and finds refuge and righteousness in Jesus Christ. She wants God for her husband. She is to be praised.

Click the icon on the right to read the rest of the book (in pdf form).