Praying For A Troubled Marriage

Does praying for a troubled marriage work to bring back love, intimacy, and commitment with a straying spouse or simply a marriage that is hurting?

There’s a couple of ways to look at this question and possibly more answers to it.

First, many couples tell of praying for a troubled marriage being an integral part in its recovery.

Individuals within the marriage often report that prayer helps them as a person in terms of coping with the crisis in the relationship as well as being able to face an uncertain future.

Individuals also report that prayer for their spouse often help him/her to refocus on the marriage or even return from an affair with a desire to save the marriage.

Later in this article I’ll discuss free will and how praying for your spouse can still benefit them and impact their decision without infringing on their freedom to choose for themselves.

Prayers for a Troubled Marriage

You might be here because you are looking for types of prayers to pray for your marriage.

Though you may put together your own prayers about the specifics of your relationship in terms of what is missing, what you want to be there, and about the troubled aspects yourself, here are some examples of prayers you could pray for your marriage:

Dear God, I want to express my gratitude for the blessings in my life.

One of those blessings is *your spouse’s name.*

Thank you for the time we have had together and for allowing them to be part of my life.

I am also grateful for the future that I am confident I will have with *your spouse’s name.*

I humbly ask that you appeal to *your spouse’s name* heart and mind so that he/she can see that our marriage is a blessing and can be stronger and better in the future.

I ask that you allow him/her to see all angles and not just what might bring temporary joy.

I ask that you soften his/her heart toward how his/her decisions will affect his family, his future, and me. 

Thank you for your blessings and your love. Amen.

Also see: Positive Signs During Separation

How To Pray For Your Marriage Trouble

The key to praying for your marriage is in expressing your concerns to a higher power and being detailed in what you express.

Putting your difficulties in stronger hands is helpful for anxiety, worry, and trauma.

That’s likely why the Bible refers to God as the “wonderful counselor” (Isaiah 9:6) and why prayer has been helpful for marriage crisis.

Remember this:

Leave nothing out and embrace the quiet time you have to speak with whose mind is calmer, heart is compassionate, and strength is mighty.

Many people report changes not only in their spouse from prayer, but also within themselves.

Free Will and Prayer For A Spouse

Does prayer impacting a spouse suggest that we don’t have free will?

We all have prayed for something that we did not receive – at least in the way that we thought we wanted.

This is partly because human beings have free will.

That is, we make our own choices.

According to the Bible, humans chose a path other than the one God had presented in the past and we continue to do so.

Sin was a choice that humans made and we couldn’t have made such a choice if we were not free to do so.

Likewise, your spouse is free to be receptive to prayer’s influence on their life and decisions or not.

The way that God could often answer prayers made for another person is to place situations and realizations in their life that cause them to see things differently.

That’s important and often extremely helpful, but it’s no guarantee that your spouse will choose to work on your marriage, come back to you, or to want to improve themselves.

However, praying continually for this person likely increases the influence of God in their lives if they are at least somewhat receptive to it.

Indirect Ways That Prayer Can Help Your Marriage

As I mentioned above, placing your troubles in the hands of someone more powerful than you holds strong therapeutic value.

God is the ultimate shoulder to cry on and to ask for help.

People report feeling relieved by praying for God’s help with their troubled marriage.

This relief often demonstrates itself by the praying person to feel and show more confidence in life and in themselves.

So when their straying spouse sees them, they see a more confident person than they would have seen otherwise.

This is especially helpful if you have been inadvertently doing things that push your spouse further away in your efforts to fix your marriage.

Those things that you shouldn’t do if you want to save your marriage include begging, pleading, overwhelming your spouse with contact, making ultimatums, and other things (open that link in a new window to read after finishing this article).

Praying for a troubled marriage can change you, again, if you are receptive to God working on your mind and heart.

Here’s how that helps:

Your spouse will see a stronger person – mentally, emotionally, and potentially physically.

Strength is one of the most attractive characteristics for your spouse to observe in you.

Demonstrating and projecting strength can be exceptionally powerful in re-attracting your spouse and your ability to do so is part of successful prayer.

Remember that praying for your marriage does not remove your responsibility to work on yourself, do your best, be disciplined, and to control your emotions so that you don’t push your spouse away.

It also does not mean that you should not seek help from wise humans who have experience with troubled marriages as well. I truly wish you the best in saving your marriage.

If your marriage is in crisis, get Coach Lee’s Free Mini-Course To Save Your Marriage!

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