Marriage

Dear Lord,

Please help us meet each other’s expectations in marriage. And when we fall short, we ask You to bring us close together and restore us from any disappointment. Please keep us from the hurt of unmet expectations. Please set us up to carefully talk through the things that matter to us so that we avoid arguing with or offending one another. Enable us to be good listeners. With our hearts turned toward each other, please help us to navigate our emotions and all that is tied to them...

 

Dear Lord,

Make us a couple who approaches every day with gratitude—simply happy to be alive. Our time is fleeting. Lord, help us make the most of today. Sometimes we allow busyness to consume us, forgetting that we can’t stop time or get it back. Help us to spend it in a way we won’t regret. Holy Spirit, show us how to use every moment of every day to fulfill Your purposes, to do good, and to love greatly.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

This prayer is adapted from The Marriage Gift: 365...

 

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This week we’re digging into week 26 of the Marriage After God devotional series. We all sin, and the first step toward restoration is not denial, but confession and pursuit of God’s mercy.

James 4:17 reminds us that the right thing to do is sometimes easy to know and hard to live out when we’re tempted. “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin.” Romans 14:23 adds that anything not...

 

Dear Lord,

We hope to be more like You with each new day. Remove our harshness and make us gentle. Turn our pride into humility. Shift our perspectives from critical to caring. Alter our words to reflect respect. Convert our irritation into joy and our discontent into gratitude. Lord, may any testing prove our hearts’ desire to please You and please each other. The world constantly tempts us to conform to patterns of thinking that don’t align with Your ways and do not please You. We...

 

Dear Lord,

We ask You to show us how we can make the most of today, specifically in loving one another. Keep us from being selfish when we make plans, inviting each other to share opinions of how we can best use our time today. Will You help us take into account both of our desires and to collaborate in deciding what we will do? Help us to resist disagreeing with one another. May we walk in the fruit of Your Spirit, with hearts full of joy. Throughout the day, will You inspire us to make...

 

Dear Lord,

Please help us support each other in what we decide to pursue. Will Your Holy Spirit lead us in discerning which goals are from You and which ones are not? We don’t want to waste our time pursuing things that are not Your will. Remove anything that distracts us from pursuing Your purpose for our marriage. When we communicate our hopes and dreams, may we support one another and not argue for our own way. Make our speech be sweet like honey so we can communicate our vision for the...

 

Dear Lord,

Thank You for the gift of sex. Thank You for the extraordinary way You designed two to become one flesh in marriage. Thank You for the extreme closeness we get to experience. We ask that our intimate experiences would become increasingly more enjoyable. Allow us to feel comfortable with each other, and make our hearts tender toward each other during sex. Give us the courage to go out of our way to make each other feel loved and cherished. May our sex affirm in our minds the...

 

Dear Lord,

When anxious thoughts rush over us, please compel us to trust in You. Holy Spirit, remind us that You are near. When doubt and insecurity bombard our minds, please hold us up and encourage us with Your truth. We ask You to deliver us from fear and to lay to rest the thoughts that weigh us down. Whatever the reasons for our anxiety, help us to find a solution to those circumstances. Lord, when dread grips us, aid us in exercising control over our emotions—may our negative emotions...

 

Dear Lord,

Thank You for giving us a reason to live—the hope of eternity. We are grateful to have something extraordinary to look forward to, with eternity on the horizon. Until then, may we live life to the fullest, secure in our hope in You. Lord, grant us incredible amounts of hope for our marriage. Let the desire for our marriage to thrive and the yearning to experience amazing closeness give us a vision for our future together. We trust You with our marriage, and we hope You lead us to...

 

Dear Lord,

As You shape our lives and our marriage, we ask You to show us how to invest in our marriage so that we can intentionally contribute to the shape of it as well. We know our actions significantly impact our relationship, and we desire our marriage to be all that You designed it to be. Lord, we ask You to reveal the motivations and intentions of our hearts and make them pure. Remove selfish ambition far from us. Take away any desire to prioritize the wrong things. Help us pour into...