I choose life and blessings for my marriage by getting the Truth concerning God’s design for it. Lord, don’t let my marriage perish from lack of knowledge. Don’t let me miss out on this great and precious gift of a wife that you have given me. Do not let my marriage be conformed to the world’s counterfeit, perverted image, but transform it through the renewing of my mind to Your perfect plan, as seen in Christ and His bride. Help me always give thanks and remember that my wife was made to bring me glory and to prosper me in every way! (Deut. 30:19; Hosea 4:6; Rom. 12:2; Prov. 12:4; 31:10)
Show me what true marriage looks like, one of faithfulness, commitment, purity, unconditional love, and sacrifice. Make me a husband who loves my wife, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Teach me how to love my wife as my own body. Remind me that He who loves his wife loves himself, then I will be able to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water of the word, speaking the truth in love and building her into the image of Christ, making her without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish. (Eph. 4:15; 5:25-28)
Teach me to submit to oneness with You, the way of abiding in You, abiding in Your Word, and abiding in Your love, as a branch to the Vine, so You can bear much fruit in my marriage. Remind me daily that I can do nothing apart from You. Help me keep Your commandments, and abide in Your love, that Your joy may be in my marriage, and that our joy may be full. You chose me and appointed me to be a husband who bears fruit. Cause me to follow Your command to love my wife as You have loved me. Continuously remind me that the greatest thing for my marriage is love, a love that will never fail, and that love is laying down my life for my wife. (John 15:1-17; 1Cor. 13:8, 13)
Teach me to humble myself under Your mighty hand and serve my wife humbly in love so that You may exalt me. Teach me to be content in all circumstances in my marriage and know that I can do all things, including loving my wife, through Christ strengthening me. Remind me daily I have a real enemy coming against my marriage and that I’m never struggling against my wife, but against powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Help me be sober-minded, watchful, and remind me that my adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour my marriage, my wife, and me. (1Pet. 5:6-9 Phil. 4:11-13; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 6:12)
Teach me how to guard my heart above all by surrendering myself to You, praying with thanks, and thinking on what is pure and true. Guide me to submit quickly to Your Word and resist the devil, standing firm in my faith. Lord, give me eyes to watch and the spirit to pray, that I may not enter into temptation that harms my marriage. Guide me to use my weapons of warfare that are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, by bringing every thought into captivity to Christ. Remind me always that I am from God and have overcome every kind of evil, because the One who is in me is greater than the one who is in the world. (1Pet. 5:6-9; Mat. 26:41; 2Cor. 10:4-5; Phi. 4:6-8; Pro. 4:23; 1John 4:4)
Lord, You have redeemed me, and have mercy on me, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy my transgressions are blotted out. I am washed thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleansed from my sin. Remind me that in Christ I am clean; You have washed me, and I am whiter than snow. Because “it is finished”, You have hidden your face from my sins, and blotted out all my iniquities. I have a clean heart, O God, and a right spirit within me. You do not deal with me according to my sins, nor repay me according to my iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is Your steadfast love toward those who fear You; as far as the east is from the west, so far do You remove my transgressions from me. (Psa. 51:1-2,8-10; 103:10-12)
Make me an imitator of You, God, walking in love, esteeming (lifting up) and delighting in my wife. Show me how to love with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring my wife. Teach me to be a man who walks in the Holy Spirit’s power, love and sound mind. Get me rooted and established in love, that I may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Keep me in Your will and filled with the Spirit by always giving thanks for my wife daily and showing her I appreciate her greatly. (Eph. 3:16-19, 5:1-2,17-20; 2Tim. 1:7; Rom.12:10)
Teach me to submit to oneness in fellowship with my wife. Lord, You said it’s not good for me to be alone. Thank You for making me a helper complementary for me. My wife and I are united together, no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, God, what You have joined together, let no one separate. The wife that I have found is good, she is favor that I have received from You. Help me to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility value her above myself, not looking to my own interests but to the interests of my wife. (Gen. 2:18, 24; Mat. 19:6; Pro. 18:22; Phi. 2:3-4)
Remind me that my wife is of noble character, that she is worth far more than rubies, that I have full confidence in her and that she brings me good, not harm, all the days of her life. Increase in my wife and I a reverence for Christ, so that we will submit to one another. Lord, demonstrate to my wife through me Your love that is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, and not proud. Let my love for her not be dishonorable, not be self-seeking, not be easily angered, and not keep a record of wrongs. Let it not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth, and always protect, trust, hope, persevere and never fail. (Pro. 31:10-12; Eph. 5:21; 1 Cor. 13:4-8)
Let there be the same willingness to serve my wife that Jacob had for Rachel, that made seven years seem to him like a few days, because of his love for her. Help me be the husband that my wife wants to submit to, out of a response to my selfless love, and to love my wife and not be harsh with her. (Gen. 29:18-20; Eph. 5:22-24; Col. 3:19)
Compel me to be considerate as I live with my wife, to treat her with respect as the weaker partner and as an heir with me of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder our prayers. Let us be like-minded and sympathetic, compassionate and humble, and love one another. Let us not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, let us repay evil with blessing, for whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. Cause me to turn from evil and do good; to seek peace and pursue it with my wife. (1 Pet. 3:7-11)
Because this is Your will, sanctify me to abstain from sexual immorality; to know how to control my own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust. I do not have authority over my own body, so give me a desire to yield it to my wife, fulfilling my marital duty and enjoying sexual relations with her, preventing immorality. May my fountain be blessed, and may I rejoice in the wife of my youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy me always, may I ever be intoxicated with her love. Help me honor my marriage, and keep my marriage bed pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Remind me continually that purity is Your way to prosper and bless my marriage in every way. (1 The. 4:3-5; 1 Cor. 7:2-4; Pro. 5:18-19; Hebrews 13:4)
Strengthen the covenant I made with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. I am joined to You, Lord, and am one spirit with You. I will flee sexual immorality, because every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. I know that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in me, whom I have from God, and I am not my own. How can I stay on the path of purity? By living according to Your word. I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. Keep me always hiding Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. (Job 31:1; 1Cor. 6:17-19; Psa. 119:9-11)
Teach me to submit to oneness in fellowship with the Church. Lord, You say “two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken”. Make me the friend that loves at all times, a brother born for adversity, and give me like brother(s), iron sharpening iron, sharpening each other. (Ecc. 4:9-12; Pro.17:17,27:17)
If any of my brothers wanders from the truth, help me bring him back, and give me a brother that would do the same for me. Remind us that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Let me consider how to stir up others to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging them, and all the more as I see the Day drawing near. Grow in me a greater love, that I would lay down my life for my friends, knowing that I ought to lay down my life for my brothers. In Jesus name, amen. (Jam. 5:19-20; Heb. 10:24-25; John 15:13; 1John 3:16)
