Pray about addictions or other destructive behaviors. Only God can give you and your spouse the healing, deliverance, and wholeness you need when your marriage is threatened by addictions or other self-destructive behaviors. Ask God to help you and your spouse: come to Him for a fresh filling from the Holy Spirit to empower you each day, crucify your fleshly desires, resist the world’s temptations, choose to live by the Spirit rather than the flesh, open your eyes to the habits you’ve allowed into your lives that have the potential to harm you, bring everything into the open so that nothing is hidden from each other, learn to trust Him to give you peace instead of looking for it in other places (such as through alcohol or drugs) that can’t deliver the peace you need, confess your sins, want to change, break your addictions, and empower you to resist temptation.

Pray about outside influences polluting your sexual relationship. Although the many sexual images and temptations that surround you in our culture may seem harmless, they actually can insidiously harm your marriage by making your spouse seem less attractive and your sexual relationship less enjoyable in comparison. Outside influences will distract you and your spouse from each other more and more over time, and cheapen the sexual relationship that God intended to be meaningful and enjoyable between you. Ask God to help you and your spouse: always put each other first and avoid acting out of selfish disregard for the other, recognize what’s dangerous to your relationship and keep you from anything that would compromise your relationship, keep your hearts from being enticed and drawn away from each other, live in the Spirit so you don’t give into lust, expose your sins so that neither or you can have a secret life, recognize what will lead to temptation for you so that you can take steps to avoid it, purify your desires, and empower you to obey His design for marriage.

Pray about your hearts hardening. Pay attention to what’s going on when you feel so frustrated that you just don’t care about your marriage anymore, and you want to give up. At those times, remember that God has the power to turn your marriage around – no matter how hopeless things might seem. Ask God to help you and your spouse: keep from growing stubborn or rebellious, value the time you have together, take away wrong attitudes like pride or bitterness so you won’t displease Him, soften your hearts toward each other, heal any brokenness in your hearts, and constantly renew your love for Him and each other.

Pray about your priorities. Make your relationship with your spouse your top priority after your relationship with God. Realize that if you neglect to do so, you and your spouse will inevitably drift apart. Arrange your life so that you can devote all the time and energy you need to a close relationship with your spouse. Ask God to help you and your spouse: love each other the way He wants you to, become vessels through which His love flows, establish the right priorities in your marriage and family life and make the daily decisions you need to make to live out those priorities, consider each other’s best interests instead of acting out of selfish ambition or vanity, encourage each other, bear each other’s burdens, set aside time to be together alone regularly, and agree on how to handle especially busy seasons while still treasuring each other.