We join you in lifting this relationship before the Father and we thank you for wanting every step to align completely with His divine plan, for that is the only foundation that will stand.
We are encouraged by your desire to surrender your hearts and future into His hands and to trust that He makes all things beautiful in His time as Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us, and we pray with you for clarity, wisdom, and a love that honors Him above all else. We hear your heart for this man, for your sons, and for a future home together in the United States, and we bring each of these before the Lord.
We also want to lovingly speak truth into this courtship, because God calls courtship to be with the goal of marriage between a man and a woman who are both believers in Jesus Christ, leading to a lifelong covenant. Genesis 2:24 says a man will leave his father and his mother and will cling to his wife and they will be one flesh, and Matthew 19:6 says what therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Because you mention his former marriage, we must gently address this. God takes the marriage covenant very seriously and His word says He hates divorce in Malachi 2:16, and Jesus taught in Matthew 19:9 that divorce and remarriage is only permitted for sexual immorality, and in other passages for abandonment by an unbeliever. We do not know the circumstances of his former marriage, but we urge you both to honestly seek biblical counsel together to be certain that he is truly free before God to remarry, and that there has been repentance, forgiveness, and healing where needed, rather than simply trying to let go of the past to find joy in a new love. True peace and joy come only from Christ and from walking in obedience to Him. We also urge you to be unequally yoked together as 2 Corinthians 6:14 warns not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, so we pray you are both fully committed followers of Jesus Christ, and if not, that salvation would come first.
We also encourage you to guard purity in this season of waiting. Even while separated by distance and longing to be together, God calls us to honor Him with our bodies. Hebrews 13:4 says let marriage be held in honor among all and let the bed be undefiled, and 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 says for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor. If there has been any fornication or emotional intimacy that belongs only within marriage, we urge repentance and a renewed commitment to remain pure until the marriage covenant is made. Love that honors God waits, protects, and prepares. We also affirm your prayer for him to have the heart of a provider and to love your sons well, for Ephesians 5:25 calls husbands to love their wives even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for it, and 1 Timothy 5:8 reminds us that provision and care for a household is part of godly responsibility. A man who would be a husband and father must be ready to love sacrificially, lead spiritually, and embrace children as a heritage from Yahweh as Psalm 127:3 teaches.
We pray together for God's perfect will to be done, not merely our own desires.
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we come before You and we thank You that we have access to Your throne only through Him, for there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved and by which we can approach You. Lord, we lift this dear sister and this man to You. We ask that You order their steps and direct their paths as Proverbs 3:5-6 teaches to trust in Yahweh with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding. Grant this man clarity of mind and heart, fill him with Your wisdom, and help him to figure things out according to Your will and not according to pressure or emotion. Soften his heart where it needs softening, heal every wound from his former marriage, bring true forgiveness and release, and show clearly whether he is free and ready before You to enter a new covenant.
Father, we ask that You stir within him, if it is Your will for them to marry, a deep, genuine, Christlike love, a spirit of care, and the heart of a faithful provider and spiritual leader. Guard them both in purity and help them to delight themselves in You first, trusting Psalm 37:4 that You will give the desires of their heart as they delight in You. We lift the practical steps of a fiancee visa and the many legal obstacles before You. Open the right doors and close the wrong ones, and make Your will unmistakably clear, for Jeremiah 29:11 says for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. If this union is of You, guide it forward, and if not, give grace to step back.
Lord, we especially lift her sons to You. Open this man's heart wide to love them as his own if You join this family together, and draw their hearts together in respect and affection, so that in Your timing they could build a united, happy, Christ-centered home. Inspire a commitment that honors You, where vows are made before You and kept for a lifetime, and where love for a wife reflects Christ's love for His people. Let Your grace bind them together only as You see fit, and let their love honor You above all else. Transform them both by the renewing of their minds as Romans 12:2 teaches, so they may prove what is Your good, well pleasing and perfect will.
We trust You to answer according to Your perfect love and wisdom, and we ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, Amen.