Can God Change An Abusive Husband Through The Power Of Prayer?

Last updated on: September 2, 2015 at 3:23 pm by Jack Wellman

Can God Change An Abusive Husband Through The Power Of Prayer? 2015-09-02T15:23:56-05:00 Jack Wellman

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What if you’re in a situation where your husband is being abusive? Can God change this many through the power of prayer?

The Power of Prayer

There is power in prayer. In fact God states through Solomon that “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov 21:1) so if God can change the heart of a pagan king, surely He can change anyone’s heart. James writes that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16b). Sometimes “the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick” (James 5:15). We also know that “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1st Pet 3:12). This proves that if there is unconfessed sin in a person’s life then God may not answer their prayer. This is obviously so because Peter tells “husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1st Pet 3:7) and we could say the same about the wife. There is real God-power in our prayers as “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth” (James 5:17) so yes, it is possible that God can change an abusive husband’s heart through the power of prayer but we must ask, what is God’s will in this?

Law Breakers

There is no excuse at all for a husband physically abusing his wife; none whatsoever. It is a criminal offense and all criminals that abuse their wives should be locked up. This is what the Bible teaches (Rom 13). Even emotion and verbal abuse God will not excuse. Abusive husbands, like the rest of us, will have to face God someday to give an account for every single deed and word (Matt 12:36; Rom 14:12). God will not hold those guiltless who physically abuse their wives. They should be reported to police and the wife must separate herself from this environment. The husband that does such a thing should go to jail. There are no exceptions at all and no excuse for a husband abusing his wife.

The Will of God

No one but God knows His secret will. Jesus prayed at least twice in the Garden of Gethsemane to have the cup pass from Him at Calvary but God’s will was that Jesus suffer and die (Isaiah 53) so that we wouldn’t have to in hell, so sometimes God will answer the prayer and sometimes He will answer it in a different way than we might expect. We know that God’s will for an abusive husband is clearly that he should be going to jail and pay a fine and serve time (Rom 13). The Bible is absolutely clear that violence is contrary to the way a Christian should live. We are commanded to “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all” (Rom 12:17) so “never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom 12:19) and “To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head” (Rom 12:20).

Change through Prayer

God can change a person’s heart (Prov 21:1) but will He? I cannot say with precision whether God will change an abusive husband’s heart or not but He did take a Saul and turn him into a Paul. King David committed adultery and murder but God still called him “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) because he repented (Psalm 51). This does not guarantee that God will change an abusive husbands heart but God will judge such a man and if a man claims to be a believer, he is truly deceived (1st John 3) and in the end, Paul asks the question, “how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband” (1st Cor 7:16) meaning that it’s at least possible so why not pray for it?

Conclusion

No one knows the secret counsel of God (Job 15:8; Rom 11:34). God can and has changed an abusive husband’s heart before and He can do it again. In my prison ministry, God has often changed men’s hearts behind prison walls however God first had to humble them before He could extend His grace (James 4:6) and God cannot fix what is first not broken so there is always hope that God will change an abusive husband’s heart through the power of his wife’s prayers.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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