What's Your Motivation?

Our teacher for The Power of a Praying Wife is Robley (pronounced "ROB-LEE": don't you love her name?)  Because I was late yesterday, I don't know a lot of her story, but I can tell she's got it going on.  I ran into a friend's mother-in-law and when I told her who was teaching my bible study, she had just the most wonderful things to say about Robley.  I mean, the mother-in-law told me that she keeps Robley's emails in her inbox because she writes such inspiring emails!  I look forward to getting to know her.

A few things I learned from yesterday's introduction video:

• The greatest good can come from praying for your husband.
• The disciples asked Jesus how to pray because they saw the power source Jesus could tap into through prayer.  NOTE:  They didn't ask for power or to be able to do miracles; they asked Him HOW TO PRAY.
• There is a connection between power and prayer.
• Pray for God to release His power to do His will for you.
• God's love must be your motivation.
• We can sabotage our prayer by not praying from the right heart.
• Don't pray, "Change him, Lord." (The 3-word prayer)
• Instead, pray, "Change ME, Lord."
• It's often easier to pray for our children, because we have authority over them.
• We don't have authority over our husbands, so sometimes our feelings get in the way.
• We do have authority over satan. God has given that authority to us and the power through prayer.
• When communicating with your husband, pray first.
• Put your expectations in the Lord, not on your husband. Psalm 62:5 "My soul, wait expectantly for God alone, for my expectation is from Him."
• Resentment and unforgiveness will prevent you from praying for your husband with the right heart. Psalm 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear."
• A wall will be constructed between you if you resent him and hold a grudge.  You won't be able to pray the best for him.
• Pray for what God wants him to be.
• Pray first to dissolve your anger.
• Pray first before a talk you know will anger him or bring trouble.  You know those touchy areas, don't you?  Pray FIRST!  For the words, the timing, the heart to discuss like loving adults.
• The closer you as a wife get to the Lord, the less you will be "bothered/annoyed/put out by" your husband.
• 1 Corinthians 10:12 "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
• Stormie gave us this memory verse for next week:  Galatians 6:9 "And Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."

Don't you know I use a bulleted list when I don't want to have to think to string all the thoughts together?  I'm such a cheater!

Robley led a discussion after the video and brought up an interesting contrast between the words "condemnation" and "conviction".

So often we as wives, mothers, friends bog ourselves down with feelings of negativity.  We know we can do better, and WE condemn OURSELVES for it.  We beat ourselves up for not being the best wife or mother.  We don't have our quiet times regularly.  Robley pointed out that there is a difference between feeling convicted of our sin and feeling condemned of our sin.

Here's my attempt at a chart to show what she illustrated to us:

Condemnation v. Conviction

• from satan..................................from the Holy Spirit
• brings to darkness....................brings to light
• to make you stumble................to correct it
• pointed with evil........................pointed with love
• past, present, future sin............present sin
• keeps you in the sin...................you change to eliminate the sin
• forecasts failure for future.......gives you hope for future
• pulls you away from God..........pulls you to God
• condemns us...............................encourages us

The last thing we did was to create a list of goals for ourselves during this study.  Without a goal in mind, we might just walk blindly through the study.  Without a goal for our time with God, we might just miss His voice.