I love that here on the blog and my Facebook page that we have such a diverse group of followers! While quite a few of you are married, I know that many are still waiting for your future husbands to walk into your life. I have had some emails and messages over the past couple of months from many of you asking about what it looks like to be in prayer for your future husband and if I had done that before I met my own husband, so I thought I would share a little bit from my heart about what it looks like to be in prayer for the man that God has for you while you are waiting for him. Because as women following Christ, we NEED to be in prayer for the men that God has for us, not only while we are married to them, but BEFORE we meet them. A great way to pray for your future spouse is starting in God’s Word, and praying scripture is a wonderful place to start if you aren’t sure where to begin or are weary of waiting.

Today I am going to be sharing with you 8 verses to pray over your future husband while you wait.

1. Matthew 6:33 “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

As a wife in waiting, you need to be in prayer that your future husband is, above everything else, seeking Christ and His Kingdom FIRST in his life. With all of the busyness and temptations that this world throws at us, it is so hard for men (and women!) to keep God at the forefront of their everyday. Be praying for his heart to desire to be in the Word daily and striving to live a life that pleases the Lord.

2. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Sometimes as you are wondering why you are waiting, your future spouse might be wondering why he is waiting, too. And sometimes that waiting is HARD and it’s difficult to see what God’s plan is in the middle of it all. Be in prayer that God would reveal Himself to your future husband while he waits for you; that he would be reminded that God desires to bring him good and the desires of his heart. Pray that he would cling to God and allow Him to be his fulfillment.

3. Ephesians 5:22-33 “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

These are a lot of verses, but they are packed full with awesome truth about what you should be praying your marriage will look like; mirroring Christ and His church. While men and women are equal in Christ, we were designed very differently from one another according to what God’s purpose is for our roles in marriage. Be in prayer that your husband will lead your family with Christ at the center, loving you the way that Christ loves the church and that he would be self-sacrificing for you and your family. Let’s face it, the God given responsibilities of being a husband are huge. Be praying that God would give your future husband the strength and heart to do what he is called to do!

4. Proverbs 13:20  “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.”

Praying for your future husbands friends and community is another great way to lift him up in prayer before you meet him! The old saying goes, “You are who you hang out with.” I truly believe that that phrase was derived from this Proverb. Be in prayer for the kind of people that he will surround himself with. Pray that they will be a good influence on him and like-minded, striving for Christ in their hearts and their relationships. Be in prayer that he is plugged into a good church home and has a support system of friends he can turn to for encouragement or prayer. And who knows, those friends you pray for now may become your friends someday, too.

5. 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Praying this verse can cover any multitude of temptations, but today I want to focus on sexual temptation. In our culture today, it is BEYOND difficult to be a man and strive for purity in their heart, mind and body. Sex is thrown at them from every angle, and the devil knows how to get a foothold in their hearts. Be praying that God would help them to flee from any situation that would cause temptation and that they would stay grounded in God’s truth for them as they save themselves until they are married. Want to take it a step further? Pray for the other women who they may be dating now and pray that THEY would help keep them pure until they meet you, also praying that if they have taken things too far that they would see their sin and run from it. It’s hard to do, I had prayed that prayer many times myself before meeting my husband, but God used it to work in my own heart in big ways.

6. 2 Peter 3:18 “Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.”

Being in prayer for knowledge for your future spouse is so important! Pray that he would be taking time to seek God in time alone with Him, as well as with other believers. Your future husband can’t grow by just sitting around and being stagnant, so pray that he would push himself to study God’s Word and trust in God’s grace in his life.

7. 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

Praying for your future husbands health and physical safety is such a tangible way to be lifting him up. Pray that he would honor God with how he physically conducts himself and that God would protect him wherever he goes.

8. Acts 28:31 “He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ–with all boldness and without hindrance!”

Pray for BOLDNESS for your future husband! Ultimately, our goal as Christ followers is to go out and tell others about the good news of the Gospel, so pray that he is convicted to share his heart with others with confidence and clarity.

I hope that if you are a wife in waiting that this has encouraged you today. As wives, we have the joy and privilege to be lifting our husbands up in prayer, but it starts long before you say, “I do.” And if you are already married, you can continue to pray these verses over your husband and pray them over your daughter’s future husbands. Prayer is SO KEY in strengthening and building up our marriages; don’t wait another day to start praying for him whose face you don’t yet know while you continue to seek Christ and His will for your life.