WATER OF THE WORD:
Intercession for her
By Andrew Case
10 Publishing. £6.99
ISBN 978 1 909 611 580
I’m not one of those 6am heroes who can emerge from their bed, open their Bible and immediately understand all mysteries and knowledge.
Neither do my prayers at those times roll out in angelic prose. Don’t get me wrong – I recognise the importance of beginning the day in such a way and by God’s grace emerge from my slumbers and stumble and stutter through my prayers and Bible reading.
What to pray?
Often my reading is very ordinary and I trust God is doing more than I could ask or imagine, then to prayer, picking up some simple thoughts from my reading and praying for others. But what to pray? As a husband, I recognise the calling I have to intercede for my wife. But in the early hours, as I consider her, my mind wanders to her day ahead with our two-year-old, the words ‘grace’ and ‘patience’ spring to mind in my scrambled brain and then… Andrew Case has come to my help in these moments of dullness by pointing me to the grandeur of God’s plans in his Word and, by example, calling me to pray those things for my wife. He has produced a collection of Scripture-saturated prayers designed to help husbands pray for their wives consistently and biblically.
Being our friend
The author is not doing our work for us, writing the prayers so we don’t have to really pray, but instead calling us to make these prayers our own prayers for our wives. It has helped me to lift my prayers for my wife beyond the immediate to the great promises of the gospel, that the gospel in seed and shoot might flourish and blossom within her until that great day. And such vistas have on more than one occasion kindled the embers in my heart and caused me to pray, ‘may that be true for me also, Lord.’
Perhaps I’m the only Christian husband who needs such a friend. But I rather imagine in years to come that older Christian men with godly intentions will get alongside their younger Christian brothers and ask, ‘how is your prayer life for your wife?’ and in the next couple of sentences Case’s book will be mentioned. Husband, ask that question of yourself, get your copy now and pray.
