“Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, it is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails….” 1Cor 13:4-8
There is no better armor for a woman seeking to intercede for her spouse, than the Lord’s love — His clothing, His armor, His enduement of power — clothing us in light.
Like a negligée it is transparent, see through even and yet it is effective! The French word Negligee implies “neglected” as in the attire is less substantial than day attire as it is transparent and alluring…winsome even.
Like the negligee is worn by the spouse but her intent is to draw her husband…we draw our spouses before the Lord in prayer.
So the negligee armor is worn in prayer as the wife prays for her husband … in and with love for transformation!
The impact is to bring to bear change within the relational context, by being willing to be changed first herself by love.
I am asking the Lord to bring forth His plan for and upon my spouse, by being myself conformed to the Lord’s love, and by operating through His love.
It is at its heart, a reaffirmation of Gen 2:18 where God’s design for the woman was to become a help meet (suitable, adapted, complimentary) for him. While I may lack these attributes in a natural realm, I believe in faith that God provides a bridgework for me to achieve these attributes in prayer … in love. And then to become the reality of this prayer walk in love, in truth.
It is time that wives no longer chafe against the notion of being a help meet to our husbands, but to actually see it in the fullness of what God has provided for…
Let me unfold this a bit….
When I am willing to be changed and conformed by the word of God myself – specifically love, then I can become a change agent, a catalyst for the Lord’s plans to come forward. Like running a process in the presence of a catalyst changes things, so praying for my spouse where I endure long, am patient and kind, am not envious… etc… I am in fact the catalyst of the Lord’s love!
The prayer is for my conformance to love, that all the Lord desires for my husband: possibility, vision, plans, dreams etc. will have the appropriate support and nurturance to come forward.
There is a call on all of our lives, to become what the Lord is making us (Heb 13:21).
In many respects, me becoming the help meet that He has fashioned me to become … in love, answers and allows for and ushers in the deepest calling not only of my heart, but the very heart of my spouse as well.
This is the negligee armor. A prayer of love that seems insufficient, gossamer in strength, but is actually mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds.
In its essence, it is a prayer of faith so trusting in God’s plan and protection that it says, I am willing Lord to be the vessel of your love, to manifest You in my marriage in thought, word, deed, attitude, intention and heart, that it is Your life and love that come forward and make all things possible.
There is nothing that the Lord can use more than a heart that is completely willing and trusting!
The return is not something that I have leveraged, or even managed to conceive myself. It is instead saying, Lord I am willing to become Your petri dish of nurturing love, that within that milieu Your perfect will calls forth things that are not as if they already exist (Rom 4:17).
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