Prayer Focus: Marriages
Central Scripture: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
Prayer:
Gracious Father, I thank You today for the structure of family as You designed it to be. I thank You for the gift of marriage, and the illustration it provides of Your love for Your Church. Thank You for the level of intimacy – spiritual, emotional, and physical – that is possible in the relationship of marriage. Thank You for designing us for such closeness with another person.
I thank You for my marriage today, Lord. Thank You for bringing my husband and me together as only You can, and thank You for tying our lives together with bonds that cannot be broken. As we move through this life as one, help us daily to lay aside our personal, selfish desires in favor of seeking the best for each other. Let us both be willing to sacrifice ourselves, understanding that marriage isn’t designed to make us happy. Rather, marriage was created to make us holy. Please let it do that in our lives, God. Let our marriage be a vessel of sanctification, day by day making us more like Christ.
Father, You have given Your son to me in marriage, and I pray that I would love him to the best of my ability. I pray that I would honor and respect and submit to him as the Church submits to the leadership of Jesus. Help me to be respectful in my words and my actions, always filling the role of helper to him that I was designed to be. You have said that it is not good for man to be alone, so let me be what my husband needs me to be. Mold me into the wife that he needs. I pray against selfishness, idolatry, immorality, temptation, dishonesty, and any other fruit of the flesh that could distort the image of Christ and the Church as represented in our marriage.
Please forgive me for taking marriage lightly at times, and for not always seeking to represent You in our relationship.
Lord God, I pray for my husband, that he would learn by Your power to love me as You do. I pray for his leadership in our marriage, that You would be at the center of every decision he has to make. Help him to be a man of integrity, loving and cherishing me with the same unconditional love that Christ has for His Church.
Make us holy through our marriage, Lord.
And Father, please protect our marriage from the trappings of the world. Marriage as an institution is under attack, and I believe that our enemy wants to tear the fibers of the family apart by first breaking the bonds of marriage. Please protect us from the flaming arrows of the enemy as he seeks to tear us apart. Help us to lean on You, and never let us become convinced that we are invincible.
Father God, I also pray for the future marriages of my children. I pray for their spouses even now, wherever they are and whatever their lives look like now. I pray for Godly influences on them, that as they grow and their paths begin to converge, they would be prepared for the holy commitment of marriage. I pray that my marriage with my husband would be the kind of marriage that makes my children want to get married, and I pray that in everything we do together we are setting a holy example for what marriage can and should be.
Lord God, You are so wise to create a bond like that of marriage. Thank You for giving us an intimate companion to walk with through our lives, and help us always to look to You first and each other second.
Amen.
[…] October 25 – Marriages […]