Day Thirty-One: Endurance

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, –Romans 15:5

This is our prayer for you. I pray that you would continue to pray together as a couple. Furthermore, I pray that you would encourage other couples to take this challenge and pray with their spouse. As you do this I pray that the God of endurance and encouragement would cause you to endure in your relationship with one another. I hope that you have grown in the Lord this month and that you have been encouraged. May Christ be glorified as you continue to love your spouse through praying together.

Lord, thank you for all those that have prayed with their spouse. I pray that they would continue. Help us continue praying together as well. Cause us to endure in this great endeavor. May Christ be glorified through us. Transform our marriages for His name. Use us as living examples of your love for your church. Amen.

Day 30: Grow in Grace

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. –2 Peter 3:18

The alternative to the but in this verse is found in 2 Peter 3:17. There we are encouraged to not listen to the Scripture twisters who will carry us into error. This will cause us to lose our stability. Rightly handling God’s word is the way that we “grow in grace and knowledge of Christ”. This in turn will give us homes of stability. But God’s Word is sometimes difficult to understand, so we have to pray for the Spirit to illumine God’s Word to us. Our home will either be saturated by grace or filled with error. With the internet, social media, television, and endless streaming we have many avenues within our own homes to saturate us with error. Let us pray today that God will give us the grace to sift through the smut and to be anchored in His Word.

Father, we are desperate for you to keep us from the error we are so prone to follow. You have given us hearts which long for the truth, help us listen to you and trust your ways over our own wisdom. Give us the strength to turn off sources of error that permeate our home. Give us homes saturated with grace and growing in the knowledge of Christ. Amen.

Day Twenty-Nine: Stability

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” –Matthew 7:24-27

What is your marriage built upon? There are many things which appear to be sturdy that we can build our marriage upon, but they are all shifting sand. I remember seeing photos of some of the most intricate sandcastles ever built. The people had to spend days on those things, only to watch them eventually destroyed by the waves. We can do the same with our marriages. When we build on sand we shouldn’t be shocked by instability in our lives. Christ, calls us to be wise and build our house upon the only sure foundation; namely, Himself.

Father, we confess that far too often we build upon sand. We feel the instability of these foolish choices. Thank you for allowing them to come up empty. Thank you for the grace of failed sandcastles. We want to find our security and stability in the only foundation which will stand. Help us to recognize the sand in our lives and replace it with the rock of our salvation. Amen.

Some of the sandy structures we’ve built are intricate and beautiful