Pray for Your Pastor’s Wife

Pastors' wives need your prayers. Their desire is to glorify God but often they feel weak and aware of their sin, and know how much they need the help of the Holy Spirit. Your pastor’s wife may well feel overwhelmed, especially with additional pressures resulting from the pandemic.

Your prayers for her are so valuable. Your prayers will bless her and impact her heart, soul, and mind. They will also encourage her husband in his ministry and her family as she becomes more like her Saviour. The whole church will be enriched, as she becomes more of the woman God wants her to be.

This is a particularly demanding season for every woman, as stresses and strains have intensified, and pastors' wives are affected too.

Marion and Malcolm

Marion and Malcolm are a fictional couple in ministry, but they could be real. Marion is employed part-time in IT and is working from home, mostly in the evenings. Marion and Malcolm have four children aged 5, 7, 11 and 14 years. The younger ones needed more help with their home-education than Marion felt she could give. She is stretched and their house has felt too small now they are all at home for most of the day. Also, they have a lively puppy!

Malcolm is pastor of a smaller church. During lockdown, his study has become a studio, as he films most of the Sunday service there. Each Sunday, Marion cringes as she watches her husband on the screen; she knows how uncomfortable Malcolm feels in front of the camera and Marion feels the silence of those watching; she is not sure what they are thinking and feeling about church life, and wonders if the ministry is helping them. Add into the mix some tensions in the church leadership.

Marion is beginning to feel overwhelmed and a little resentful - it’s hard for her to concentrate and read her Bible and pray. There isn’t much time for her to chat to Malcolm - whispered conversations as they lie in bed at the end of a tiring day are not ideal. They aren’t praying together as often as they did, and their 14-year-old doesn’t want to participate in church online.

How to pray for your pastor’s wife

Your pastor’s wife’s experience may be different, and there will be different pressures as we come out of lockdown. Whatever her situation, she still needs prayer. As you think of her, pray for:

• Her relationship with the Lord. It is from the Lord that she will receive deep joy and the resources she needs for the demands she faces.
• Her relationship with her husband. Ministry marriages need to be strong.
• Her relationship with her family. Pray for children to be saved and to walk with the Lord.
• Her relationship with the church leadership, especially when there are strains or disunity.

Pray that the fruit of the Spirit will be seen in the heart and life of your pastor’s wife: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Love for the Lord, who first loved her (1 John 4:19). Love for her husband, her family, and those who don’t know Jesus as Saviour.

Joy in knowing her sins are forgiven, that she has a secure relationship with her heavenly Father, and that nothing will separate her from his love (Romans 8:39).

Peace in her heart that replaces anxiety and exhibits trust in the sovereign Lord (Philippians 4:7).

Forbearance with those who irritate her or those she feels let down by (Psalm 133:1).

Kindness to all as she recognises the kindness of God to her in not treating her as her sins deserve (Psalm 103:10-14).

Goodness as she seeks to serve the Lord in those "good works he has prepared in advance for her to do" (Ephesians 2:10). These good works could be in paid employment, home life, serving others in the church, or sharing the gospel with those who don’t know Christ yet.

Faithfulness to the Lord, knowing his faithfulness and provision for her. He provides all that she needs for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

Gentleness: for that gentle and quiet spirit that trusts in the Lord (1 Peter 3:4).

Self-control in her thoughts, speech, and actions. There is a spiritual battle, and she needs to resist temptation (Matthew 6:13).

And as you pray for your pastor’s wife, pray for these things for yourself too.