I woke up early this morning praying and decided to write a challenge for husbands to pray over their wives more intentionally this year. So here you go, men! You’ll never love your wife more than when you pray for her. Humbling yourself before an all-powerful God and asking Him to do what only He can in her life - that’s a level of intimacy beyond anything the world has to offer. Praying for her makes you realize how much of a treasure she is, the woman God gave you. You’re pouring yourself into her complete physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. [tweetthis twitter_handles="@tatlock, @wayfmradio"]You’ll never love your wife more than when you pray for her. [/tweetthis] Here's how you can pray: "Thank you, Father, for the gift of my wife. You are the giver of all good and perfect blessings, and I’m amazed how You show Your love through her. Please help me to cherish such an amazing gift. (James 1:17)

1. Increase Her Faith

Give her a rock-solid confidence that your incomparable power is always wielded for her absolute good in Christ. (Romans 8:28–30)

2. Increase Her Passion

Arouse in her a hunger and thirst for you Lord. Give her an appetite for the Word and a rekindling of her affections upon you. Give her a fresh and renewed desire to seek you and serve you with all that she is. (Matthew 5:6)

3. Empower Her With Boldness and Courage

Intensify her faith to step out of her comfort and into your supernatural working. Give her the tenacity to do what you are asking of her. Help her to fight against the devil, against terrors and troubles, temptations, attractions, darkness and false lights, against tears, depression, and above all fear. (2 Timothy 1:7)

4. Intensify Her Joy

May she know that the joy of the Lord is the source of her strength. Protect her from growing discouraged of doing what You’ve called her to do each day. (Nehemiah 8:10, Galatians 6:9)

5. Fill Her With Your Spirit

How thankful I am for the seal of the Holy Spirit on her life and Your deposit in her heart that testifies that she is truly yours. But today I come asking for more. Fill her afresh with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I ask that she would be lead by the Holy Spirit into deeper waters. Pour out your Holy Spirit on her with a fresh anointing to live-out her calling. Increase the fruit of your Spirit! (Ephesians 5:18)

6. Allow Her to Hear You More

Amplify your Word in her heart. Send her visions and dreams. Silence the overwhelming distractions and static of the world. Let the chaos be canceled by your still loving voice. Fill her mind with prophetic words for other and deeper insights into your Scriptures. (John 10:27, 28)

7. Bless Her Friendships

Surround her with friends who love you and will bear her burdens. Give her reason to feel refreshed by their encouragement. (Isaiah 40:31, Galatians 6:2, Philemon 1:7)

8. Soften Her Heart

Rescue her from cynicism and make her tender to your presence in the most complicated details of tasks and a multitude of other needs you’ve called her to meet. (Hebrews 1:3)

9. Give Her Wisdom

Help her see dimensions of reality that she would normally overlook. Grant her the ability to discern issues and decisions she faces. (James 1:5)

10. Sustain Her Health

You are the source of health and healing. Guard her from sickness and drive away from her all forms of pain and disease. Restore strength to her body and joy to her spirit, so that in her renewed health, she may bless and serve you. When she feels tired, Lord, renew her strength. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

11. Multiply Her influence

Encourage and deepen the impact she has on our friends, community, church and children. Give her sweet glimpses of it. Pour her out in love for others and spark creative ways to engage them for Jesus’s sake. (John 12:24)

12. Overcome Her With Jesus

That she is united to him, that she is a new creature in him, that she is your daughter in him — no longer in Adam and dead in sin; now in Christ and alive to you, forever. (Romans 6:11)

13. Affirm Her Beauty

Give her the eyes to see herself the way you see her. As a father looks at his precious daughter and delights in all that she is. (Psalm 139:14)

14. Guard Her Identity

Holy Spirit, make known to her the reality of who her Father is, and who she is in Him. Lord, thank you that she is precious, pursued, honored, dearly loved, wanted and cherished by you. I declare that she is a child of the light. Remind her that she is your daughter and she is of royalty and nothing and no one can prove differently. (Galatians 4:4-7)

15. Protect Her from Comparison

Protect her from coveting possessions or people, talent or influence, relationships or prestige. Keep her heart from being anxious for what she doesn't have and make her thankful for the numerous gifts that you have already given. Fill her with the joy and satisfaction of contentment in Christ. Help her to be content in any situation and to quickly reject the idolatry that dwells beneath the surface of her coveting. (Philippians 4:12)

16. Shower Her with Peace and Hope

You are the source of calm and the central peace of this universe, grant to her such a consciousness of your indwelling and surrounding presence that she may rest in your sanctuary. Increase her optimism that nothing is impossible with you. (Philippians 4:7)

17. Renew Her Mind

Please send forth your Holy Spirit to renew her mind and cleanse her thoughts. Let your Word saturate her thinking and transform the way she perceives life. (Romans 12:2) Wives, click here for 17 ways to pray for your husband! [ts_fab authorid="193" tabs="bio,twitter,latest_posts"]