How to Pray for Your Spouse

In honor of my wife Susie’s birthday, I offer the following insights on praying for your marriage:

When praying for your marriage, don’t be timid about what you ask of God. Jesus commanded us to seek and find through prayer. If we didn’t need God’s miraculous power for every aspect of our Christian lives, including our marriages, he wouldn’t have repeatedly urged us to ask for it in prayer. So pray big! Read the Scriptures, discover God’s promises, and start praying some big, hairy, audacious, prayers for your marriage today.

Are you married to an unbeliever? Pray that he or she will embrace Christ and become an obedient follower. Is your marriage tense because of financial stress? Pray for God to make you both good stewards, to equip you to get out of debt and to become a generous, giving couple. Do you lack emotional intimacy? Pray for God to blow away the barriers and to grant you oneness of heart. Are you at odds with an ex-spouse or a difficult set of in-laws? Pray for healing and maturity in the relationship. In other words, don’t pray to just get by, pray to prevail. Pray big!

What do you want God to do in your marriage? When you read the Bible, what stories or verses describe what you long to be true for you and your spouse? Start praying them. Get others to pray them with you. Wherever possible and appropriate, pray them with your spouse. Ask God for some big, hairy, audacious dreams and promises for your marriage and then start praying them. It might be ten days or ten years, but you will see God work in ways beyond what you could ever ask or think (see Ephesians 3:20).

Marriage Prayer Starter: From Philippians 4:19—Lord God, please meet all the needs of our marriage according to the riches of your glory that is in Jesus Christ.

Want to know about praying for your marriage? Click Here.