19th.: Husbands, be Right with Your Wives
Sometimes, we do things to slow down how fast our prayers get to the Lord.
For example, God told husbands,
“Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them [your wives] according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” (1st Pet. 3:7).
We guys can be jerky. In such cases, the guy just needs to repent, and ask for forgiveness from God, the wife, kids, etc.
At other times, the wife may be the primary difficult person, and the guy is simply reacting, not necessarily in a good way. In these situations, the husband must still give honor to the wife.
And he can read, and apply Eph. 5:25-26, “Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.”
This husband can go to the Lord to ask how the difficult wife ‘may be washed of her difficulties’ by the word of God (and God moving per the wise prayers of the husband). He will especially need wisdom on ‘how’ to apply the word of God.
I would think that usually the problem is more of a mix between the above two extremes. Nevertheless, each Christian husband’s situation is different, and he needs to take his marriage to the Lord, asking God, “Are my actions toward my wife hindering my prayers to you?”
“For no man ever hated his own flesh.” (Eph. 5:29a)