A man's prayers feel blocked until God reminds him he was harsh to his wife, Jess, during an argument. He apologizes, and she reveals she'd already prayed about it. The story illustrates how disrespecting your spouse can obstruct your connection with God.
I'll never forget when Jessa and I were first married, we got into an argument. And in terms of what I thought about the argument, I thought it was just a standard disagreement where I expressed what I wanted, she expressed what she wanted, we disagreed and talked it out, and that was it, at least in my mind. But when I went to pray, I realized that there was this hindrance to my prayer. There was a flow missing. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. And I asked the Lord, Lord, what's going on here? And the Lord reminded me, do you remember that argument you had with your wife? I said, yes, Lord, I thought that was resolved. He said, well, when you stated your case, The words you used were too harsh, too straightforward. It wasn't honoring. You hurt your wife's feelings. Go and apologize to her. So I got up from the prayer room, walked over to where Jess was, and I said, Jess, remember the argument? She says, yes. I said, well, I want to apologize to you because I was too harsh with you. And she begins to laugh. I said, well, what's so funny? She says, well, I was going to tell you about that. I didn't want to nag you or get on your case or make you feel guilty. She said, so what I did is I talked to God. And apparently he talked to you. The scripture tells us that if you're not honoring to your wife, that your prayers can be hindered.
