I’ll have been married for five years on the very last day of our 30 Days of Prayer. They have been a great five years. I negate that they have not been easy all the time, but I wouldn’t go back and change them. I have grown more as a person, at least I hope so, and my husband agrees. I have learned about myself and the ugly parts of myself. As I’m sure many of us have heard, “marriage is two sinners coming together and living under the same roof.” And indeed, it is true. At the end of the day, we are two sinners trying to get along.
I ask that we think about this as we pray today. I have seen many things happen in my marriage and others, not all pretty things. We must pray for wisdom, patience, love, and the will to stick around through difficult moments. We must be willing to forgive time and time again (of course, this varies by offense, I wouldn’t apply this to cheating or domestic violence; if you are in this kind of relationship, please reach out to someone). We must be willing to learn from one another and, of utmost importance, keep God as the center of our marriage.
“Father, I come to you today praying for marriages. Marriage is one of the toughest things we can get ourselves into, but it is what we are called to do, so we ask that you may help us through it. May you grant us all patience and grace to continue to grow together. May our marriages be a beacon of light to those who are hesitant or don’t believe in marriage. May they see that marriage is a good thing and you bless it. I pray for those who are married; may they continue to seek you in prayer and the word. May they not isolate themselves but be part of the body. Not just other married couples but all saints, the singles, the widowed, and the children. May we represent you and your gospel. May husbands love their wives like Christ loves the Church, and may wives continue to submit to their husbands as onto you. I thank you and pray these things in Jesus’ name, amen.”
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Ephesians 5:22-33 ESV
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SDG – “Soli Deo Gloria”
