Friday, June 3, 2011

It's "Marriage Prayer Friday!"

Kids all around us are finishing up another school year. They are celebrating accomplishments, friendships, fun experiences and their hopes for the next thing. As you pause for these few moments with us today to pray for your marriage or for the marriage(s) of someone you care about, let's ask the Lord to bring that same spirit of gratitude and expectancy into marriages.

A prayer for your own marriage—
HEAVENLY FATHER, it is hard for me to imagine that You delight in me but Your Word says that you love me like a father loves a child, like an eagle cares for her young and like a groom delights in his bride. I need You to help me recall the ways I delighted in my spouse early in our relationship. Give me courage right now to slow down and remember the sense of anticipation we shared about what our future could be like together. Please cause those good memories to spill out into the current state of our relationship so that we experience new levels of peace, love and joy. Help us to be insightful and intentional about creating new good memories. Help us to have reasonable expectations and plenty of grace for
each other
while having high expectations of You. You are able to do more with our marriage than we could ever ask or imagine. Thank you for giving us a hope and future. Help us to put past hurts and habits behind us and give each of us a teachable spirit so that we can keep learning new and better ways to live by Your Spirit within us. Please cause my marriage to be something you delight in, Lord God! Thank you that I can pray these things in the power of Jesus' name because of His shed blood. AMEN

Something to pray for a friend's marriage—
HEAVENLY FATHER, it is hard for me to imagine that You delight in me but Your Word says that you love me like a father loves a child, like an eagle cares for her young and like a groom delights in his bride. Prompt my married friends to recall the ways they delighted in each other when their relationship was young. Give them courage to slow down and remember the sense of anticipation they shared about their future. Cause those good memories to spill out into the current state of their relationship so that they experience new levels of peace, love and joy. Help them to be insightful and intentional about creating new good memories. Help them to have reasonable expectations and plenty of grace for
each other
while having high expectations of You. You are able to do more with these marriages I am praying for than I could ever ask or imagine. Thank you that each of these marriages on my heart can have a hope and future. Help my friends to put past hurts and habits behind them and give each of them a teachable spirit so that they can keep learning new and better ways to live by Your Spirit within them. Please cause these marriages to be something you delight in, Lord God! Thank you that I can pray these things in the power of Jesus' name because of His shed blood. AMEN