For the week of: Monday, February 19th 2007

"Claim Your Marriage"

I can think of no better way to say this…apart from guiding your children to know Jesus, there is no greater blessing you can give them than to love your spouse, in front of them, with an active, vibrant committed love.  Dear Ones, we do not have time for marriages that seem bent on enduring rather than delighting, unions that are apathetic rather than amazing, husbands who fail to lead with passion, boldness and courage and wives who fail to fill homes with love, joy and peace…children are watching and they are learning.  Don’t be disillusioned in thinking they do not take notice of how you treat one another.  They are incredibly perceptive, absorbing your words and actions like a proverbial sponge. 

May I urge you to make this prayer your own every single day, regardless of how indifferent or confident you may feel about your marriage.  God honors faithful prayer from the hearts of those earnestly seeking to be His regardless.  Test Him on it; He will not be found unfaithful.  Let your spouse know you are on bended knee every single day with this sincere prayer on your lips.  I pray it over my own marriage, the marriage of my son and his wife and the future marriages of my unmarried sons and grandsons.

Beth Moore penned this prayer on Valentine’s Day.  I have taken the liberty of changing the grammatical “person” so that it is personalized for each of us praying.  You may view the unedited version on her blogspot – livingproofministries.blogspot.com

May it be so…Amen.

A Valentine's Prayer

My powerful and glorious and holy God, with everything I have and everything I am in Christ, I come before Your Throne to intercede on behalf of my marriage. Lord, I come before You with complete confidence because I know with irrefutable certainty that I am praying according to Your will. Father, You are PRO-MARRIAGE. You are FOR US. And if You are for us, who indeed can be against us? Lord, Your enemy the devil is waging full scale war on the marriages of Your own children. Havoc resides in the earthly house of God. Our churches will only be as strong as the families that inhabit them.

If not for Your Spirit living within us, Satan's psychological warfare would be almost too much to bear and his lies too sly to discern. I cry out to You, Lord! I ask You to rise from Your Throne in behalf of my home and marriage and cause our enemies to scatter violently. Open our eyes to the deceit of the enemy that tempts us to think we need something - someone - brand new. Help us to see that it would be an unending cycle of newness always wearing off and demanding something deeper to sustain it. Renew us, Lord! You created marriage and You alone can sustain it. Breathe fresh life into our marriage. You are a master at resurrection life. Raise our marriage from the dead, O Lord! Reclaim us when we want to give up. Put a holy tenacity in us to refuse to let go. Give us eyes only for the other. Cause my husband to thrill to my touch. Cause me to thrill to the touch of my husband. Renew a fiery passion in our hearts toward one another. Fill me with the desire and obedience to treat my man like he's the real man You created him to be. Forgive us our serious trespasses of dishonoring or belittling one another in any way. Forgive me for making my man secondary priorities to our children. Help me to see that the best thing I could ever do for our children is to have a wonderful relationship with their father.

Cause my man to be lavish in his demonstrations of love toward me. Open his eyes to see how hard I work and how badly I need his blessing. In turn, open my eyes to the pressures that fall daily upon my man and enable me to love him in a way that soothes and relieves him. CLAIM OUR HOME AND OUR MARRIAGE, LORD! I know You can perform miracles over the worst of marriages. You performed countless wonders over my own. Lord, in Jesus' Name, You bring to a stunning halt every weapon forged against us and every scheme the enemy may already have under way. Bind every single person and subsequent action that may be coming against our marriage. Halt any hint of extra-marital flirtation or fantasy in the powerful Name of Jesus. Cause any other person that has become dangerously attractive to now become utterly repulsive to us. Empower every person at risk to flee for his or her life from sexual temptation and immorality. Make us TRUE, Lord, in heart, soul, and mind.

God, I lift this to You with great urgency and fervency. Enough is enough! Enough Christian marriages have disintegrated! I don't just pray for us to stay together. I pray for us to LOVE staying together. I pray for the return of laughter, flirtation, desire, and life-long commitment. Interrupt mediocrity with fresh fire. We are all weak in our natural selves, Lord, and we know we'll never have a perfect marriage and home but we are fully capable in Your sovereign power to have a good one.  A healthy one. A FUN ONE. L-A-S-T-I-N-G ONE! Lord, the beauty of praying in Your will is knowing that if we desire  and receive it,we can have it. We can be healed. We can be in love again. Our family can be whole if we are willing. Make us willing! I offer this intercession with the absolute belief that You initiated it, Lord. You do not waste time nor effort. If You prompted it, You meant to answer it. Now, compassionate and wonderful Father, do what only You can do. Out-do everything I ask. Do more than I could think to request so that Your great Name can be magnified above all else. I set before You every marriage represented by those who read this entry. Cause every couple to have a glorious Head-on collision with You, Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Nothing is too difficult for You. My prayers are unmistakably heard and my thanks already appropriate because I offer each of these petitions in the incomparable and delivering Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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