Praying for Your Marriage - 8 Powerful Guided Prayers for Married Couples

In a marriage, prayer should be the first line of defense when troubles come. Praying for your marriage should also be used as an offensive weapon to ward off trouble in the first place. But it isn’t always clear exactly what we should pray for.

In 20 Inspiring Prayer Points for Marriage, we looked at scriptures about marriage and pulled out some important points to use when praying for a Biblical marriage.

In the post you’re reading now, you’ll find some ready-to-pray prayers you can use immediately to help jump-start your praying-for-your-marriage endeavors.

Contents

The Importance of Prayer for Married Couples

There is no doubt about it – Satan is attacking the instututions of marriage and family, and he’s pulling out all the stops! This makes these relationships hard! Does this mean that we should just lay down and give up? No! It means that Satan feels incredibly threatened by strong marriages and families!

The devil knows God-honoring families are of the utmost importance in holding up the Kingdom of God and will do everything in his power to tear them down! As such, praying for your marriage is an imperative part of our battle plan! Not only should we pray; specifically, we should pray God’s word over marriage and family.

That’s just what these guided prayers will help you do!

Prayers to Pray for Your Marriage

A Prayer for Unity in Marriage

“Heavenly Father, Your word makes it clear that two people being unified is very important and also that the marriage union is sacred and special – a reflection of Your relationship with the church. And yet, society would have us believe the opposite. Please help me never to forget that You joined us together and that nobody has the right to separate us, not even me or my spouse.

Lord, I want to be able to work with my husband/wife, not just alongside him/her or, worse, against him/her, like You planned when You created Adam and Eve. I understand that together we can do far more for You and other people than we can do apart.”

Use this time of prayer to pray that you and your spouse would have a desire to be on the same page in everything you face in life. Ask the Lord that He would give you both spirits of compromise and hearts that are humble and soft. Bring to Him any specific issues you’re struggling with when it comes to finding common ground.

Close up of hands fitting white puzzle pieces together.

“Lord, I want our relationship to reflect Your relationship with the church, and I want to take our covenant seriously, as You do Yours with us. Please help me to never take our union lightly and only say and do things that build it up and not things that tear it down. Also, bring to us people who will support our marriage and our efforts to be unified in all things.

And Father, I pray that You would help us not only to be unified in spirit and deed, but also physically. Guide us as we work to meet each other’s needs in this area so that our entire family can reap the benefits of a healthy marriage.

And lastly, please give us an eternal perspective and a willingness to fight for unity when it truly matters and the wisdom to see when it doesn’t.

In Jesus’s mighty name I pray, amen.”

A Prayer for a Stronger Marriage

“Lord, I come to You today to pray for a strong marriage. I want a marriage that is not susceptible to being broken down by the attacks of the enemy. I’m aware that we are fighting a spiritual battle, here, and I need spiritual assistance to strengthen our union.

First, as I recognize that weeds of bitterness and regret can break apart the foundation of a marriage, I pray that You would help me to see and uproot these weeds and forgive my spouse for any wrongs he or she has committed in the past. Let our love for each other cover these sins and others that may be committed in the future.”

I also pray, Lord, that we would see the need to be supportive and respectful of one another at all times, especially in the company of others. Please help us to avoid planting any seeds of anger or bitterness by putting each other down, even in jest.

Brown paper torn to reveal the typed word "unbreakable."

Take a moment now to pray for bitterness or anger you may be harboring toward your spouse. Ask God to show you the exact reasons you feel resentful so that you can work on forgiving and moving on. Ask Him to soften your heart to make forgiveness possible.

Make a mental note to reveal this pain to your spouse and tell him or her that you are working towards forgiveness in this area. Like Ruth Bell Graham says, “A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.”

“Lord, I pray that our marriage would be so strong that we would be willing to lay down our very lives for each other, figuratively and literally. Jesus, I recognize that our marriage is strongest when it reflects the sacrificial relationship You has with the church because that is how You designed it. So I pray that we would continually strive to be less like our sinful human selves and more like perfect selfless You.

In Your name I pray, amen.”

A Prayer for a Healthy Marriage

“Jesus, I know that a healthy marriage reflects the relationship You have with Your church. The love in a healthy marriage is full of patience, kindness, faith, hope, and endurance. A healthy marriage is made up of 2 people who recognize each other as equal partners, each bringing their own strengths and weaknesses into the union. Partners in a healthy marriage see each other through God’s eyes and love and respect each other as fellow heirs of the grace of God. And people in a strong marriage are centered on a deep desire to grow closer to God and develop intentions that are selfless and pure.

I want this to be my marriage, Lord.”

Now take a moment to reflect on these traits of a healthy marriage. Ask God to show you where your marriage lines up with them and where it doesn’t. Thank Him for guiding you in the areas that are healthy, and ask Him to show you how to change course in the areas that are not.

“I also know that a healthy sex life is part of a healthy marriage, God. I want to honor my spouse in this area, so please help me to meet his/her physical needs.

And help us meet each other’s needs outside of the bedroom, too, so that no resentment builds up due to a lopsided relationship. Give us the strength and desire to do what is requested of us, even when we don’t want to. This is part of being selfless like You, Jesus, and I know we can’t have a healthy marriage without becoming more like You all the time.

Seated married couple hugging in a living room.

All this I ask in Your powerful name, Jesus. Amen.”

A Prayer for a Happy Marriage

“Lord, help me today to choose happiness in my marriage. I know that no matter what happens, I can decide to dwell on my blessings instead of what I lack. And when I cultivate a grateful heart, I will cultivate a happy spirit.

I also know that my spouse is not my source of joy, hope, or contentment. Only You can truly be that for me. Please help me to remember that You are the provider of all my needs and that humans will fail me but You never will.”

Use the next couple of minutes to tell God about 2 or 3 things that you are grateful for in your marriage and thank Him for them. Then think about any areas in which you might be misplacing your dependency and ask God to help you take them off your spouse’s shoulders and place them in His hands.

“Father, please make me less selfish and more focused on the needs of my spouse. I realize that the less I think about me and the more I think about others in a truly selfless fashion, the happier I will be in any situation. Please make the needs of my spouse clear to me and show me how I can best meet them.

In the matchless name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.”

A Prayer of Protection for Marriage

“Lord, in this cancel culture that we live in, many people are choosing to cancel their marriages. I want our marriage to remain intact, and I pray that my spouse and I would always have a deep desire to stay married. You hate divorce, Lord, so please make the idea of divorce unacceptable to us.

Please protect us from the attacks of Satan as he tries to tear down one of Your most precious institutions. Protect our hearts against the temptation to be unfaithful in thought, word, or deed. Protect our minds from all of the filth out there that would have us believe that the grass is greener in other pastures. Give us eyes only for each other, Lord.

Heavenly Father, please equip me to be the best husband/wife I can be to my spouse. I realize that if I am doing my very best to meet her/his needs and putting her/him above myself, I am taking a big step towards protecting our marriage from divorce. Help me to be selfless and pure in all of my intentions so that weeds of bitterness can’t come in and damage the foundation of our marriage.”

Peaked hands "protecting" a cutout of a couple.

Use the next minute to ask God to reveal any areas that are weak that might be easy targets for Satan to attack. Then think about how you can strengthen those areas so they are less vulnerable.

“Please protect our marriage from all kinds of immorality, from lying and slander to greed and sexual sin. Thank You for being my protector and the provider of all my needs. And thank You for my spouse.

In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.”

{If you feel you need professional help to save your marriage, please see marriage911online.com.}

A Prayer to be a Better Husband

“Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the blessing that is my wife! Let me receive her affection with a grateful heart.”

Now take a moment to reflect on what it was that you loved about your wife when you first got married. Pray that those memories would remain vivid in your mind so that you would never feel that the grass is greener in other pastures. Pray that your affections would be focused on her alone and that neither your eyes nor your mind would wander to anyone else.

“And, Lord, help me to love my wife the way she needs me to love her. Show me how to be selfless and joyful in meeting her needs. Help me to be patient and kind and polite. And give me endurance and faith no matter what life throws at us.

Give me a desire to grow closer to You and closer to my wife. And help me to do what is pleasing to You and become more like Jesus every day. I know that if I keep allowing You to make me more like Jesus, I will also become a better husband.

In Your name, I pray. Amen.”

A Prayer to be a Good Wife

“Jesus, I want to be an excellent wife to my husband – a crown for him and not like cancer in his bones, like it says in Proverbs 12:4. Help me to be more like You so that I can love him with Your perfect love and respect him as You do Your Father in Heaven.

Thank You for modeling for me the perfect relationship I should work towards by Your relationship with the church. Please guide me in how I can honor and respect my husband by letting him be the head of our household. Help me to willingly relinquish control to him as You do to God.”

Use this time to pray for specific areas in which you are having trouble submitting to your husband. Repent of times you have been less than respectful to your husband. If you can’t think of any, ask the Lord to reveal them to you; then sit in His presence for a minute and await His revelation. Then pray that you would always strive to be more like Jesus and have a desire to do what pleases the Lord no matter what.

Married woman praying with an open Bible in her lap.

“Lord, help me to be agreeable and understanding, of noble character, and prudent, so that I am a treasure to my husband, seen as a gift from You, as close to a Proverbs 31 woman as I can get. Give me a spirit of humility and grace so that I would be willing to voluntarily cooperate with my husband as he leads our family towards You.”

In Your holy name I pray, amen.”

A Prayer for Husband and Wife to Pray Together

“Father in Heaven, thank You for our marriage and the opportunity to share this life with each other and not have to go it alone. We pray that we would never stop seeing each other through Your eyes and that our love would abound more and more all the time.

We pray that we would be bound together in perfect harmony by our love for You and each other.

Please help us to be willing to forgive each other for all of the things we have done and will do to hurt each other. Give us soft hearts that are willing to move on from bitterness or anger we might be harboring towards each other.

Thank You that You have always been there for us, guiding us and showing us how to be more like You. Give us discernment to know where we have gone off course and wisdom to know how to work our way back towards You. We know that these areas are potential weak points in our marriage, and we want to fixt them before Satan uses them to tear our relationship apart.”

Married couple praying over an open Bible.

Now personalize your prayer by taking turns bringing specific issues to God. Tell Him what you are thankful for about your spouse. Ask Him to reveal to you any other areas that need your attention.

“Lord, even though we have each other, we recognize our need for You above all else. Please help us to always keep You at the head of our marriage and honor the structure of marriage that You designed; that is, You first, husband second, wife third. Give us a strong and compelling desire to seek You in all things and continue to grow to be more like You, so that we can be more selfless and thoughtful in our marriage.

In Your wonderful name, we pray. Amen.”