Week 169: Marriages and Chronic Pain

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Please join us this week in praying for marriages that must deal with chronic pain.

Couples in these marriages can struggle sometimes because of an identification problem:  they identify the suffering spouse as the problem instead the suffering spouse’s pain.  This misidentification can lead to false blame:  the healthy spouse can blame the suffering spouse for their problems, but maybe more often the suffering spouse can blame himself or herself.  In either case, this false blame can be destructive to the intimate marriage relationship the spouses should enjoy.

Financial pressures can often assail these marriages as couples seek any and all possible solutions to the debilitating situation.  It is not unusual for treatment programs or medications to work for a time but need adjustment as time passes. These adjustments cost money.  It is also not unusual for couples dealing with chronic pain to be lured into expensive treatments that promise relief but fail to delivery.

Just the day-to-day grind of managing pain is physically and emotionally exhausting.  The pain is like an unwelcome house-guest who will not go away and demands constant attention beyond the couples’ typical life responsibilities.

And finally, chronic pain can steal a couple’s hope.  Marriage is full of hope:  hope of enjoying life with another, hope of children, hope of ministering in God’s kingdom together.  Chronic pain can foster hopelessness because it delays some goals and crushes others.  When hope is pushed aside, depression can rush in to take its place with devastating results. 

Please pray with us that these couples will
  • have faithful prayer warriors to lift them up consistently
  • rightly identify the pain, not the suffering spouse, as the burden
  • not be crushed by financial pressures
  • be able to discern between solid, helpful treatments and those that are self-serving schemes that rob them of money and hope
  • not lose hope but rejoice in the hope they have in Christ Jesus
  • receive the care they need and freely express gratitude for that care
  • be joyful as they experience periods of relief, even though the relief may be temporary and of a short duration

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