Marriage- Overcoming the Drift• January 4, 2026 • Andrew Spradlin • Genesis 2-24

Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.

We're so glad you're here and we hope this message inspires you,

builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.

Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible

and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.

So welcome and enjoy the message.

If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Now next Sunday, Lord willing, we're going to begin a verse-by-verse study through the book of 1 Thessalonians.

And I'm thrilled to study that book with you beginning next week.

But this morning, we're talking about how to overcome the drift that sometimes happens within marriage.

You know, last week was Christmas, and every year at Christmastime,

I'm a little bit panicked that someone in my family is going to get a present

with those dreaded words, some assembly required on the box, all right?

Those words stress me out.

I'm not very good at putting things together.

You know, when you assemble something, you need the parts, you need some tools,

you need some instructions, but you also need a vision of what it's supposed to look like.

I mean, please give me a picture.

to see if what I'm building measures up and what it's supposed to look like.

Well, all of us who are married are trying to build great marriages,

or at least that's the goal.

But sometimes we lose sight of what it's supposed to look like.

Proverbs says, where there is no vision, the people perish.

And I have found that many people don't have a vision for their marriage.

Well, maybe their marriage started out with a vision, but over time,

their marriage becomes more about routine than about relationship.

And then we wonder why divorce rates are so high.

Well, where there is no vision.

The people perish.

Without a clear vision for marriage, people just kind of go through the motions and they think,

well, this must be as good as life is going to get with this particular person.

So they either divorce the person or they live miserably in that marriage.

I want to give you a third option today, and that is to pursue God's vision for your marriage.

It's a brand new year and many people are making New Year's resolutions.

I'm sure you've been thinking about that yourself.

Why not make a New Year's resolution to pursue God's vision for your marriage?

for your marriage.

Now in order for you to do that,

you're gonna have to come to grips with the fact

that your vision for your marriage

may have been doomed from the start.

You see, the devil's a liar.

And he is constantly trying to do his best to create counterfeit visions for marriage that will never work.

And maybe you've subconsciously bought into some of those counterfeits.

Maybe you got your vision for marriage from Disney movies, you know, where Prince Charming is going to sweep you off your feet.

You're going to live happily ever after.

Like that ever happens, right?

Right?

Maybe you got your vision for marriage from some chick flicks where in the name of romance,

disloyalty and sexual promiscuity, they're completely ignored.

And then that emotional roller coaster of those movies produced oxytocin within you as you watched.

And you started to think that maybe this would be a good relationship advice and fulfilling marriage.

Others of you got your vision for marriage from pornography.

Or at least your vision of the marriage bed.

And somehow you thought that treating your spouse as an object was going to lead to mutual satisfaction.

When really it just led to mutual destruction.

The devil is bombarding our culture with counterfeit visions for marriage.

Now, I found, though, among Christians at least, most people start off not too far away from God's vision.

Most people marry for love and companionship and for intimacy.

But over time, they begin to lose sight of those things so that they drift apart.

They no longer feel love.

They no longer feel like they're companions.

They no longer experience intimacy.

So if that's you, I've got some good news for you today.

You don't have to remain like that.

In fact, you should not remain like that because God still has a vision for your marriage.

If you're still married, and I know that many people listening, you're like, Pastor, you're too late with this marriage.

I needed this months ago or years ago, and your marriage has fallen apart.

Listen, God still has a plan for your life.

But if you're still married, God has a vision for the marriage that you're in.

Now, you may no longer have that vision, but God does.

He can see it now.

It's a home that's full of love and patience, gratitude and grace.

It's a team that encourages and supports, comforts and communicates.

Genesis chapter 2, after God created Adam, he said, it's not good for man to be alone.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

I'm going to make him a helpmate that's comparable to him.

And you know the story.

God took a rib out of Adam and he fashioned a companion for man, a woman.

And God said in chapter 2, verse 24, he says, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

Now, becoming one flesh, it speaks of a number of things.

It certainly speaks, though, of companionship, intimacy, and multiplication.

You see, God's vision for your marriage is that you and your spouse would be great companions,

that you and your spouse would experience true intimacy,

and that you and your spouse would raise godly kids.

Now, that sounds like an oversimplification, and perhaps it is,

but sometimes it's helpful to get back to the basics and be simple.

Here's what marriage is about.

Those three things, companionship, intimacy, and raising a family,

that's probably why you got married in the first place.

Now, the raising the family part is not our focus today.

That's sort of the byproduct of having an amazing marriage.

That will have to be left for another day.

Instead, I want to focus on companionship and intimacy, which are God's vision for your marriage.

Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 9 says,

Ecclesiastes 4:9

"...two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.

For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.

Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one be warm alone?"

I'm guessing that you got married probably because you wanted to share your life with someone else

and you didn't want to live alone.

Right?

Now, it's not that you wanted a roommate or friends with benefit.

You wanted a lifelong companion to experience true intimacy with.

That's what you signed up for when you got married.

But there's a problem.

Life happened.

Perhaps it started out well, but it's no longer well.

Instead of daily companionship, you experienced daily battles.

Instead of true intimacy, you hardly know each other anymore.

Well, what happened?

Well, here's what happened.

You drifted apart.

Now, it's not that either one of you woke up one day and decided to have a bad marriage.

No, over time, you drifted apart.

So that now you can hardly recognize yourselves anymore.

Back in Oklahoma, where my family's from, there's these dirt roads that you can drive on.

And on both sides of the dirt roads are these huge ditches.

Now, what would happen if I'm driving down one of those dirt roads and I veered off course just by one or two degrees?

Tell you what would happen.

If I didn't course correct, I'd be in a ditch within a few hundred feet.

Well, that's exactly what happens when you drift apart

in your marriage before long.

If you don't course correct, you're gonna be in the ditch,

wondering how you got there.

And I'll tell you exactly how you got there.

You drifted there.

You drifted apart.

Now, that can happen to any of us.

In fact, it happens to all of us.

That's why it's so very important

that we intentionally course correct along the way.

Because a couple with a good marriage

doesn't have a good marriage by accident.

No, they're diligent to course correct on a regular basis.

Now, whenever they do that, it's not that they're somehow admitting they have a bad marriage.

No, what they're doing is they're admitting that marriage has an enemy within it called self.

You see, sinful self creates a problem within marriage.

Whenever God joined Kelsey and I together in marriage and he welded us together by covenant, we became one.

Now, we have had to learn how to grow to become one and experience oneness,

but that oneness is speaking of intimacy, emotional intimacy, spiritual intimacy, and even sexual intimacy.

But here's what sin does.

It says,

Sin interrupts intimacy at every level, at every level.

And sin at its core is selfishness.

When we put our desires above God

and we put our desires above others.

You see the greatest threat to your marriage

is for you to start thinking of yourselves as individuals

instead of as a team.

Because marriage is a team sport.

And you know the saying, there's no I in team.

But here's a problem.

When you got married, you remained a sinner, and your spouse remained a sinner.

In many ways, sin after you're married is actually amplified.

Now, it's not that we get more selfish when we get married.

It's just that our selfishness is more exposed.

My dad used to say that marriage is God's heavenly sandpaper.

You get two rough pieces of sandpaper and you put them together and you rub those things together, you're going to have a lot of friction.

It's going to be very rough at first, but over time, those rough edges are smoothed out.

Marriage can be a tool in the hand of God to bring sanctification to your life so that you look more like Jesus,

to rub out those rough areas of our life if we respond to Him.

But responding to him is not our natural tendency.

Our natural tendency is to ignore our selfishness.

And the reason we ignore it is because it does not feel good when it's exposed.

Our pride is wounded when it's exposed.

Gary Thomas said that marriage is one sinner living with another sinner trying to get along.

And that's true.

But let me suggest a better way to think about marriage.

A great marriage is when one grace-filled sinner is living with another grace-filled sinner actually getting along.

You see, grace is unearned favor.

And when we receive the grace of God, that means God is now treating us much better than what we deserve to be treated.

And what every marriage needs is to be grace-filled.

Where instead of each husband and wife, instead of you being stuck in this endless cycle of this selfishness loop of treating your spouse the way they deserve to be treated, what if?

What if because of our love for them, what if because we're a team, what if because we're one,

we started treating them better than what they actually deserve?

That we would do to them as God has done to us.

Now here's what will happen if your marriage becomes grace-filled.

Mutual blessing. Mutual blessing.

Because now you're not focused on what your spouse is not doing for you.

You're focused on how you can love your spouse.

in spite of it.

You love them anyway.

After all, that's how you won each other's heart

at the very beginning.

When a couple begins liking each other

and that relationship is growing towards marriage,

it's moving towards marriage,

it's because both the man and the woman

are focused on blessing the other.

How can I bless them, right?

And as they do that, their love for one another grows

and each other's shortcomings are actually minimized

in their mind and sometimes they're overlooked.

How does that happen?

Well, it's love.

Love does that. Love causes grace.

Something happens after a couple's been married a while.

Apathy sets in.

And apathy always creates you and your

spouse to have this problem of drifting.

It's going to cause you to drift apart.

Apathy is defined as a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.

In marriage, the opposite of love is not always hate.

Oftentimes, the opposite of love is apathy.

It's just kind of not care.

And sadly, many people find themselves

within an apathetic marriage,

and it didn't happen overnight.

It was much more subtle than that,

but nevertheless, here you are.

And if that's you, what in the world do you do about it?

Well, as way of application, here's what you do.

You intentionally invest in your marriage.

Intentionally invest in it.

Now, an investment is a deposit that you make

with the hope of a return.

That you make a deposit that's gonna grow

and it's gonna produce a greater return in the future.

Now the key word's future.

It takes time, doesn't it?

An investment does.

Sometimes I'll counsel with a husband

and I'll try to give him some practical advice

to help his marriage.

And I'll sometimes get a message from him the next day.

Say, I tried what you said

and things went really well last night,

but this morning it's like last night never happened.

Patience, my friend.

Your marriage didn't grow cold overnight.

It's probably not gonna be rekindled overnight.

Now, with that said, it doesn't have to take years.

Couples often see returns on their marriage

very, very quickly, because why?

God is a God of miracles,

and God can heal things very quickly,

and sometimes he blesses and he moves very quickly

when hearts are fully surrendered to him.

Now, when we invest in our marriage,

our motives should not be selfish.

Like, I'm going to scratch her back so she scratches mine.

That's a selfish motive.

Your motive for her should be to love her like Jesus loves her,

to serve her like Jesus serves her,

to sacrifice for her like Jesus sacrifices for her.

That's our motivation.

And you're hoping and you're praying for a return on your love investment.

Not a return for you alone, a return for your marriage together, for your team.

You want a blessing to come back, not for you alone, but for both of you.

Now, the other important word here is intentional.

Intentionally invest.

Rekindling companionship when it's been lost.

or intimacy within your marriage,

when it hadn't been around for a long time,

it's not just gonna happen.

Some people's strategy seems to be hope.

You know, I hope our marriage gets better.

Listen, buddy, it ain't gonna get better

by simply hoping it to get better.

It's gonna take work.

Marriage takes an intentional investing.

Now, for the remainder of the message,

I want to get real practical.

I want to give you a handful of ways that you can intentionally invest in your marriage.

Now, this is certainly not an exhaustive list, but I think if you'll do these things,

it will help spark a spark within your marriage that will be rekindled, all right?

First thing is this.

Make a decision to love your spouse.

Decide to love your spouse.

The very concept of love has been so warped in our culture that most people believe that love is simply a feeling.

It's a feeling.

Our world talks about falling in love, falling out of love,

as if we don't have a choice in the matter.

The devil would love for you to think that you're simply an animal with animal instincts

and that your love is simply a matter of biology that is a matter of chemical impulses within your brain.

No, love is a choice.

It's a decision.

It's a commitment.

We are commanded by God to love, aren't we?

That means we get to decide whether we love or not.

Yes, certainly within an ideal world, feelings of love accompany our decisions to love,

but marriage is not built on feelings of love.

Why? Feelings come and go.

When we're emotional, they come and go.

Marriage is built on a decision to love, a commitment to love.

The old saying certainly is true.

Choose your love and then love your choice.

People say, well, but Pastor, you don't understand.

I just don't love him anymore.

I don't love her anymore.

That is such a victim mindset.

I can't help it.

I'm a victim of my love.

My spouse, my kids, my whole family,

we're all victims of my love that I have no control over.

No, that is not the case.

When you said your vows to your mate before God

and those assembled witnesses, you said for better or worse.

In sickness and in health, in poverty as in wealth, you made a commitment to love.

Love is a decision that's made deep within the soul that comes out in our actions.

The way that we talk and treat one another, the way that we act, the way that we react.

So decide to love your spouse.

The second thing is this.

Pursue your spouse with a grateful heart and with grateful words.

Gratitude is wonderful medicine for a cold marriage.

Somewhere along the way, all that our spouse was and is and that they do

and that we love about them becomes routine.

And now it's expected, and we stop appreciating them.

Instead of being grateful for all the things that we like about our spouse,

we focus on all the things that we don't like.

That's ungratefulness.

Let me ask you, for those of you that have kids, how do you feel when your kids are ungrateful and entitled?

If you're like me, it's infuriating.

Well, then don't be an ungrateful and entitled spouse.

I've been that ungrateful, entitled spouse from time to time.

That's not a good thing.

Instead, let's be grateful.

Let's express our gratitude to our spouse with words.

Let's be grateful.

Babe, thank you for all that you do.

Thank you for being such a great provider.

Thank you for that amazing meal.

Thank you for being you.

And if you will do that and be intentional with your words of gratitude,

your heart is going to join all the fun and time, I can tell you.

Now, another point.

Have fun together.

I need an amen for that.

Have some fun together, all right?

That's important.

When you were dating, all you did was fun.

But once you got married and you had kids, life got busy, it got stressful,

and all the fun seemed to get sucked out of your relationship.

Why?

Because you let it.

It stopped being a priority in your relationship.

Guys, when you were dating, it was high priority.

Take your girl out.

Show her a good time.

Some guys, after they get married, they just stop.

You need to keep dating your wife.

Find ways to be playful with her,

to laugh, to have fun together.

Ladies, enter some of the fun that your man enjoys.

He'll appreciate it.

Sad, whenever we go out in public and somewhere

and we see a couple that's laughing and holding hands,

having a good time, we assume they're not married.

They must be dating.

Maybe they're newlyweds like a few days, but

you're laughing because you know it's true don't let that be you

got is given you a companion in line have fun with them

right another tip spend quality time

talking about things that matter in many ways

love is spelled T I am E time

quality time very very important now that word quality

It's an important word.

Sometimes I'll be at a restaurant somewhere and I'll notice a couple in a booth next to us

and they're on their phone the whole time.

I mean, they're just on their phone.

It's like they've never said another word to each other.

That's not quality time.

If you go to a restaurant, agree ahead of time, you're going to put down your phones.

Or better yet, you're going to leave them in the car.

Guess what? People got through life for millennia without phones.

You can survive, okay?

Whenever you're at home, it's not quality time to be on the same couch together,

scrolling on your phones endlessly all evening long.

Put down the phone, go on a walk.

It'll be good for you.

As you talk about life, things that actually matter.

Another point, pray together.

Pray together.

Guys, I'm not sure there's anything that you can do to help you grow closer to your wife emotionally, spiritually, and in time, perhaps even physically.

And for you to grab her by the hand, for you to put your arms around her and you pray for her out loud and thank God for her.

Be specific about what you're thankful for.

Pray a blessing over her for her day, for her life, for God to give her peace, for God to give her strength.

And then ladies, return the favor and pray for your husband.

Now this doesn't just have to be a scheduled time of the day.

It might be. I think it would be wonderful to be that.

But it can also be more spontaneous than that.

Praise God that Kelsey and I no longer get into the big fights

Really that we sometimes did early on in our marriage. I think that's a result of us learning to forgive

more quickly when we've offended one another, but I also think it's a result of

Me just learning

that if we have a tiff with one another that if I will just grab her and put my arms around here and I just

Start praying

God begins to melt both of our hearts.

Because here's what happens.

It puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?

We start talking to the one that we really need,

and we start recognizing, man, I think I've been pretty selfish in this situation.

Or maybe she recognizes an area that she's been selfish in that situation.

It puts it in perspective, and we're inviting Almighty God to come into our problem and to solve it.

Now, occasionally, Kelsey...

will be so upset with me, she doesn't hug me back.

You believe that?

So I'm just like, that's an awkward situation, right?

But as I pray, it's as if I can physically feel the Holy Spirit take the tension out of her body.

Pray with your spouse.

Two more things quickly.

Make sexual intimacy with your spouse a priority.

Now, is it the number one priority of your marriage?

Some guys think it is.

It's not.

It's not number one.

But loving your spouse is the number one priority.

And physical intimacy is an important part of loving your spouse.

I'm going to say something and go somewhere where it's kind of uncomfortable and it's sensitive,

but I've just felt nudged by God that people need help.

We all need help, and so let's talk about some uncomfortable things.

If you're married and you have no desire for sexual intimacy with your spouse, that's a problem.

Now, you need to recognize it's also probably a symptom of other problems.

And so what you need to do is you need to do some soul searching with the Lord.

Invite him into your problem.

And ask him to expose some things that maybe subconsciously are issues that you haven't recognized.

Search your heart.

Perhaps there's some unforgiveness that you're holding on to

and you need help, His help, to help you release it and to forgive.

Maybe there's a past trauma, maybe even sexual trauma,

that you have not healed from and you need to invite God into that trauma

to bring healing into your life.

Maybe you experience a lot of insecurity

because you're constantly comparing yourself with others

and you haven't been able to grow content with the way that God made you.

Perhaps you haven't taken the steps to try to be as healthy as you can be

and to be the best version of taking care of the temple of the Lord that God has given you.

Now, if you're not taking care of yourself, then that's going to cause you not to be

comfortable in your own skin, and that creates problems. Listen, your spouse isn't

They're not expecting you to be different than who you are.

They chose you.

They love you.

But they would love to have a confident you.

All right?

Last point of application is this.

Take advantage of all the ways that our church wants to help you in your marriage.

We're offering to help.

Marriage is really hard.

It really is.

And it's one sinner living with another sinner.

We're trying to get along.

It's hard.

And sometimes we just need a little help.

We need a little boost, right?

Our church is here to help.

If you and your spouse will simply make just a few calendar decisions,

I believe God will use that in life-altering ways.

Number one, just make a decision to come to church every week.

God will use that in amazing ways.

He'll help your marriage.

He'll help it because he'll help you individually.

See, a strong family is built upon a strong marriage.

A strong marriage is built upon strong individuals.

And strong individuals are built upon a strong God.

So first, just decide we're going to make church a priority.

Second, join a life group.

We were not meant to live this Christian life alone.

Life is too hard.

We truly are stronger together.

And in a life group, you're going to meet other couples who are in similar stages of life.

They're going through similar struggles as you are.

You can walk through life with them instead of all alone.

And the third thing is attend one of our marriage-specific ministries.

Pastor Eric's teaching a six-week marriage study on Wednesday nights beginning January 14th.

We have grace marriage sessions coming up in a couple weeks that you're going to hear more about at the end of our service in a video.

We also have marriage mentoring that has helped countless couples in our church and our community.

It's the best marriage ministry I've ever known about.

Now, as we wrap up today, if you follow all of that advice, I think it's probably going to help your marriage.

But there's one thing that will help your marriage more than anything else.

In fact, all my other advice is sort of a waste of your time if you miss this one thing.

And that is, surrender your life to Jesus.

We've got this pent-up energy and effort and failure and guilt,

and we've got to struggle individually as a family.

And what we need is we need to relax in the arms of God

and rest in His grace and invite His presence into our life.

What your marriage needs is much more than behavior modification.

If you could improve your marriage simply by behavior modification,

you already would have.

Your marriage needs most is the hand of God upon it.

You need God to do something for you and for your marriage that you can't do on your own.

You haven't been able to.

Most people that I meet with that are struggling in their marriage, they don't need a few tweaks.

Most of them need a complete overhaul.

And what they need are new hearts.

Because I can give them all kinds of advice and application,

and that might help them for just a little bit, maybe a week.

But eventually the heart services.

Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And so what God offers to give you is what you really actually need, a new heart.

His presence in your life.

His love so you have some love to share.

That's what God provides through his son Jesus.

Look at Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26.

Ezekiel 36:26

God says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes

and you will keep my judgments and do them.

Maybe you've been walking around in life trying to love your spouse with a heart of stone.

People get a heart of stone a lot of different ways.

Certainly sin, but we get calloused by the pain and the hurts and the failures of life.

And we grow cold.

Sometimes it's a protection mechanism.

And we grow hardened.

You can't love your spouse properly from that place.

It's not going to work.

You can't give what you don't have.

You've got to first receive the love of God in such a way that God touches your heart.

He softens it, and now you have something to give.

So I want to invite you today to receive God's touch.

Not outwardly, not physically, but in a deep place of your heart.

And you do that by surrendering your life to Jesus who loves you so very much.

The Bible says, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Could be today that you're in a very, very broken marriage.

And what it needs is a miracle.

I want to invite you to ask God for that miracle.

And to examine your own part that you have to play in that broken marriage.

Could be that this message is finding you, or so it seems, a little bit late.

You're already divorced.

Your home has already been broken.

I want to encourage you today that God sees you exactly where you're at.

He loves you exactly where you're at.

And He has a great plan for you if you'll surrender to Him.

Life is not over.

There's a new chapter.

Yes, God hates divorce.

Yes, it's not his plan.

It's not his ideal.

But he takes our failures.

He takes our hurts and our pains and our brokenness.

And he and he alone has the ability to take that and to weave it into this wonderful, beautiful picture by his grace.

Thank you.

So maybe you need to receive God's healing touch because you've gone through the trauma of a divorce.

You know, the Bible says that marriage is actually a picture of Jesus and his church and his bride.

That's a high standard, isn't it?

That we are to love one another the way Jesus loves us.

That's the standard.

So I think the question for those of us who are married is, what kind of picture are we?

Are people able to look at our lives?

And yeah, obviously it's not perfect.

We're able to look at our general trajectory of our marriage and say,

wow, that looks a lot like the way Jesus loves.

That's beautiful.

Or does this look something very different than that?

If it looks very different than that,

then I want to invite you to do business with God today and ask him to help.

What you need is the help.

that only God can bring.

Maybe you want to come to these steps in a moment and pray.

We're going to stand and we're going to sing a little bit at both campuses,

and these steps will be open for you to just come as a couple, as a family,

and pray for your marriage together.

Pray for your spouse.

Pray for one another out loud at the altar.

Maybe you want to come and have someone pray for you.

We're here to help.

Now maybe God has blessed you with a pretty good marriage.

Maybe you've had some seasons and you've been through some stuff.

You've been through a lot of pain.

Maybe you've been through betrayal.

Maybe you've been through all sorts of financial problems, grief, all of the things,

but God has seen you to the other side.

And now you're walking in a place that...

It's actually a whole lot better than other people are in their marriage.

If that's you, I want to encourage you to not just sit on that alone,

but to help others that, you know, you're further down the road than some others.

They might be in the midst of that crisis themselves,

and they just need someone to walk with them through it.

Give them some hope.

Let them know, hey, yeah, if you take these steps, here's what God can do.

Look at us.

If that's you and you'd like to help, we have a marriage mentor ministry,

and we have more people that need to be mentored than we have mentors.

And we have dozens of mentors.

But we need that to increase.

So if God's touching your heart, it's not that you sign up and we send you to the wolves.

No, we're going to train you, give you some tools in your tool belt of knowing how to help people.

Maybe that's the ministry God's calling you to today.

If that's the case, let us know.

We'd love to connect with you and hear your story and get you trained.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your amazing grace.

Thank you, Lord, that we love you because you first loved us.

And Lord, that your love is not based on our pursuit of you.

It's based on your pursuit of us.

While we were still sinners, while we were rejecting you,

while we were apathetic, while we were in sin,

Christ died for us.

Thank you, Lord, for taking the first step.

Thank you for initiating.

Thank you for pursuing.

And Lord, thank you for the gift of marriage.

I know that it's hard.

I know oftentimes it's hurtful.

It's irritating.

It can cause anger.

It can cause emotional turmoil.

Sometimes, Lord, the wounds are so deep.

Lord, we need you to touch all those areas.

Would you help those who need you?

Would you speak to their heart?

You know them.

You made them.

You know their whole story better than they even know their story.

Would you speak to them in a way that they recognize, Lord, today?

Touch them in a place that my words can't.

Please, by your spirit, would you bring life to those who need it today?

Please draw us to yourself.

Please do a work, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for listening today.

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No matter where you are in your journey,

know that we love you, we're praying for you

and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.