When we go through seasons of change, it’s very easy to become too self-focused. One way we can fight that tendency and become more others-focused is through prayer.
This week we will do something different. We will build a weekly prayer list that we can use beyond this week. It will focus on a different part of our lives each day. When we’re done, we’ll have a seven-day prayer list that we can use and adapt for weeks to come.
You can either write each day on a separate piece of paper or format seven columns on one sheet of paper on your computer. Adapt this format to your needs.
SPOUSE: Today, Monday, will be focused on your spouse. (If you’re not married, pray these things for your future spouse, even if you don’t know who that is yet.)
Write your spouse’s name at the top of this list.
You’ll want pray for your spouse as well as for yourself to be a good spouse.
Use the following Scriptures to write bullet points on what to pray for:
Ephesians 5:21-33 (NIV):
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
[22] Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. [24] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
[25] Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [26] to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, [27] and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. [28] In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29] After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— [30] for we are members of his body. [31] "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." [32] This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. [33] However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Colossians 3:18-19 (NIV):
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
[19] Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
1 Peter 3:1-7 (NIV):
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, [2] when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. [3] Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. [4] Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. [5] For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, [6] like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
[7] Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
Now spend the rest of your time today praying for your spouse and your marriage.
Digging Deeper is a series of daily devotions based on Sunday's sermon at NorthStar. Click HERE to listen to the message "Seasons of Change" or other messages.
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