Husbands and Wives, Pray for One Another
Have you ever noticed how often the Sunday morning and evening sermons have themes that are similar or that fit together nicely? Pastor Conley often comments on this reality during our weekly staff meetings as he gives short previews of the passages on which he is planning to preach. This unity of sermon themes shouldn’t surprise us since we believe in the unity of Scripture, that all of Scripture is consistent and noncontradictory in its message of God, man, sin, and the redemptive story. In fact, we should expect similar themes to be woven throughout various books of the Bible, creating a beautiful picture of the gospel and the Christian life.
The Sunday evening series has recently focused on the relationship of husbands and wives. In three sermons (which you can view here, here, and here), Pastor Conley taught through Ephesians 5:21-33 on God’s desire for the husband/wife relationship to be a clear and beautiful picture of the gospel. The gospel-picture of marriage becomes clear as husbands sacrificially love and serve their wives and as wives joyfully follow the leadership of their husbands. Soon after, during the morning series from 1 Thessalonians, Pastor Conley preached a sermon titled Praying for You from 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13.
The unity of these biblical themes, marriage and prayer, from the morning and evening sermons became evident to me as I thought of a recent resource that I came across called 5 Things to Pray for Your Spouse: Prayers that Change and Strengthen Your Marriage by Michael and Melissa Kruger. This small volume is a short, inexpensive, workbook-style book that you can pick up and use to help you consistently pray specific prayers from Scripture for your spouse. Maybe you’ve wanted to pray for your spouse but have felt stuck saying the same things (“Help him at work today. Help her with the kids at home.”). Or maybe you pray regularly for various needs but haven’t considered including specific prayers for your spouse. Either way, this short, useful book gives you a roadmap to help you pray a variety of things for your spouse that are based on specific passages of Scripture.
Recently, Family Life Today, a helpful podcast on topics related to marriage and family, had Michael and Melissa Kruger on to talk about marriage and prayer, including not just praying for your spouse but praying with your spouse (and kids). The episode is very encouraging and worth the listen. Rather than being left with guilt or unrealistic expectations, you will leave this conversation with practical, realistic ways to include prayer into the rhythm of your marriage and family life.
There may not be any better way to grow your marriage than to pray with your spouse and to pray for your spouse. Praying with your spouse reveals your heart to one another. It gives you a window into what is going on in the other’s life, where her desires are at, what is consuming his thoughts, what are her burdens. Praying for your spouse is taking your thoughts and desires to the one who changes hearts. It is not our role to change our spouse, as much as we might desire that. As Pastor Conley said in his sermon, “God alone knows our hearts, and God alone can fix what is wrong there.” So, brothers and sisters, pray with and for your spouse, and take advantage of these helpful resources to encourage you along the way!