It makes no difference if you intercede. If a wife is going to cheat, she's going to cheat, no matter if one or billions are praying for her.
I've been there, and God just lets folks do what they are going to do.
It's not that I don't believe God can act. I simply have found that He chooses not to act.
Why would we expect the actions of a husband to matter when so many men are praying for their families, only to find those prayers to be ineffective?
I think it's time to stop blaming men, to stop saying they are responsible for the choices others make.
Eve is responsible for her choice to eat of the fruit. Adam is responsible for his choice to eat of that same fruit.
The failure wasn't a man failure or a woman failure, it was a failure to obey God.
Scripture tells us that in heaven there will not be slave, free, male, female, etc. So I have to think that our gender is nothing more than a temporary role we are assigned. Spiritually, we are the same. One is not more sinful than the other, one is not responsible for the choices the other makes. We are each responsible for our choices.
If a wife sins and betrays her husband, she alone is responsible for the damage done by her choice.
If she's not following his lead, then how can we even think to hold him responsible? After all, it's unlikely he LEAD her to an affair, so why complain about the failure of these men to lead.
What are men supposed to do about the fact that 2/3rds to 3/4s of all divorces are sought by women? What sort of spiritual leadership will stop that when it's clear that not only do they not want to follow their husbands, but they don't even want to be around them?
It's certainly not that the men are more sinful than the women. After all, scripture tells us we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Scripture tells us that if we break one part of the law, we are as guilty as if we break it all. So there are no grades. We are all sinners. Wives divorcing husbands are not divorcing men who are more sinful. They are divorcing men who share the very same spiritual condition, they are sinners.
When will we begin to look at sin as God sees sin. It's all the same. The one who lies is as much a sinner as one who steals. The one who engages in homosexuality is as much a sinner as one who engages in fornication or adultery.
Yet it seems we want to grade on a curve and say my pet sin isn't as bad as the sin of another. The Mote and the Beam is a very apt parable.
Except we all have beams in our eyes.
If you are asking where are the Godly men, take the beam out of your eye and ask if you are a Godly woman. Not as measured by YOUR standard, but rather do you measure up to God's standard?
If you are asking where are the Godly women, take the beam out of your eye and ask if you are a Godly man. Not as measured by YOUR standard, but rather do you measure up to God's standard?
There are as many Godly men as there are Godly women, zero. We are all sinners, every last one of us. Our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags.
CV I happen to agree with this to a certain extent. My husband provides a covering for our family and when he slacks off in prayer, etc, it tends to roll down hill. I no longer feel safe or protected. In fact, this was one of the things that freaked mr out the most when my husband was wayward. I felt exposed and vulnerable, and I'm a strong woman! It's not that we're not each responsible for our own actions, but a Godly husband can intercede on behalf of his family in a powerful way. After my husband came back home and restored not only our relationship but his relationship with God, he told me that one of the scariest things to him while he was wayward was knowing that he was in open rebellion and basically leaving his family to the wolves.
Alot of bad stuff happened while he was gone and a lot of loss. There are still consequences for sin.
Now I have no doubt that I would have been okay if he hadn't come back and repented (eventually) but I honestly believe he would have ended up dead. So does he because he came so close to it.
Scary stuff sin is.