Six Ways to Pray for your Marriage (with Scripture Reading Plan)

One of the best ways to keep the embers of love glowing brightly in our marriages is to pray fervently and frequently.

Just as an untended campfire grows cold without careful attention, our marriages can grow stale and fruitless without strategic and intentional prayer.

The enemy of our souls is cunning, intentional, and strategic in his attacks–so why wouldn’t we be equally as intentional with the weapon of God’s Word?

Here are six areas we can pray for on a continual basis to keep our marriages strong and secure in Christ.

Six Ways to Pray for your Marriage

1. Pray for your Communication

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 4:29

Most marriage counselors agree that good communication in marriage is absolutely crucial. This is an area we can continually take to the Lord and ask to grow in wisdom.

The book Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs is an excellent book to help Christian couples communicate their emotional needs.

A Prayer for Communication: Lord, I ask that you will help me and my husband to communicate in our marriage in a way that brings honor and glory to you.

I pray that we will not allow any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, but only what is helpful for building each other up according to our needs, that we may greatly benefit from one another’s words. 

2. Pray for your Family

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

Psalm 133:1

When we marry our spouses, we often don’t realize that we marry into their families–the good, bad and the ugly. One way we can keep our marriages strong is to pray regularly not only for our nuclear family members, but for those in our spouse’s extended family.

Pray regularly for unity, and for healing from past wounds. Check out this post on how to pray against generational sins within your family.

Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend have an excellent book on establishing healthy boundaries in our families and in other important relationships.

A Prayer for Unity in your Family: Lord, your Word says that it is good and pleasant when we live together in unity. Unite us together as husband and wife through your perfect unity. Teach us how to love and honor one another, and to become one. 

3. Pray for your Love Languages

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Romans 12:10

We all need to be better “students” of our spouses and learn how to best meet their needs. We can do this more effectively by speaking the love languages that are most meaningful to them.

Dr. Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages has helped millions of married couples discover their love languages. Why not commit to loving your spouse better by praying for creative ways to love them better? Dr. Chapman also has a wonderful podcast called Building Relationships.

A Prayer for your Love Languages: Lord, show us how we can communicate and love one another according to our love languages. Teach us how to share our needs with each other, that we may be devoted to one another in love, and honor each other selflessly and sacrificially.

4. Pray for your Intimacy

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth– for your love is more delightful than wine.

Song of Solomon 1:2

This is often an area where we as wives need to be more intentional. Our sexual intimacy is such a sacred space in marriage. It is a couple’s deepest expression of love and devotion to one another.

Satan knows the power of sexual intimacy in marriage–which is why there are so many corrupted distortions of sex around today to sabotage this area in our marriages.

This is why we ought to pray fervently for our sexual intimacy and strategically seek ways to bring glory to God in this area. I have found the book Intimate Issues by Linda Dillow and Lorraine Pintus to be very helpful for wives.

Also, any resources by Juli Slattery are excellent. She also has a podcast for Christian women that addresses many areas of sexual intimacy called Java with Juli.

A Prayer for Intimacy in Marriage: Lord, I pray that you will help us to love one another intimately as you have beautifully ordained in marriage. May our marriage bed be kept pure as we delight in one another through intimacy.    

5. Pray for your Priorities

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33

When we seek the Lord for his direction and guidance in our marriages, we can trust that he will work in our lives in powerful ways.

A Prayer for Godly Priorities: Lord, I ask that you will align our priorities according to your will for our marriage. Help us to seek first your kingdom and righteousness.

In our actions and words, may you take first priority in our lives above all other things. Help us to trust that as we seek you first, you will provide all that we need according to your Word. 

Feel free to use this free marriage prayer journal to regularly pray for your marriage and seek God first!

Just click HERE to download the Marriage Prayer Journal!

6. Pray for your Faith

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:23

Hold unswervingly to your faith, and trust that through the storms of life, God will never let you go. God is faithful, and his promises are “yes” and “Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

He promises to never leave us stranded in our marriages, and he is always there to answer in our times of need.

A Prayer for Unswerving Faith in Marriage: Lord, at times life can be difficult and filled with pain and trials. Help our marriage to withstand the storms of life, and let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess in you.

You promised to be with us, and you are faithful. May our faith in you be the anchor of our souls, firm and secure in you. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

You can strengthen your faith by praying forty powerful Scriptures over your marriage.

These verses are all based on the six areas to pray in your marriage, and you can pray using these Scriptures each day!

Just click HERE to download the marriage Scripture Reading Plan.

(Note: You may not be able to download these printables if you are on a mobile device) Just find your nearest desktop and print as many copies as you desire!

Blessings to you as you pray fervently for your marriage!

Looking for ways to deepen your prayer life? Sign up to join the BOLD Prayers of Jesus Challenge today! In this FREE five-day e-mail challenge you will receive a prayer guide, prayer pages, Scripture cards, prayer prompts, a Bible journaling page, and more!