Week 156: Marriages and the Salvation of One Spouse

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Please join us this week in praying for marriages in which one of two non-believing 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 those difficulties and more can be present in the marriage of non-believers when one comes to faith in Jesus Christ and the other does not.

The new believer can find being faithful to Christ difficult because the very one s/he is joined to in marriage is at the least not equipped to be supportive and at the most possibly hostile.  The non-believing spouse, even without intention, can tempt the new believer into situations that would violate his/her new relationship with Christ.  These situations can strike at the heart of companionship and cause the couple to doubt the suitability of their relationship.

Non-believing friends of the unequally-yoked couple can drive a wedge between the two by siding with the unbeliever when disagreements arise.  On the other hand, as the believing spouse builds a new circle of Christian friends and spends time with them in worship and fellowship, the non-believing spouse can feel abandoned and, in a metaphorical sense, even assaulted by an onslaught of “holier-than-thous”.  This danger is particularly likely if the new circle of friends takes sides and does not express the truth of the gospel in love.

Pray this week that couples in this life situation will
  • Be protected by the Holy Spirit
  • Seek to understand each other
  • Keep their lines of communication open
  • Guard their marriages against the hurtful actions and words of friends, even well-meaning ones
  •  

Pray that the new believer will 
  • Pray for his/her spouse
  • Speak the truth in love
  • Be wise in knowing when to speak and when to let God do the speaking
  • Be patient, not abandoning the unbelieving spouse or assuming he/she can be shamed into the kingdom of God
  • Be strong against temptation without demonizing the unbelieving spouse


Pray that the unbelieving spouse will
  • Be tender to the gospel
  • Recognize the remarkable change that Jesus is making in the life of his/her spouse
  • Be restrained from tempting the new believer into behavior contrary to the gospel
  • Be willing to listen to and examine what the new believer says has changed his/her life

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