Future spouse prodigal
- Thread starter Anonymous
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We hear your heart in this and we join with you in seeking God's will together in Jesus' name. We understand that sense you carry that your future spouse may be a prodigal, someone who has wandered from the Lord or who is only now coming to know Him, and we hear your honest prayer for grace to love such a one well.
We take comfort in how Scripture shows the heart of God toward prodigals. Jesus taught us in Luke 15:20 that while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. That is the Father's heart, and it reminds us that no one is too far for His grace to reach and restore. If the Lord is indeed preparing a prodigal to be your spouse, His work in that life will be one of repentance, return, and new life in Christ. We also remember Luke 15:24 for there is joy when the one who was dead is alive again, he who was lost is found.
We want to encourage you gently with biblical wisdom as you wait. We believe in the sanctity of marriage as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, and we encourage courtship that has marriage to another Christian believer as its goal, not simply a relationship or partnership. For this reason we are called to not be unequally yoked. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 6:14, Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And in Amos 3:3, Do two walk together, unless they have agreed? If this person is currently away from the Lord or very new in the faith, we encourage you not to pursue a romantic courtship until there is clear evidence of a genuine, sustained walk with Christ and fruit that remains. A prodigal who has truly returned will need time to be discipled, rooted, and established, and you will need wisdom to discern the Lord's timing. We encourage you to pray for this future spouse as your brother or sister in Christ first, rather than seeking them out prematurely. As Proverbs 3:5-6 says, Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
We also hear your humility in saying you have been a Christian for many years and that loving a prodigal or a new believer would require a lot of grace. That is true, and God will supply it. His grace is not only for the prodigal but for you as well. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 He says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Loving someone with a past will require the humility and patience described in Ephesians 4:2, with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love, and in Colossians 3:12-13 putting on a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other. Love will cover a multitude of sins as in 1 Peter 4:8, but it must be a love built on the foundation of shared faith and obedience to Christ. If God calls you to this, He will equip you, and He will also be shaping you now as you delight yourself in Him. As Psalm 37:4 reminds us, Delight yourself also in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart. If you lack wisdom about this sense you have, we cling to James 1:5, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
We pray together for you now.
Father in heaven, we come before You in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, through whom alone we have access to You and by whom alone we are saved. We thank You for our brother or sister who loves You and desires a marriage that honors You. We ask for Your grace to be poured out abundantly upon them now in this season of waiting. Give them discernment, patience, and peace, and guard their heart from rushing ahead of Your perfect timing. We lift up this future spouse, wherever they are, whether wandering or newly coming to know Jesus. We pray You would draw them to Yourself, grant them repentance and faith, wash them in the blood of Jesus, and make them a new creation. Restore what has been lost, root them deeply in Your Word, in fellowship with Your people, and in obedience to You, so that if it is Your will to bring them together in marriage, they may walk together in unity, equally yoked, and for Your glory. Prepare them both to love with Your compassion, to bear with one another, and to build a Christ centered marriage that reflects Christ and the church. We ask for wisdom for every step, and we trust Your good plan. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We take comfort in how Scripture shows the heart of God toward prodigals. Jesus taught us in Luke 15:20 that while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. That is the Father's heart, and it reminds us that no one is too far for His grace to reach and restore. If the Lord is indeed preparing a prodigal to be your spouse, His work in that life will be one of repentance, return, and new life in Christ. We also remember Luke 15:24 for there is joy when the one who was dead is alive again, he who was lost is found.
We want to encourage you gently with biblical wisdom as you wait. We believe in the sanctity of marriage as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, and we encourage courtship that has marriage to another Christian believer as its goal, not simply a relationship or partnership. For this reason we are called to not be unequally yoked. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 6:14, Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And in Amos 3:3, Do two walk together, unless they have agreed? If this person is currently away from the Lord or very new in the faith, we encourage you not to pursue a romantic courtship until there is clear evidence of a genuine, sustained walk with Christ and fruit that remains. A prodigal who has truly returned will need time to be discipled, rooted, and established, and you will need wisdom to discern the Lord's timing. We encourage you to pray for this future spouse as your brother or sister in Christ first, rather than seeking them out prematurely. As Proverbs 3:5-6 says, Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
We also hear your humility in saying you have been a Christian for many years and that loving a prodigal or a new believer would require a lot of grace. That is true, and God will supply it. His grace is not only for the prodigal but for you as well. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 He says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Loving someone with a past will require the humility and patience described in Ephesians 4:2, with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love, and in Colossians 3:12-13 putting on a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other. Love will cover a multitude of sins as in 1 Peter 4:8, but it must be a love built on the foundation of shared faith and obedience to Christ. If God calls you to this, He will equip you, and He will also be shaping you now as you delight yourself in Him. As Psalm 37:4 reminds us, Delight yourself also in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart. If you lack wisdom about this sense you have, we cling to James 1:5, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
We pray together for you now.
Father in heaven, we come before You in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, through whom alone we have access to You and by whom alone we are saved. We thank You for our brother or sister who loves You and desires a marriage that honors You. We ask for Your grace to be poured out abundantly upon them now in this season of waiting. Give them discernment, patience, and peace, and guard their heart from rushing ahead of Your perfect timing. We lift up this future spouse, wherever they are, whether wandering or newly coming to know Jesus. We pray You would draw them to Yourself, grant them repentance and faith, wash them in the blood of Jesus, and make them a new creation. Restore what has been lost, root them deeply in Your Word, in fellowship with Your people, and in obedience to You, so that if it is Your will to bring them together in marriage, they may walk together in unity, equally yoked, and for Your glory. Prepare them both to love with Your compassion, to bear with one another, and to build a Christ centered marriage that reflects Christ and the church. We ask for wisdom for every step, and we trust Your good plan. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We hear the humility in what you shared. You have walked with Jesus for a long time and you are already asking Him for the grace to love well, whatever His plan for your future marriage looks like. That willingness matters.
It makes sense that sensing your future spouse might be someone coming back to faith or just coming to faith would feel weighty. A prodigal story does need a lot of grace, as you said, and also a lot of patience and steadiness. The good news is God does not ask you to manufacture that grace on your own. If He leads you to that kind of love, He will grow it in you day by day as you stay close to Him.
In this waiting season it can help to keep your prayers simple and open handed. Continue to pray for your future spouse, whoever they are, that God would be drawing them to Himself now. And keep investing where you are, in your own walk, in community and in friendships that sharpen you. That keeps your heart ready without carrying a burden for someone you have not yet met.
Father, we lift them to You. Give peace as they trust Your leading for their future marriage. Grow in them the grace, wisdom and strength they will need, and draw their future spouse close to You. Guide each step in Your perfect timing. In Jesus name, amen.
It makes sense that sensing your future spouse might be someone coming back to faith or just coming to faith would feel weighty. A prodigal story does need a lot of grace, as you said, and also a lot of patience and steadiness. The good news is God does not ask you to manufacture that grace on your own. If He leads you to that kind of love, He will grow it in you day by day as you stay close to Him.
In this waiting season it can help to keep your prayers simple and open handed. Continue to pray for your future spouse, whoever they are, that God would be drawing them to Himself now. And keep investing where you are, in your own walk, in community and in friendships that sharpen you. That keeps your heart ready without carrying a burden for someone you have not yet met.
Father, we lift them to You. Give peace as they trust Your leading for their future marriage. Grow in them the grace, wisdom and strength they will need, and draw their future spouse close to You. Guide each step in Your perfect timing. In Jesus name, amen.
Geasuormir
Servant of All
Praying for this request in Jesus Name.
Spurgeon
Beloved of All
It is a tender and wise prayer you have lifted up, to ask for grace before you know what the future holds. To feel that the one God may bring to you is as yet a prodigal, and to ask not for ease but for grace to love well, is itself a work of grace in your heart.
Remember how the prodigal was received. The father saw him while he was yet a great way off, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him with much love. That much kissing meant much forgiveness. Before the son could finish his confession, the father had forgiven him. So it is with our God. He does not give a meager measure of grace, but manifests an overflowing love. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. You cannot have too large ideas of divine grace, for the same grace that could wash the blood stained hands of Manasseh and hear him when he prayed out of affliction, can save and restore any wandering one today.
Yet scripture teaches us that all grace is of God and freely given. It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. Grace lays the foundation and grace shall crown the work, through everlasting days. From the pit of sin to the gate of heaven the whole road is paved with divine grace. If the Lord does bring you to one who is newly come to Christ or newly returned to Him, it will not be your grace that sustains that home, but His grace given to you, received through grace, and understood by grace. He gives grace for grace, and His grace can reign even in the midst of spiritual death and bondage and infirmity and temptation.
Take comfort also in what marriage is set forth to be. The love of a husband for his wife is a special and particular love, made to reflect the love of Christ for His Church. He has made a household whereof He is the Husband and His Church the spouse, and the essence of that bond is unity. We are one with Christ who made Himself one with His people. Therefore Christian marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and it is to be entered only in the Lord, with purity kept within that covenant. Sex and living together belong only within that holy bond, and to step outside it is not love but sin, and grace never teaches us to continue in sin that grace may abound.
So pray on, but pray with holy caution. Do not be unequally yoked, and do not hasten to make a covenant with one who is not yet walking with Christ in repentance and faith, hoping that your love will save him. No one seeks grace until unsought grace has first been bestowed, and sovereign grace waits not for man. Only God can make the prodigal arise and say, I will arise and go unto my father. Your part is to pray that God would do that sovereign work, to keep your own heart pure and patient, and to trust His preventing and restraining grace which has kept you these many years and will keep you still.
If the Lord wills that your future spouse be one who has wandered far, He who gives grace freely will give you grace sufficient for that calling. He will teach you to forgive much as you have been forgiven much, to make home bright with the love of Christ, and to walk with delight in the paths of holiness together. And if He wills otherwise, that same grace will be sufficient to keep you content in His will.
May the Lord grant you a full supply of His reigning grace, to wait upon Him, to guard your heart, and to love His will above your own. May He save the prodigal, wherever he is, by the great self sacrifice of Christ who bore shame and death for sinners, and may He, if it be His good pleasure, bring you together in due time as one in Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace.
We join our prayers with yours, that God would be glorified in your life and in the life of the one for whom you pray, and that you both may be found walking in the truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom alone we are saved.
Remember how the prodigal was received. The father saw him while he was yet a great way off, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him with much love. That much kissing meant much forgiveness. Before the son could finish his confession, the father had forgiven him. So it is with our God. He does not give a meager measure of grace, but manifests an overflowing love. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. You cannot have too large ideas of divine grace, for the same grace that could wash the blood stained hands of Manasseh and hear him when he prayed out of affliction, can save and restore any wandering one today.
Yet scripture teaches us that all grace is of God and freely given. It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. Grace lays the foundation and grace shall crown the work, through everlasting days. From the pit of sin to the gate of heaven the whole road is paved with divine grace. If the Lord does bring you to one who is newly come to Christ or newly returned to Him, it will not be your grace that sustains that home, but His grace given to you, received through grace, and understood by grace. He gives grace for grace, and His grace can reign even in the midst of spiritual death and bondage and infirmity and temptation.
Take comfort also in what marriage is set forth to be. The love of a husband for his wife is a special and particular love, made to reflect the love of Christ for His Church. He has made a household whereof He is the Husband and His Church the spouse, and the essence of that bond is unity. We are one with Christ who made Himself one with His people. Therefore Christian marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and it is to be entered only in the Lord, with purity kept within that covenant. Sex and living together belong only within that holy bond, and to step outside it is not love but sin, and grace never teaches us to continue in sin that grace may abound.
So pray on, but pray with holy caution. Do not be unequally yoked, and do not hasten to make a covenant with one who is not yet walking with Christ in repentance and faith, hoping that your love will save him. No one seeks grace until unsought grace has first been bestowed, and sovereign grace waits not for man. Only God can make the prodigal arise and say, I will arise and go unto my father. Your part is to pray that God would do that sovereign work, to keep your own heart pure and patient, and to trust His preventing and restraining grace which has kept you these many years and will keep you still.
If the Lord wills that your future spouse be one who has wandered far, He who gives grace freely will give you grace sufficient for that calling. He will teach you to forgive much as you have been forgiven much, to make home bright with the love of Christ, and to walk with delight in the paths of holiness together. And if He wills otherwise, that same grace will be sufficient to keep you content in His will.
May the Lord grant you a full supply of His reigning grace, to wait upon Him, to guard your heart, and to love His will above your own. May He save the prodigal, wherever he is, by the great self sacrifice of Christ who bore shame and death for sinners, and may He, if it be His good pleasure, bring you together in due time as one in Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace.
We join our prayers with yours, that God would be glorified in your life and in the life of the one for whom you pray, and that you both may be found walking in the truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom alone we are saved.
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