Prayer for Prideful Husband

Pride is a serious issue that can hinder husbands from loving their wives with the selfless love that God desires them to have. If you’re a wife who can relate to this struggle, you can pray for your husband’s heart to be changed by God.

Praying for your husband can be challenging, especially if you are unsure of how to pray. This sample prayer can help you pray for your husband’s pride:

Dear God, I come to you in prayer for my husband’s pride. Please help him open and surrender his heart to You. Break down the walls of pride and selfishness in his life so that he can love me and others selflessly. Please reveal to him his need for Your grace and mercy. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

While it is true that prayer can help change your husband’s heart, he will not necessarily be transformed overnight. Be patient with him, and be firm in your commitment to praying for him daily. Let’s discuss how you can effectively deal with his pride while waiting on God to work through this situation, whether or not there are any outward signs of progress.

How to Deal With a Prideful Husband?

Your husband’s pride may have stressed you out a lot, and his actions may have hurt your feelings in the past or even in the present. To increase harmony in your relationship, you should help him work through his issues instead of focusing on trying to get back at him.

The best way to manage a prideful husband is to come to God in prayer about it. Everything else will fall into its proper place when you are filled with God’s wisdom and guidance. 

As a wife, you have a unique opportunity to help your husband understand his pride and its effects on his life. Here are some suggestions on how to deal with your husband’s pride:

1. Pray for yourself

You can’t help your husband unless you are healthy yourself. Pray for the strength to deal with his pride and wisdom about how best to help him. Do not be blinded by his flaws so that you forget your own. Instead, pray that God will help you see your husband as He sees him—a child of God in need of love and care. 

Praying for yourself lets you see the state of your heart and motives. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7:3 (ESV) (And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?), that we are to first take the log out of our eye, and then we will see clearly enough to take the speck out of our brother’s eye. This verse means that we must first deal with our own problems before dealing with someone else’s problems. Clearly, you can see how your own pride can prevent you from loving your husband as God loves him.

2. Pray for your husband

Praying for your husband is like interceding for him — a way of standing in the gap for him. You are standing between God and your husband and pleading with God on his behalf. Maybe your husband’s pride has a deep root that keeps him from seeing his own sins. Perhaps the enemy has taken advantage of his pride and is using it to blind him from seeing that sin. You can ask God to reveal the root of your husband’s pride so that he can be set free.

You might feel overwhelmed by the idea of your husband needing deliverance from sin, but you can pray for him in faith. You don’t have to understand how it works; just believe that God can do immeasurably more than we could ever ask for or imagine [Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us –  Ephesians 3:20 (ESV)].

3. Listen to your husband.

You may not be able to change his behavior, but you can help him understand what causes it by listening to him talk about his life and feelings. Take the time to listen to your husband and try to understand his point of view, even if you disagree. Do not interrupt or judge him, but instead, try to understand why he feels a certain way.

The Lord instructs us to have a listening heart [So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding – Proverbs 2:2 (ESV)], and this is an excellent opportunity to put that into practice. Listening with understanding is a good way to start the conversation and help your husband feel more understood.  

4. Talk about your feelings. 

Remember that communication is vital in any kind of relationship. Both of you must be willing to express yourselves for the relationship to work. Sometimes you can be upset or disappointed, but you must talk about how you feel. Furthermore, always be willing to do it gently and listen to his explanations. If you communicate your desire to listen to your spouse, he will be more likely to reciprocate and listen to you more often. This practice will help you avoid arguments and misunderstandings.

Good communication is essential for maintaining a harmonious relationship. The Bible says that we should live in harmony with one another [Romans 12:16-17 (ESV)], and this attitude toward others will result in peace [And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. – James 3:18 (ESV)]. These verses are often quoted when talking about how believers should treat each other, but this will also be beneficial if applied to your marriage.

5. Try not to criticize him when he is wrong

When both of you have expressed your side of an argument, and it happens that his pride is the problem, try not to criticize him. Keep in mind that criticism is not a way to solve problems. It can only make your husband feel bad about himself and cause him to resent or become distant from you. Instead, help him see the situation from your point of view. Talk about what he needs to do differently and how it will help him. This way, he will learn how to solve his own problems without pride getting in the way.

Remember that your words can have a profound effect on your husband. The words you speak can build him up or tear him down. Just take the advice in Proverbs 15:1 (ESV) (A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.), which tells us how we are to handle each conversation, namely, to always be gentle in how we speak.

6. Be patient and empathetic 

Husbands need to feel loved and supported. Remember that God is the one who can entirely change him, not you. Your role as a wife is to be a helper [And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. – Genesis 2:18 (ESV)], and you should support him in this process. If you are persistent, loving, and patient with your husband, God will give you the grace to persevere through any difficulties. Also, the more patient you are with your husband, the more he will see the need for him to change.

The Bible says that we are to be patient and compassionate [Colossians 3:12 (ESV)] to others, even though they may be difficult to deal with. This is the same attitude that you should have toward your husband.

7. Find a support group

Make fellowship with other Christian wives that you trust and are comfortable with to share the issues you’re having with your husband. Pray with and encourage other women living through the same things you are. Every struggle has a purpose; this can be God’s way for you to minister to other people and testify to how God has given you and your husband a breakthrough.

God created us to have fellowship with other people, grow together, and be strong [Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17 (ESV)]. We must encourage each other and share our burdens and joys. As a coal is to a flame, so is a friend to the soul. We need to have friends who will love us and encourage us no matter what.

8. Seek counseling

If you feel that your problems are too great to handle yourself, and if God is leading you to seek help from another person, then do so! This act is not a sign of failure in your marriage but rather a way to strengthen it. Many Christian counselors can help guide you through this difficult time and give advice on how to better communicate with each other.

Many scriptures in the Bible show that God allowed His people to seek counseling. In fact, David and Solomon both sought counseling from other people. These are the two kings who are considered the wisest men in the Old Testament. If they sought advice, why shouldn’t you?

How Can I Pray for My Husband Who Is Prideful?

As we discussed earlier in this article, prayer is the most important thing you can do for your husband. The Bible tells us that God hears and answers our prayers [1 John 5:14-15 (ESV)], and you must rest on that truth. 

In your prayer, ask God to help him understand what pride is, why it’s dangerous, and how he can overcome this sin. Also, plead with God to help your husband see himself as He sees him and to help him realize his sinfulness in order to lead him to repentance.

According to the Bible, pride is a sin that leads to destruction [Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 (ESV)]. It is always harmful and never beneficial to anyone. You don’t want your relationship to be harmed by this sin, so use your prayers to fight against it. 

Let’s talk about how you can win this battle by thoroughly exploring the details of how and what you can pray for your husband. Here are some prayer points to help you out in your intercession for your husband’s pride:

1. Pray for his eyes to be opened 

Ask God to help your husband see his pride for what it is and realize that he hates it [Proverbs 16:5 (ESV)]. The enemy uses pride as a weapon against us. We can become so focused on our achievements that we forget the grace and mercy of God in our lives. The more we focus on ourselves, the less we can see Christ’s greatness in our actions.

2. Pray for the strength to submit

Plead with God to give your husband wisdom in overcoming this sin in his life. A surrendered heart is what your husband needs, so pray that he may find a way to surrender to God and let the Holy Spirit change him every day.

3. Pray for humility 

Pray that God will give him humility, so he can be humble enough to realize his sinfulness and repent. Ask God to reveal the areas where your husband needs to be humbled. Tell Him that you want your husband to understand his prideful attitudes and behaviors and ask Him for guidance on how best to deal with them.

4. Pray for support 

Ask God to bring people into your husband’s life who will help him fight against this sin by loving him as Christ loves him. Pray that God will use your husband’s friends to remind him of his pride and how much it grieves God. Ask God to give your husband friends who will pray for him and help him through this struggle.  

5. Pray for grace and wisdom

The Lord is faithful to help us in our times of need, and He will give your husband the grace to overcome his prideful heart. However, he will also give you the wisdom and strength to help him do so. You are called to love your husband, not just when he is easy to love but also when he is difficult. You have been given a gift of grace—the ability to show him his sin without condemning him. You can be the one who points out his pride without tearing him down, the one who calls him out on his selfishness without making him feel guilty or ashamed.

6. Pray for the ability to forgive

Perhaps your husband’s words and prideful actions have caused deep wounds in your heart. You may be tempted to hold on to those wounds, but you must pray for God to heal your heart. Your husband’s sin has hurt you, but God is still good and can bring more good out of this situation. Pray for the ability to forgive both yourself and your spouse.

Conclusion

We may not be able to control others or their actions and decisions, but we have full control over our behavior and can happily agree with what is good and firmly disagree with what is not. With that in mind, pray for your husband, and expect a miracle. God will move him and his life if he chooses to let God in. 

Indeed, your husband’s pride can hold you captive; without prayer, you cannot escape. Prayer is the key that unlocks your prison and sets you free. We must give space for God to work in our midst, listening and hearing what He wants to say. Prayer is your greatest weapon for your husband’s pride and the greatest tool to communicate with your Heavenly Father!