Do you believe in miracles? How about marriage miracles? We do; we’re hoping you do too. Perhaps you need one of those marriage miracles to happen in your own marital relationship. Please don’t lose hope.
“Two thousand years ago, in the midst of a marriage, Jesus met an impossible need with His supernatural intervention. Today, the scene is set again with you and the one you have promised your life to. The couple, the need —the miracles that God can bring.” (Ron Hutchcraft)
Being in marriage ministry, Cindy and I find it interesting that Jesus chose to perform His first miracle at a wedding. His glory was revealed in marriage. (You can read about it in John 2:1-11.)
We believe that most marriages face times when they need a touch from God. We are certain, that if we had not “invited Christ” into our lives and marriage back in 1974, in all likelihood, we would be divorced by now. (And we’d certainly never be in marriage ministry.) Even today, many years later, we still depend on the Lord’s help to keep our marriage strong —one that reflects the heart of Christ.
Marriage Miracles
In his book, “Start Your Trip With A Full Tank” Ron Hutchcraft talks about “Marriage Miracles.” This can be an encouragement for all of us. He writes:
“Maybe your marriage could use a miracle right now. That day in Cana there was a change that no man or woman could make. Nobody can change water into wine, but Jesus did. Maybe right now some change is urgently needed in your home. There is a need that must be met if your relationship is going to be what it needs to be.
“Maybe it is time for Cana revisited —a marriage miracle. Right now there’s a strain, a distance, resentment, and frustration. Maybe there are thoughts of bitterness and giving up.
“Have you been to your knees yet? Have you prayed —pouring out your mess, your pain, and your dark feelings to the Lord —crying out together for Jesus’ healing in your marriage? The less you feel like doing it, the more you need to. And if your partner will not, don’t let that stop you.
Inviting Jesus
“This passage in John 2, says Jesus had been invited to this wedding, to this marriage. If you have not done so before, why not invite Him into your marriage? Close the door on quitting. Ask God to show you the HOPE FACTORS you can build upon. You have looked at the hopelessness factors long enough. Can you pray this? ‘Lord, we can’t make it work. And we/I don’t know how You would, but we beg You to help us to do what WE CAN’T, at this point in our marriage.'”
If both of you are followers of Christ, yet your unhappiness causes you to feel like giving up on your marriage, we urge you to empty yourselves of whatever agendas you may be clinging onto. Pray TOGETHER that God will pour out His Spirit of reconciliation upon you. Pray that the Lord will help you to see the hope factors. Learn how to become partners rather than adversaries, to the glory of God.
For the Glory of God
“If happiness is our primary goal, we’ll get a divorce as soon as happiness seems to wane. If receiving love is our primary goal, we’ll dump our spouse as soon as they seem to be less attentive. But if we marry for the glory of God, to model His love and commitment to our children, and reveal His witness to the world, divorce makes no sense.” (Gary Thomas)
Fred and Florence Littauer in their book, Daily Marriage Builders for Couples
“Is there any hope? Is there any possibility that change can be affected in your lives in the way you treat one another? Can you change the way you react to your mate when something unkind or cutting is said to you? Somehow on our own we are not able to control our own reactions to what we perceive to be hurtful negatives. But the Bible tells me I can do all things! Yes, we can do all things, but we must complete the verse: ‘I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens me.‘
“There lies the answer. All my known resolutions will probably go for naught, but when I enlist the Lord Jesus to help me, to do what I cannot do on my own, amazing and rewarding changes can take place. We must not, however, forget the first part of that verse. It says, ‘I can do all things.‘ We are not directed to let Christ to do it for us. We must do it ourselves BUT with His help.”
Oswald Chambers wrote:
“We cannot do what God does and …God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits. He will not give us character. He will not make us walk aright. We have to get into the habit of hearkening to God about everything, to form the habit of finding out what God says.”
Bible teacher, Beth Moore, who has worked through her share of marital problems, reminds us:
“Sometimes God works through miracles and other times through the individual.”
…”When we trust our lives to the unseen but ever-present God, He will write our lives into His story and every last one of them will turn out out be a great read, with a grand ending.”
But we must not lose sight of the ultimate “grand ending” we’re to aim for in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. It’s is to one day hear the Lord tell us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Paul Tripp, in his book, What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage
He wrote:
“Our desire is that our marriages would be the location of our comfort, ease, and enjoyment; we often have desires no bigger than this. But God’s purpose is that each of our marriages would be a tool for something that is way more miraculous and glorious than our tiny, little, self-focussed definition of happiness. He has designed marriage to be one of the most effective and efficient tools of personal holiness. He has designed your marriage to change you.”
Another reminder from Beth Moore may be good to consider:
“We lose our strength when we wait upon an event. But our strength will be renewed when we wait upon the Lord.”
Keep your eyes upon the Lord. Ask for HIS perspective, HIS strength, and HIS help in unraveling this thing. Ask Him to help you approach issues in your marriage in ways that reflect His heart. When you do, the results will be no less miraculous than when Jesus turned the water into wine.
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!“ (Romans 15:5-6)
Cindy and Steve Wright
Filed under: Marriage Messages
(CANADA) Please pray for my marriage, we have been married for just over two years, and my husband has left me and wants a divorce and to sell our house. I love him with all my heart, and will accept him to come home with open arms. I pray for both him and I every day, please pray for us. Thank you.
(UNITED STATES) I will pray for you and your situation. I know God has a purpose and loves each one of us and keep the prayer request coming and keep faith. God only wants what is best for each of us. God Bless!
(UNITED STATES) I need prayer and help badly to restore my marriage. I love my husband with all of my heart and we both have drifted and before I realized it a lot of damage had been done. I trust in God and know deep in my heart my marriage can work out that this is the better or worse situation. I don’t want to get divorced because I feel this is just an obstacle of the many we will face and I feel this has made me grow closer in my relationship with God. I prayed and put my life, my heart, and marriage in Gods’ hands, which is what I should’ve done before all of this happened. I need to have prayer badly for not just the sake of my marriage but for the sake of my husbands’ soul. I have been praying for his return to church and for God to touch his heart. Please keep myself and my marriage in your prayers. I have writteb every prayer line and ask everyone for prayers. I need to be patient and I will be but please pray for my situations. Thank you and God Bless!
(CANADA) Please pray for my wife and I. We are going through a difficult time and need your help. Her name is Rita. Thank you and God bless.
(USA) I pray for those who have come here seeking prayers for their marriages. May their marriages all be strong, and firmly set on the foundation of Christ’s love and truth. I ask prayers for my husband and me and our marriage, that it be restored in Christ. May we be protected and strengthened against evil, and abundantly blessed with graces and blessings that our marriage be restored.
(US) Please pray for my God, the Kings of Kings to manifest his word in my marriage. My wife (Lisa) feels that it is over and she feels no love for me. I am really trying t seek God and put him first in my marriage. My wife sees no other solution but divorce and I see no other solution but RESTORATION. I call RESTORATION in the NAME of JESUS and for the future of my two boys.
I need to have FAITH and TRUST (I struggle a lot with trust) in the Lord Almighty. I believe marriage restoration is his WILL for he hates divorce and the breaking of covenants. Lisa and I gave our lives to Jesus when we were young so God has a place in our hearts. I want to learn to truly love and put him first before he works in my marriage. I do not want to fail.
Please play for Lisa to have hope and to believe in the miracles of God. I believe she is confused about what to do.
(AUSTRALIA) Please help me pray too. I am very depressed. I have prayed like crazy over the last 5 months. My boyfriend whom I was going to get married to, of whom I gave my virginity to, has broke up with me. He told me he will not marry me and cut off all communication with me. I’m a Christian and coming from both our country and cultural backgrounds, once you have sex, you get married. One person only ever has sex with one person ever.
We are both 26 and were virgins when we gave ourselves. In my culture, it’s not the sign of a marriage paper that seals the deal, it’s the sex and acknowledgment part (from families and friends). I cannot live with this… I still love him and I have no face to live a life like this in my community. Please help me pray that God will intervene and change his heart too. I believe he loves me a lot (his sister said that to a third party). And this is important news as it was his sister who broke us up… she later confessed it was because she just simply does not like me and it was deliberate! So the fact that his sister made that statement “actually my brother loves her a lot” carries a lot of weight!
(USA) Please pray for my marriage. My wife is very angry with me. She is convinced she says that our marriage will not survive. She is mad at me partly because our sex life has fizzled no passion, and thinks I don’t love her. She is mad at me because I stopped doing things for her like in the beginning. She is mad at me because I was crying so hard one night, I could not sleep, so I went for a drive without telling her.
She is all true with what she says. I got this way when I drew away from God. I lost passion for God so I lost passion for life and my wife. But now I am regaining my relationship with God and realize how I have hurt my wife. She refuses to be intimate with me saying she refuses to go through the motion.
I have changed back to the man she married due to lots of prayer and fasting but she won’t give me a chance to prove it. If I do something for her she is irritated saying she knows now that I was capable of doing things but that I didn’t want to. No matter how I tell her it all happened due to my lost relationship with God at that time, she doesn’t believe me or understands. She is so hurt. Pray for God to soften her heart and understanding and remembrance of love whatever else that will cause our marriage to prosper! Please help!!!
(USA) My marriage is in need of prayer and a miracle. I decided to end the marriage due to my husband being abusive, disrespectful, and he has a long criminal background and continues to break the law. I fear for him going to prison because everything that goes wrong in his life, he says is my fault. I believe my husband is and can be a great man of God and a great husband. When we married, he was caring, a hard worker and went to church and gave his life to the Lord. Now he has left out of state due to a legal issue (always running from the law) and I am stuck. I know that God hates divorce, and so do I. Please pray. My husband’s name is Colby and we really need prayer. I am asking for God’s wisdom and understanding and certainly peace in whatever the Lord would have for me to do. Be blessed!
(AUSTRALIA) Please, Kimberley, find a friend who will pray with you and support you. God is a God of mercy and a God of justice. He hates oppression and violence. He never intended for you to be disrespected and abused. You say you can see the potential in your husband – you are a compassionate woman and it is precisely that willingness to hope that kept you bonded to him. Whenever you felt acts of kindness, goodness and love, those things kept you in hope, even though he was abusive. However, because of the cycle of violence (and it doesn’t have to be physical), good periods inevitably lead to tension and abusive moments.
Every abuser is somewhere in the cycle and while you are still in relationship with him, you will be there too. So you have done a brave thing and said “No” to that treatment. You want something better and there is nothing wrong with that at all. That’s what God wants too. God hates divorce – He hates abuse too. See “When Abuse is Worse than Divorce.” http://www.rbc.org/uploadedfiles/Bible_Study/Discovery_Series/PDF/Gods_Protection_of_Women.pdf
(USA) Please pray for a marriage miracle. God is the only one that can step in now. It is a complicated story that God is aware of. I love my husband so much and he is hurting now. I do not believe in divorce – but am faced with it. Please pray for peace, forgiveness, and restoration of love in my marriage as young children are invloved.
(USA) I pray for marriage restoration between me and my husband Rod. Please help me pray that he will have a change of heart and that God will lead us back together. Please let our love for each other lead us back together. Please soften his heart and his mind. Please enlighten him that our marriage is important. I pray that forgiveness will surround us and whatever we’ve done wrong to each other, we’ll forgive and just love one another. Please pray for us…
(USA) God Bless you all. Please say a prayer for Chris and Michele. My husband has left me and got a restraining order against me for 3 years. My kids are with him and I feel completely destroyed. I have been praying a lot and I have put it all in the God’s hands but the pain is just too much. I love my family and I’d love for them to come home. My husband is getting the divorce papers ready but my heart tells me we still share lots of love. All my love!
(USA) I’m filled with tears, because I have been praying for these who have asked for prayer for their marriages! Me and my wife were married for seven years, and now been divorced for three. But thanks be to GOD, because she wants to get back together, and I want her back! We have been talking everyday since I saw her two months ago, and we live in different cities and states. But there is no distance with GOD, and there is nothing to hard for HIM.
She has forgiven me even though it was me who gave up and left her, but she wants me back at this moment. That has to be the work of GOD, because she never wanted to see me again. Now I’m just praying for direction and asking GOD to help me to be a complete husband. He deserves all the glory!!!
(ZIM) Praise be to God! With him everything is possible and in him you will be a complete husband.
(INDIA) I’m Blessed. I’m strengthened. GOD Is working through this text.
(INDIA) Please pray for my marriage that my husband Moses will come back to me before my parents get me married to some one else. GOD gave us this marriage. We were about to get socially married. In GOD JESUS, we already accepted each other as wife and husband. I really love him and want him back at any cost.
We met with CONFIRMATION OF GOD for each other. I cannot leave him at any cost. I am not feeling right for the devil wants to destroy GOD’s plan and somewhere GOD is stopping me from turning away from this marriage and giving up. Our marriage is GOD’s WILL HIS PLAN.
JESUS gave me His word when I asked him to say something comforting to me because I was broken hearted. It happened. This WORD came in my hand: Mark 10:8-9. (THE TWO ARE UNITED INTO ONE. SINCE THEY ARE NO LONGER TWO BUT ONE, LET NO ONE SEPARATE THEM. FOR GOD HAS JOINED THEM TOGETHER.) I need people to pray with me for our marriage.
PLEASE IN JESUS NAME, PRAY FOR OUR MARRIAGE.
(UNITED STATES) Please pray for my marriage, my husband D. wants to separate. We love each other so much. Please help me to pray so my husband and I can be together again, and communicate better. We need a miracle but I have faith in God. Thank you and God bless you!