““Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”.”
The Covenant of Marriage was never a man’s idea. God put this in place from creation, but, unfortunately, today most marriages are treated as contracts (if it does not work, we can end the contract), a means of exploitation ( the man or woman has so much money), an avenue to have children ( I really want to have children with one man/woman), etc. After the covenant of marriage, God sealed the man and woman as one; 1 Corinthians 7:39 “A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” and he declared that no man should separate what he has joined together. This means even the man and woman have no right to separate from each other. This is not the case today. People have interpreted the word of God to fit their personal, self-centered agendas. Additionally, when God instituted the covenant of marriage, it was and has always been between a biological man and a biological woman, nothing else. Matthew 19:4-6 “4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
“The church must wake up from sleep and go back to its roots and stop accepting anything less than what the word of God says”.
There are so many divorces today, even in the church, not even related to sexual immorality. The hardness of the hearts of men has not changed, even though we claim to be a new creation in Christ with a new heart and spirit. Pray that the church will invest around marriages to provide enough support and resources to couples so that they are able to invest in the word of God which is the foundation upon which marriage stands: Mathew 19: 7-9 “7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Pray that the Holy Spirit will illuminate the spirit of husbands so they can see and understand the need to relate to their wives according to this word: 1 Peter 3:7 “ Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
Pray that the river of God’s kind of Love will flow into every marriage as well as revive every broken marriage in Jesus’ mighty name: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; 6 it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Today, even in the church, we hear of so many stories about married men and women cheating on their spouses. Pray that the blood of Jesus will cleanse the church and grant grace for couples to respect this word of God in their homes: Hebrews 13:4 “ Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
Pray that husbands will love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave all to the church. Pray that wives will respond in being submissive to their husbands so that they both can live in harmony: Ephesians 5:22-33 “22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
An excellent wife is the wife whom the husband has groomed and made her his crown. Pray that husbands will prayerfully invest in the building of their wives: Proverbs 12:4 “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.”
Pray for the revelation of walking together as one so that couples would build a stronger union to fight the enemy: Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 “9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 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! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?”
Pray that the counsel of God for marriages shall stand and that the counsel of the enemy must be dismantled: Psalm 33:11 “But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
God is a restorer. Pray that broken marriages be restored in Jesus’ mighty name. Pray that prodigal wives and husbands will return to their partners and place of their covenant in Jesus‘ name: Isaiah 61:7 “Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation, they will rejoice in their share; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.”
Pray that the power of the enemy over marriages be defeated in Jesus’ mighty name: Deuteronomy 28:7 “The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven.”
God blessed his creation and released the grace of fruitfulness and increase. Children are called “a heritage from the LORD and a blessing in marriage. Pray that God will visit marriages that have not yet received this blessing. Psalm 127:3 “Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.” Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Leviticus 26:9 “I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you.”