The Power and Purpose of Prayer I can still remember being sequestered in the "bride''s room" of our church just moments before the organist began to play for the early arrivals. As I sat in front of an oversized gilded mirror, trying not to wrinkle my dress, I daydreamed about the man who would become my husband by day''s end. He was everything I had ever hoped for: handsome, smart, ambitious, and strong. And most important, he had a deeply intimate relationship with Jesus. My delicate white gown fit snugly around my upper frame, and a flowing satin train trailed behind. A veil rested on a nearby table, ready to be positioned on my head. My bouquet of white roses stood at attention, waiting to be placed in my hands. The most important people in my life gathered in the sanctuary to witness the "I do''s.

" Yes, this was a good day. As I stared at my reflection, my heart so full of hope and promise, an unwelcome thought interrupted my musing. Doesn''t every woman feel this way on her wedding day? What could go so terribly wrong that such a high percentage of marriages end in divorce? Am I fooling myself ? Am I that much different from the thousands who have walked the aisle before me? I decided right then and there that I would do everything in my power to make my marriage a success. It didn''t take long for me to discover that the words in my power were a problem. "My power" was not enough. Fairy tales always end with the words "And they lived happily ever after." But if we could read the epilogue to those rides off into the sunset, we''d most likely find daily struggles, potentially divisive decisions, and angry arguments sprinkled throughout. Fairy tales stop short of telling us about tension over whose turn it is to wash the dishes, pay the bills, or put the kids to bed.

They leave out the part about stress over holidays with in-laws, frequency of intimacy, and who gets to spend what when. We naively repeat the words "for better or for worse" and then are shocked when the first hint of "worse" rears its ugly head. Prayer Can Change Everything If you''ve been married for more than a few days, then you have most likely figured out that the blessed union doesn''t stay so blessed without a lot of work. And I dare say, the most important "work" we can do as wives is on our knees. The psalmist wrote, "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain" (Psalm 127:1). Only God can truly protect your marriage and your man. And He invites you to participate in the unleashing of His power by praying for your husband and turning the key to the storehouse of heaven''s door for blessings outpoured.

Louise saw this happen with her husband, Allan, in a miraculous way. Allan was a tough man. Raised by a single mom with five siblings during the Depression in the early 1930s, Allan learned how to scrap his way through life and climb to the top of humanity''s heap through sheer determination and grit. He married at nineteen, had his first son at twenty, then a baby girl at twenty-five. Over the next two decades he advanced from driving a delivery truck at a lumberyard to becoming part owner and president of a building supply company in eastern North Carolina. Allan drank heavily, fought with his wife physically, and terrorized his children emotionally. He gambled, dabbled in pornography, and had questionable relationships laced with a host of unsavory vices. But when his teenage daughter became a Christian and began praying for her family, God grabbed the chisel of grace and began chipping away at Allan''s proud heart of stone.

Three years after his daughter''s decision to follow Christ, his wife, Louise, became a believer as well. His wife, his daughter, and a host of other prayer warriors began interceding with God on Allan''s behalf. When Allan was forty-six years old, his life took several hairpin twists and troublesome turns. Because of a business deal gone terribly wrong, he was sued for breach of contract for breaking a noncompete clause with a former employer. Fearing exposure in court and, more important, in his small community, Allan teetered on the brink of a nervous breakdown. From man''s perspective, it appeared he was on the verge of losing it all. From God''s perspective, Allan was right where he needed to be. One day, in a surge of panic, Allan drove home from work, only to remember his wife was at a meeting in Pennsylvania.

He got back in his car and drove five hundred miles to try and find her. As he drove into the town where he expected to find his wife, he passed a church. Immediately, Allan made a U-turn, parked his car, and ran inside the ornate building. "Excuse me, ma''am," he said with tears in his eyes. "I need someone to pray for me. Is the preacher available? I need help." "I''m sorry, sir," the church receptionist said. "He''s not in, but I know a man who can help you.

Here," she said as she sketched out directions on a scrap of paper. "The pastor of the Baptist church down the street is out doing some construction work on their new church building. Why don''t you drive on over there? I bet he can help you." So Allan got back in his car, followed the receptionist''s crude map, and found the country preacher out in the woods working on his church. With a hammer in his hand and Jesus in his heart, the pastor turned to Allan and asked, "What can I do for you?" "I need you to pray for me," Allan explained as tears ran down his weathered cheeks. "Let''s sit down on this log while you tell me what''s going on." For several hours Allan sat with a fellow builder and told him all he had ever done. When he had finished his confession, the pastor put his arm around this broken man and said, "Now, Allan, let me tell you what I''ve done.

" The way Allan later explained it, "I told this man everything I had ever done. Then he told me he had done the very same things. And I knew if God could forgive him, and he could be a preacher, then God could forgive me too." Allan knelt in the woods of Pennsylvania with angels hovering low. Heaven''s host celebrated as he gave his heart to Christ and made Jesus the Lord of his life. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound." But for me, this is more than a sweet story. It is a miraculous memory.

Allan was my dad. From my earliest years as a Christian, I experienced the power of prayer to change a man''s life--to strengthen a man''s resolve, to protect a man''s heart, and to mature a man''s faith. My firsthand encounter with God''s faithfulness to hear our pleas began with my father and continues today as I witness it in the lives of my husband, my son, and a host of husbands whose wives call out to God in prayer. As a wife, you have the power to open the floodgates of heaven through prayer on your husband''s behalf. Whether your husband hasn''t yet decided to follow Christ, has a lukewarm fledgling faith, or lives a fiery firm faith, there is no one more qualified to pray for his relationship with Christ than you. No matter where your husband is on the continuum of faithlessness to faithfulness, I encourage you to pray with "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1, nasb). Before we jump into praying for our husbands, let''s take a look at your position as a prayer warrior, the power and purpose of intercession, and the promises of persistent prayer. We''ll begin by looking at the first married couple ever: Adam and Eve.

Then God Created an Ezer "In the beginning." Those three little words are pregnant with anticipation, and God does not disappoint. Genesis 1:1 tells us, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." God said, "Let there be," and there was. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6). God decorated the sky with the sun, moon, and stars, separated the seas from the land, scattered seed of every kind in the soil, and released flocks of birds into the sky, swarms of insects into the air, and schools of fish into the sea. On the sixth day, God created all the creeping animals. And He wrapped up His work with a masterful flourish.

"Then God said, ''Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.'' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:26-27). Then, as if the writer really wanted us to fully grasp what transpired during the first week of the earth''s existence, he picked up his pen and told the story again. In Genesis 2:4, he starts over: "This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created." This time when the writer got to the part about God creating man, he interjected God''s musing after He formed Adam and breathed the breath of life into his lungs. God sat back, considered the lone male, and decided, "It is not good for the man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). This is where you come in. "I will make a helper suitable for him," God declared.

So God set out to fashion His final masterpiece. The crowning touch of His creation. Woman. Up to this point in the creation account, we have no recorded words from Adam. However, when he laid eyes on the fair Eve, I imagine he said, "Now this is good!" His exact words were, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ''woman,'' for she was taken out of man" (Genesis 2:23). Woman--the inspiration of man''s first poetry and the grand finale of God''s creative genius. Let''s back up, replay the scene, and t.