Pray for Your Beloved ~ Leadership

This week we are praying for our husband's leadership abilities. God expects His sons to be leaders. They are to take the lead at home, in the church, and at work. They are not necessarily going to be *in the lead* in all those areas, but to be kept from being led astray, they should have the qualities of a leader.

In Genesis, we have the dominion mandate, "And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" Genesis 1:28 From the beginning, God has expected His sons to take dominion. Webster's 1828 dictionary defines dominion as: "1. Sovereign or supreme authority; the power of governing and controlling. 2. Power to direct, control, use and dispose of at pleasure; right of possession and use without being accountable; as the private dominion of individuals." Telling man to take dominion was another way of saying, "Be a leader."

At home, God expects men to lead. This is clear from the order given to us in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 11:3 tells us, "But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God."; and Ephesians 5:22-23, "Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior." The "head" of the wife is her husband. He is to lead her, and that is difficult to do if he's following from behind. He is not only to lead his wife, he is to lead his children as well. Psalm 78:5-7 says, "He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children," and Ephesians 6:4, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." God speaks directly to the fathers in the teaching of the children. Even if Daddy cannot be there to physically teach, he should be the one who is directing the education of the children.

We also need to pray for them to be leaders at work. For instance, where my Beloved works, there are only a few Christians, and so it can be difficult for him to stand firm. Not because he is especially weak, but because he is a sinful human, and we often sink to the lowest common denominator. I make it a practice to pray for him regularly to be a godly man, to be a witness to those at work, and for people to notice a difference in him and the way he lives. These are all a part of being a leader and not a follower. I want to encourage you to pray with confidence! These are prayers that God will answer. Although my Beloved does stumble, he is known as someone who people can go to when they are having problems. If they are short of money, and need groceries or gas, they know that they can go to him, and if he can, he will help them. He is a man of "good repute." While his personality plays into this, I believe that much of it is God's faithful answer to a wife's humble prayer.

May God bless you as you lift your husband before Him this week.

Scripture references taken from The English Standard Version