Praying for Marriages (PfM)

Please join us this week in praying for marriages in which one of the spouses has become a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ.   The difficulties a marriage can experience when entered into by a believer and a non-believer are many.   All of these and more can be present in marriage begun by two non-believers when only one comes to faith in Jesus Christ. The new believer can find being faithful difficult because the very one s/he is joined to in marriage is at the least not supportive and at the most hostile.   The non-believing spouse, even without intention, can tempt the new believer into situations that would violate his/her new relationship to Christ.   These situations can strike at the heart of companionship and cause the non-believer to think s/he is no longer good enough for the believing spouse. Non-believing friends of the “unequally yoked” couple can drive a wedge between the two by siding with the unbeliever when disagreements ari...

Please join us this week in praying for marriages that are particularly on your heart and mind.  Laurie and I have at least a dozen marriages we know intimately and pray for every week.  Their life situations various.  Some are dealing with terminal diseases, some are in ministry, some are in the  middle of divorce proceedings.  All are dear to us and all are in need of prayer. We are sure you to have marriages dear to you that would benefit from your intercession as well.  Please lift up these marriages this week, and remember, you may be the very person God uses to answer your very prayers.

Please join us this week in praying for marriages dealing with the tragedy of breast cancer.  Although cancer of any kind can create stressful situations for marriages, breast cancer does so uniquely.  It strikes the wife at the heart of her self-image and worth.  Many sufferers experience an emotional roller coaster that can cause their spouse to receive conflicting signals.  One moment a wife may long to be held and touched yet at another moment, or maybe even at the same moment, withdraw from physical contact.  The husband, on the other hand, who does not understand this dynamic, can become confused when his touch is rebuffed or his reserve is interpreted as uncaring. Like with other cancers, the physical battle of fighting breast cancer is draining and demanding, on the patient particularly but also on the spouse.  Almost without fail, the physical stresses of enduring radical treatments and of caring for the patient create emotional stres...

Please join us this week in praying for marriages that have suffered the excruciating pain of the death of a newborn baby.  In past weeks we have called on you to pray for those who have had a child to die as well as for those who have suffered the painful disappointment of a miscarriage.  Many of the issues experienced by couples that have faced those tragedies are also common to those who have lost a newborn. The circumstances of this particular tragedy can be quite varied.  In some cases the death has been long expected and to some degree prepared for because of prenatal testing.  In other cases the death is totally unexpected but comes quickly after birth.  And yet, in still other situations, the newborn’s death, though almost a medical certainty, is delayed for days or even months. One of the hardest things about infant death is the sudden and absolute reversal of emotions.  Joyful expectation is usurped by gut-wrenching sadness....