pretty

[Niemarway]

bored on this marriage retreat I am currently on I really don’t have friends at my church like I thought I did still gotta make it til Sunday i’m sure my wife and I are going to suck at the games Im ready to go please pray for me in my Pastor hasn’t been through a lot compared to most and it makes it hard for him to understand peoples failures please pray for me in Jesus name

 

[Articles]

We hear your honesty and we lift you and your wife up together before the Lord in Jesus' name. We understand that feeling bored and disconnected while on a marriage retreat can be discouraging, especially when you expected deeper fellowship and find yourself counting the hours until Sunday. We also hear your concern for your pastor, and we want to pray with you about all of this.

We want to encourage you to see this retreat as a gift from God for your marriage, even if it does not feel exciting in the moment. God can use even the quiet or awkward moments to strengthen the bond between a husband and wife. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and does not have another to lift him up, Eccl 4:9-10. This weekend is not primarily about winning games or impressing others, it is about drawing closer to your wife and to the Lord. We encourage you to lean into that purpose, to laugh together even if you do not do well at the games, and to let love cover all things, as we are taught to put on love, which is the bond of perfection, Col 3:14.

We also understand the loneliness of feeling like you do not have true friends at your church. That ache is real, and God sees it. We are called to not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, Heb 10:25, and to encourage one another and build each other up, 1 Thess 5:11. Sometimes fellowship grows slowly, and retreats like this can actually be the soil where a new friendship begins if we remain open and humble. We encourage you to ask God to help you show interest in one other couple this weekend, to bear with one another in love and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, Eph 4:2-3, rather than withdrawing. Even a small act of kindness or conversation could be the beginning of the friendship you long for.

Regarding your pastor, we appreciate your honesty and we want to gently encourage you to guard your heart against a critical spirit. God calls us to obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, Heb 13:17. Even if he has not experienced the same hardships as others, God has placed him to shepherd you, and He can give him wisdom and compassion beyond his own experience. We are all called to clothe ourselves with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, 1 Pet 5:5. Instead of focusing on what he may lack in understanding, we can pray that God deepens his empathy and uses his teaching to strengthen marriages, including yours.

We also commend your desire to learn contentment right where you are. We have learned in whatever state we are, to be content in it, Phil 4:11. Joy does not have to come from entertainment, but from knowing Christ is with you and your wife.

We pray together now for you.

Father, in Jesus' name we lift up this husband and his wife on this marriage retreat. We thank You for their marriage covenant and for their willingness to invest time to honor You in it. Lord, fill any boredom with Your peace and purpose, help them to find joy in each other and in Your presence, and turn the games and activities into moments of laughter and unity. Comfort our brother in his loneliness and help him to feel Your nearness and to see opportunities for genuine fellowship at his church. Give him grace and patience to endure until Sunday with a thankful heart. We also lift up his pastor, ask that You grant him wisdom, compassion, and understanding to shepherd Your people well, and help this brother to honor and pray for his pastor with love. Draw this couple closer together and closer to You this weekend, and bring them home refreshed and more united. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

 

[hostadmin]

We're glad you were honest about how this weekend feels. Being stuck at a marriage retreat feeling bored and a little out of place is a lonely combination, especially when you hoped church would feel more like friendship and it hasn't, and you still have until Sunday to get through.

It makes sense you'd feel ready to go, and that the games and group parts feel like pressure instead of fun. You don't have to be good at them to get something from the weekend. Most couples feel awkward at those moments too.

We hear what you shared about your pastor as well. It can be hard to feel understood when someone hasn't walked through the same kinds of failures. That doesn't mean he doesn't care, but we understand why that distance feels discouraging right now.

If it helps, a couple small things might make the time a little lighter. Lean into your wife as your teammate this weekend rather than worrying how you both come across to others, even just checking in honestly tonight about how you're each doing. And if there's one person nearby who seems approachable, a brief, low pressure conversation can help more than trying to connect with everyone.

You showed up, and that matters for your marriage even when it doesn't feel enjoyable.

Father, we lift up our brother to You tonight. You see his loneliness and weariness on this retreat. Give him and his wife moments of nearness and even a little lightness together, help him feel Your presence with him, and bring him home encouraged. Give wisdom and grace in his relationship with his church as well. In Jesus' name, amen.

 

[halleluiah33]

I prayed for this request in Jesus Name.

 

[wingsonprayers]

Praying in the precious name of Jesus. Amen

 

[Spurgeon]

Your honest prayer has been heard and taken before the throne of grace, and I will pray for you, for your wife, and for your pastor in the name of Jesus Christ our only Savior.

You speak of loneliness in the midst of many people, of feeling friendless in your own church, and of weariness as you look toward Sunday. This is a sorrow the Lord Jesus knows well. He was left alone just when most, as Man, He needed human sympathy, and His disciples forsook Him and fled. Yet even then He could say, I am not alone, because the Father is with me. If you are His by faith in His blood alone, you are never truly friendless. There is a Friend who proved His friendship by laying down His life for His friends, and that friendship is reciprocal and abiding when all other fellowship seems thin. Luther could stand alone and nail up his theses because the Father was with him, and you may find in this retreat that the Lord draws you to lean more fully upon that same presence.

Do not think your feeling is strange. Many of the Lord's people have sat in the congregation and still felt unknown. The church is meant to be a blessing and to be blessed, like showers upon the hill, and she is a mother who nurtures her children, yet she is made up of imperfect people who often do not see one another's hearts as Christ does. Pray that the Lord will make you a blessing even in your loneliness, and that He will open a door for truer fellowship in due time. A joyful church and a steadfast church is not made in a moment, but by patient love and by continuing in the apostles doctrine and fellowship.

For your marriage, give thanks. Marriage is the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, ordained of God, and a retreat set apart for its strengthening is a mercy. Whether you and your wife excel at games or not is a small thing. Seek rather to eat your meat with gladness together, to pray together, and to be knit more closely to one another and to Christ before you return home. Let this time be used to serve her and to be served by her, and to show those around you the quiet grace of a Christian home.

For your pastor, I will pray that the Lord will give him a shepherd's heart and a deeper measure of sympathy for the failures and trials of his people. It is true that no minister can understand every sorrow by experience, but Christ can, and He can teach His servants compassion. Pray for him as you would be prayed for, and grant him the same grace you desire for yourself. God often uses our very disappointments with one another to make us more gentle and more dependent upon Him.

May the Lord keep you and your wife till Sunday and bring you home refreshed, not by outward entertainment, but by inward communion with Christ. May He turn this weariness into a season of quiet growth, and may He make your church more dear to you as you learn to love as you have been loved.

Heavenly Father, look upon this brother and his wife. Draw near to them in their loneliness and let them know the presence of Christ who was left alone that they might never be forsaken. Save them and keep them by faith in Jesus alone, bless their marriage and make it steadfast in Thy covenant, give them grace to love Thy people and to forgive as they have been forgiven, and give their pastor wisdom and tenderness to feed the flock. Comfort them, sustain them, and bring them home in peace, for Jesus sake. Amen.

 

[usha rani]

Praying for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[The Encourager]

May God in Jesus' name answer your prayer request according to God's perfect love, wisdom, will, timing, grace, and mercy. God is so in love with you. Be Encouraged!

Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Matthew 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, the way You want me to know You. So that I will trust You with my life and anyway that You move in my life. Bless me to trust You with all my heart, lean not to my own understanding, acknowledge You in all my ways, and allow You to direct my footsteps and actions. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do.

God heal me in every area of my life. Deliver and cleanse me of everything in my life that doesn't honor You. Transform and renew my mind. Bless me with love, power, and a sound mind. Let the mind that is in Christ Jesus be in me. Bless me to have and operate with a God-conscious-solution-focused-heart-mind-spirit-and-attitude. Bless me to have a God Kingdom Culture Mentality. God be with me as a mighty warrior. Let no weapon formed against me prosper. Protect me from all the plans of my enemies and the plans of the enemy of my soul. God, all that I have asked of You, in this prayer, please do the same for the writer of the prayer, all those who love and care about me, and all those I love and care about. God, please forever honor this prayer over each of our lives. God Thank You. Amen, so be it by faith, and by faith, it is so. Prayer written by The Encourager-Prayer Warrior-Board Certified Professional Christian Life Coach. www.theencourager.net

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