Have any of you read any of Stormie Omartian's books on Prayer? She's written quite a few, including ...
The Power of a Praying Wife
The Power of a Praying Husband
The Power of a Praying Woman
The Prayer that Changes Everything
I have appreciated Stormie's books for many years. So, yesterday I bought one that I hadn't heard of before:
The Power of Prayer to Change Your Marriage
(previously published as:
Praying through the Deeper Issues of Marriage)
In this book,
Stormie addresses a LOT of common issues in Marriage ...
Communication Breakdown
Anger / Abuse
Forgiveness
Depression
Children
Finances
Outside Influences
Hardness of Heart
Our Top Priorities
The "D" Word
Infidelity
If Hope Seems Lost
While I look forward to reading through the whole book, this morning I skipped right to ...
Chapter 10: If You Are No Longer Each Other's Top Priority
(which is what happened in our marriage ... I was no longer at the top of Papa's Priority List).
Chapter 10: If You Are No Longer Each Other's Top Priority
(which is what happened in our marriage ... I was no longer at the top of Papa's Priority List).
Stormie had some good things to say.
She shared scripture.
She talked about how we must make God our #1 priority, and then the other priorities will fall into place.
Today, however, what I really needed was the specific prayers that she has written out at the end of each chapter.
Have you ever been at a place where you just didn't know how to pray? You didn't know what to pray?
That's where I've been.
While I have found myself sitting in a Mud Puddle , and walking through a Dark Tunnel, I haven't always known how to pray. I'm not angry with God. I don't feel as if God has forgotten me. But ... I haven't been able to pray. I haven't had the words to describe all of the feelings that are racing through my mind.
Prayer has been a huge priority in my life for the past 34 years. So, not being able to find the words to pray, has been a bit disheartening, to say the least. I haven't necessarily felt distant from the Lord, but I know that I haven't felt as close to Him as I should in such a time as this.
Here is one of the prayers that Stormie shares in Chapter 10 ...
Prayer for Protection (page 192)
Lord, I pray YOU would help (Jim) and me to always make You our top priority, and to make each other our priority under You. Enable us to live in Your love so that we can learn to love each other the way You want us to. Make us to be vessels through which Your love flows. Show us how to establish right priorities in our marriage and in our family.
I pray that we will not do anything "through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind" may we esteem each other better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). Help us to always find time for one another to be a help, support, encourager, uplifter, lover, companion, and sharer of good things. Enable us to always bear the burden of the other concerning the difficult things that happen in life. Help us to choose each other over the other seemingly important things that vie for our attention. Teach us to set aside time to be together alone and to reaffirm each other as our top priority under You. In our seasons of necessary busyness, help us to be understanding of one another and in agreement as to how to handle those times successfully. Thank You that You have chosen us to be people for Yourself, "a special treasure" for Your glory (Deuteronomy 7:6). Help us to always find our treasure in You above all else. In Jesus' name I pray."
I wish I had learned to pray this prayer BEFORE we were in the midst of crisis.
Can you imagine the work that the Lord could/would do in each of our marriages, if we each committed to praying a prayer like this each and every day ... if we truly committed our priority lists to the Lord?
Stormie continued on with 2 more prayers for Chapter 10:
Prayer for Breakthrough in Me
Prayer for Breakthrough in My Husband/Wife
She really gets to the heart of the issues, whether we are the offender or the offended. We each have things to pray through ... we each have healing that needs to take place.
I would recommend this book for any marriage, whether or not you are currently walking through a crisis. We all need to learn how to pray for our marriages.
I'd love to hear if you've read any of Stormie's books ... and if they have helped you in your Prayer Journey.
I did a long time ago :)
ReplyDeleteSurrounding you in our prayers daily!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have read a couple of her books and really like them. I like to rework the prayers specifically for hubby and myself.
ReplyDeleteAnd remember sometimes David couldn't think of the words to pray...but God is able to understand those feelings that are rumbling around inside of us.
Have a great rest of the weekend.
Love Stormie's books! I used the Praying for our children everyday for years with my older two boys. I really need to get back into the groove again using them with my little ones.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was real good about praying thru the marriage book as well for quite some time and then life slipped in and I still do use the prayers but it's more hit and miss now.
Have you ever read her life story! It's powerful!!
Praying for you and much love!
Lisa
I'm not married, but the book sounds good, will keep in mind. Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWill pray for you and Papa D.
Haven't read any of them, but love this prayer and think it is one that I will start using...thanks Laurel...will be praying for you and Jim!
ReplyDeleteI have several of these books & have referenced them often when the words just won't come. I really like that she gives scripture references, too, b/c I have learned that arming yourself with scripture while praying is powerful. The book I have probably used most often is "Power of a Praying Parent"...I used the meat of many prayers in that book as we were praying for our daughter who was previously with us through foster care. Thanks for bringing these up...I'm going to go dig out my other ones.
ReplyDelete