How You Can Pray for Your Marriage in 2018

This post was originally on the Watermark Community Church marriage blog. It's hard to believe the 2018 is just about 2/3 of the way complete. As we move into fall and the "back to school" season, I thought this post would provide a timely reminder and challenge to continue to or start to pray for your marriage.

We all know one of the most impactful ways we can grow our marriages is to pray.

Yes, we want to put our dreams, hopes, and desires into action. And yes, we do want to intentionally serve our spouse.

But, we all can grow and take ground in our time and efforts to pray for our marriages. I know I can.

Most couples struggle in their prayer lives. We struggle in our individual times of prayer and we struggle even more to pray together as a couple. In this post, I want to help you pray for your marriage and the marriages of those around you.

Modify these prayers however you like, but hopefully this post provides you with a model for how you can pray for your own marriage in 2018. I also hope this will help you dream big for the marriages in your extended family, community, church, city, state, country, and world.

But, it all must start with our own marriage.

1) Prayers for your marriage:

God, I pray you would help me and my spouse grow as a couple in 2018. I pray you’d help us to love you more and pursue each other out of our love for you. Help us to pursue each other in communication and conflict. Help us to make our marriage a priority and that in the middle of jobs, careers, kids, television, social media, and so much more that we would still keep our marriage our most significant human relationship.

• Scripture: Genesis 2:24, Ephesians 5:22-33

I pray our marriage would be different than the marriages of the world. I pray our marriage would bring You the glory You deserve. Protect us from divorce and help us grow in our commitment to one another. Help us to avoid isolation or anything else that could lead us to withdraw from one another, from friends, and from the body of Christ.

• Scripture: Matthew 19:6, Hebrews 10:24-25

Help us to be creative in the ways we pursue one another in 2018. Help us to enjoy being married to one another! I pray we wouldn’t be boring or stagnant like so many marriages around us. Help us to pursue each other romantically and sexually.

• Scripture: Proverbs 5:18-19, Ecclesiastes 9:9

God, I pray you’d help me to love and cherish my spouse. Help me to value, encourage, respect, and nourish our relationship.

• Scripture: Song of Solomon 6:9, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Help guard my eyes and thoughts from thinking about anyone other than my spouse. Help me to fight the temptations of the world and the temptations of my flesh. I pray if I fall short I would confess to my spouse and to others around me.

• Scripture: Job 31:1, 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, 1 John 1:9

Help me to do the things I did in the beginning, to make You my first love, and my spouse my second love. Help me to seek first Your kingdom and to trust You with everything else.

• Scripture: Revelation 2:4-5, Matthew 6:33

God, help us to remember You went first. Thank you for modeling the way in initiating Your love for us. I pray I’d be the same way with my spouse, that I wouldn’t wait for them to act or respond, but that I would be the type of spouse who initiates and proactively seeks to communicate, serve, and love.

• Scripture: Romans 5:8

I pray you’d help us to live with each other in an understanding way. Help me to be a student of my spouse. Help us to do nothing that would hinder our prayers.

• Scripture: 1 Peter 3:7

Help us to support each other in our dreams, hopes, and desires. I pray we’d be intimate with each other emotionally, and be able to share hurts from the past, current struggles, and future hopes and dreams. Help me to listen well to my spouse when they share areas of hurt or insecurity. I pray I’d be a safe place for my spouse to share and that I’d be gentle in my response. I pray you’d help us fight sin together as a couple.

• Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23

I pray you’d help me to consider the needs of my spouse before my own. I pray you’d help me to combat selfish desires and vain conceit. Help me to serve my spouse with joy.

• Scripture: Philippians 2:3-4, Mark 10:44-45, James 4:1-3

God, please show me one way I can love my spouse today, and I pray you’d give me the courage to do whatever you show me. Help us to be on mission as a couple and to be bold in the ways we love and dream. Help us to share our story with other couples, and I pray you’d use our marriage to help others around us.

• Scripture: Ephesians 6:10, 2 Timothy 1:7

2) Prayers for marriages around you

I pray the marriages of those around me would thrive, and that they would see marriage as a gift from God. I pray You will help every marriage in our church in the ways I prayed for my own marriage. And I pray for the leaders and pastors in my church, and that you’d help them in their marriages. Help them to lead with integrity and I pray you’d protect them from isolation and divorce. I pray they’d be vulnerable and honest as they lead.

• Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9

I pray that the marriages in my church home and community would continue to be radically transformed by You and be strengthened in a way that only You can do! We know with You anything is possible, so we pray You would do what’s impossible for man but very possible for You.

• Scripture: Luke 18:27, Philippians 4:13

God, I pray You would change the world through marriage. We pray you’d change our world, nation, state, city, church, community, and our own homes through marriage. Thank you for the gift of marriage, and I pray we’d honor You in every way in our marriage in 2018.

• Scripture: Romans 12:1-2

I’m sure there’s much more that can be added to this list, but I “pray” it provides you with a starting place to pray for your marriage. Print this post out and put it in your bible or journal as a reminder to pray for your marriage, your spouse, and for the marriages around you.

Challenge:

1. Share this post with your spouse and share it with your community group or friends. Get some accountability and encouragement from others to help you pray for your marriage on a consistent basis.

2. Check out a post my friends Ryan & Selena wrote on prayer: 5 Specific Ways to Pray for Your Spouse.

3. If I can pray for you in any specific way, please comment below or email me through the contact page.

Photo by David Núñez on Unsplash