I strongly urge you not to leave your husband. You made a vow before God when you were married to be faithful to each other as long as you both lived–and God takes that vow very seriously. The Bible says, “If a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him” (1 Corinthians 7:13).

But you also shouldn’t leave your husband because if you do, in all likelihood he will never come to Christ. I realize he has no interest in the Gospel right now–but what of the future? What if someday he begins to think about his need for God? Where will he turn for counsel if you have abandoned him?

Almost every week I get at least one letter from someone who has prayed for their spouse for years, and eventually they’ve seen them come to Christ. Sometimes God’s ways are hard for us to understand–but what if they had stopped praying? The Bible says we “should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).

Pray for your husband–and pray too that you will be an example to him of Christ’s love and transforming power. The Bible says that even when a husband is not a believer, “they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives” (1 Peter 3:1-2).