Praying for your marriage is a great way to cultivate a strong and healthy marriage. Make sure to grab the free printable Prayers for Your Marriage Cards!
Taking the time to focus on praying for your marriage is one of the most important things you can do to cultivate a healthy marriage. There will be a good season in marriage and there will also be hard seasons in marriage. It is time we start to be honest about both seasons. There seems to be this belief that a marriage is only good if it is filled with constant happiness. However, the truth is, there will be hard times. Sadly, many times when things get tough in a marriage, the entire foundation crumbles.
One hard season in our marriage was when my husband was struggling with depression and anxiety. It all came out of the blue and hit our family hard right as the holiday season started. I clearly remember crying out to God one morning and realizing I had a choice. This hard season could either draw us closer together or tear us apart.
My commitment to our marriage has always been strong and the one thing I never doubted, so I knew it was time for us to draw closer together. But how do you do draw close together when one of you is going through such a hard struggle?
One of the things that helped me was to focus on praying for my marriage. Every single time I would start to feel negative or frustrated, I would turn the thoughts around into a prayer.
Something beautiful happens when you focus on praying for your marriage. Suddenly your eyes are turned outward and upward instead of inward. Instead of drifting down the self-pity lane, you are able to have your perspective shifted.
When the season of marriage is tough, you need your perspective shifted. Our natural human tendency is to be self-absorbed. How does this affect me? How am I being the one who is wronged? The self-focused thoughts can go on and on. Sometimes we can even have friends or family members who encourage these thoughts.
This is yet another reason why there needs to be a priority for praying for your marriage.
You cannot control the thoughts, words, and actions of others, but you can control your own thoughts, words, and actions.
I have found that I can have a great influence in my home when my heart is right. Praying for my marriage helps cultivate a healthy heart. As I pray, God begins to open my eyes to His truth. God’s truth is what transforms us and fills us with a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Will praying for your marriage take all of your problems away?
Most definitely not. Sometimes, things may get even harder. My husband was in the depths of depression and anxiety for 40 days. Looking back, I view those 40 days as some of my hardest and yet strongest spiritual days. I prayed every day for our marriage, and even when it was hard, I could see God drawing us closer to Him and closer to each other.
Praying for your marriage often will start to reveal what may need to be changed in your own heart.
Personally, I know I have a tendency to depend way too much on others when I should be placing all of my dependence on God. During our hard season, God revealed this to me. Every time I felt alone, I would be reminded that God was there. This is how we have peace when life is hard because even in our darkest moments, God is there.
Sweet friend, today I want to encourage you. Seek time to pray for your marriage, in the good and in the hard seasons. I know some of you may be reading this with tears pouring out of your eyes and some of you may read this numb, not believing that prayer could change anything. Can I challenge you today to give it a chance? What do you have to lose? I cannot promise you that your marriage will instantly be healed. God can and does restore what is broken. He can restore your marriage, but if He does not, He can restore your broken heart and fill you with joy and peace that surpasses anything else.
Will you join me in praying for your marriage? As a way to get started, I have 6 prayer cards with little prayer prompts and Scripture to read. Download these cards, print them, cut them out and let’s start praying!
Looking for more marriage encouragement? You may enjoy 5 Lies About Marriage
Love this. Thanks for sharing about what you guys went through. I really appreciate the reminder of the importance of prayer. ❤️
Thanks Rebekah, I cannot stress enough the importance of prayer- just is huge!
So, so good! Thank you! So much of what you said resonated with my heart. I just printed the prayer cards and can’t wait to start putting my focus in the right place. <3
Thank you Whitney- it has been so helpful for me so I was hoping would be helpful for others! Let me know how it goes!