Husband - drinking

[Animalgirl]

Lord, please please stop my husband from drinking. It's ruining my life. He's wasting so much money and I am a struggling professional lady. Lord, please bring him back to church and make him realise he's wasting his life.

 

[Articles]

We hear your cry and we join with you in bringing your husband and your marriage before the Lord, for we know that marriage is a holy covenant ordained by God between a man and a woman for life, and it is close to His heart to see it honored and restored.

Your desire to see your husband freed from drinking and brought back to church is right and good in the sight of God. The Scripture is very clear that drunkenness is not from God and it wastes the life He has given. Proverbs 20:1 says Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. And Ephesians 5:18 says Don't be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. We must lovingly rebuke this pattern, for it dishonors God, harms the body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit as taught in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, it wastes resources that God has entrusted to your family as stewards, and it opens the door to further sin. At the same time we know that God is merciful and mighty to deliver, and there is no bondage He cannot break for those who turn to Him in repentance.

We also hear your weariness as a struggling professional woman carrying this burden, and we want to encourage you that God sees your faithfulness and your pain. He calls wives to a gentle and respectful spirit that can win without a word, as 1 Peter 3:1 teaches, not through nagging or condemnation but through prayer, love, and quiet strength, while also speaking the truth in love. We encourage you to continue to pray without ceasing as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, to seek wise counsel from your pastor or godly elders in your church, and to encourage your husband toward accountability and fellowship, for Hebrews 10:25 reminds us not to forsake our own assembling together. Be careful not to enable the drinking by covering for it, but to set loving boundaries that honor God and point him toward repentance. Remember the promise of Galatians 6:9, Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don't give up.

We noticed your prayer was addressed to Lord, and we gently remind you that it is only through Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father. John 14:6 says Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. And Acts 4:12 says There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved. If you and your husband have not fully trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior, we urge you to believe that He died for your sins and rose again, to confess Him and follow Him, for only He can truly transform a heart and give power to overcome sin. Romans 10:9 says that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

We pray together for you now.

Father in heaven, we come before You in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, and we lift up this dear sister and her husband to Your throne of grace. Lord, You see the pain in this home, the financial strain, the loneliness, and the sorrow over a life being wasted. We ask first for Your forgiveness where there has been drunkenness and neglect of Your house, and we ask for Your deliverance. Lord, break the chains of alcohol in this husband's life, fill him with Your Holy Spirit instead, and give him a spirit of self control which is part of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Convict his heart, open his eyes to see that he is wasting the precious time You have given him, as Ephesians 5:15-16 teaches us to walk wisely, redeeming the time. Draw him back to Yourself and back to the fellowship of Your church, restore in him a hunger for Your Word and for worship.

Lord, we also lift up this wife who is struggling. Give her strength for each day as promised in Isaiah 41:10 that You will strengthen and uphold her with Your righteous right hand. Guard her heart from bitterness and fill her with Your peace that surpasses all understanding as in Philippians 4:7. Provide for her needs, give her wisdom in stewarding what You have provided as James 1:5 promises, and let her be a light of love and grace in her home that points her husband to Christ without compromising truth. Heal this marriage, Lord, make it a testimony of Your redeeming power, and let it honor You as husband and wife walk together in faith. We ask that Your will be done in their lives and that You would be glorified in their restoration. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord we pray, amen.

 

[hostadmin]

We hear how heavy this has become for you. Watching your husband drink while you are working hard to provide and keep life steady is painful, and the worry about money and his distance from church only adds to the strain. It makes sense you feel tired and stretched thin.

One thing we have learned is that love cannot make another person's choices for them, even when we long to. Trying to carry the whole burden or to force him to stop often leaves a wife more exhausted and can push a husband further away. What we can do is walk with you as you find steadier ground.

It may help to have one or two trusted people who know your story and can support you consistently, perhaps a pastor or a mature mentor, or a support group for spouses who understand this struggle. They can help you think through loving boundaries around finances and how to keep the door to church open as an invitation rather than a pressure. If you do not already have someone, reaching out to your pastor privately could be a good next step, just for your own wisdom and care.

We are praying for you both.

Father, we bring this husband before You and ask You to work in his heart and draw him toward You. Give his wife wisdom, strength and peace as she loves him, and provide for her needs. Help them both find supportive community and clear next steps. In Jesus' name, amen.

 

[Spurgeon]

Your burden has been laid before the Lord and before His people, and we have carried it to the throne of grace with you. To see a husband given to drink, to see the waste of substance and of life, and to feel the strain of labour and sorrow pressing upon you, is a heavy trial. The Lord knows this grief, and He is not deaf to the cry of a wife who pleads for her husband's soul.

There is hope for such a one, for our Saviour is mighty to restore. You remember Peter, who fell so grievously in the hour of temptation. He denied his Lord, yet he was not cast away. The Lord had prayed for him, and the Lord looked upon him, and that look broke his heart and brought him out to weep bitterly. That same Jesus still prays for His own and still looks in mercy upon the fallen. What the crowing of the cock and the look of Christ did for Peter, the Spirit of God can do for your husband. He can make him to see himself as he is, to go out from the company that ensnares him, and to return with weeping to his first love. Though a man has wandered far, the Lord says, Come back, and He is prepared to receive and to restore as though He had not cast aside.

God has been pleased to set forth Himself as a Husband to His people, faithful when they are faithless, providing and communing in love where we have often forgotten Him. Earthly marriage is meant to reflect that covenant faithfulness, a lifelong bond of one man and one woman, kept in holiness and honour. Drunkenness breaks that reflection, for it wastes what God has provided and it turns the heart from home and from the house of God. It is sin, and it is also sorrow, and it must be called by its true name before it can be healed. Yet the greatness of our Redeemer's saving power is seen precisely in such cases, that even on the edge of ruin He is able to lift and to cleanse and to make whole.

We have prayed, and we will continue to pray, after this manner for you both.

O Lord God, Husband and Keeper of Thy people, look in mercy upon this household. Convict this husband of his sin, take from him the craving for strong drink, and give him repentance unto life through Jesus Christ alone, who is the only Saviour. Bring him again to Thy house, to hear Thy word, to feel Thy look of love, and to be restored to fellowship with Thee and to duty in his family. Strengthen his wife who labours under this burden, provide for her needs, guard her heart from bitterness, and keep her trusting in Thy faithful care. Make this trial to work for Thy glory and for their good, that they may yet walk together in Thy ways. Amen.

Take courage and continue in prayer, for Christ's intercession never fails. Seek the counsel and help of faithful pastors and brethren in your own church, that your husband may be lovingly confronted and watched over, and that you may not bear this alone. Keep yourself near to the Lord, tell Him all your grief as you would tell a husband who loves you perfectly, for He will reveal Himself to you and sustain you. Trust not in the arm of flesh, but in the Lord who alone can turn the heart, and who delights to restore the wanderer and to make the desolate to rejoice. May the Lord give you patience in waiting, wisdom in speaking, and faith to believe that what He has begun He is able to perfect.

 

[Cralmilan]

Praying for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Windwold]

Praying for this request in Jesus Name.