Praying is your way of submitting your soul (human life and body) to Jesus. But, unless you know what to pray, you won’t be able to invite Jesus into your situation. Your heavenly Father can help you, if you will accept your part in your struggles with marriage. If you are blaming someone else, excusing yourself, justifying yourself, or getting your friends to tell you it isn’t your fault, God won’t help you. Jesus wants to work on you first; but, if you are praying about your struggles with all those around you, you are praying about the wrong things.

As you allow Jesus to show you your part in the struggles you are having with marriage, that will get you ready to see WHAT IS your problem. Jesus will show you where your problem is; He will help you see that it is YOUR BODY that is causing you the difficulties you are having with marriage. As long as your body isn’t submitted to Jesus, IT will keep opening the doors to its animalistic desires, drives, passions, and cravings. You will be driven by selfishness, self-centeredness, and greed.

Now, let Jesus help you examine the Scriptures that tell you how you NEED to look and pray about all of your problems with marriage. Let Him deal with those problems that are taking place in and around your life, EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN. LET His Scriptures change your thinking about this struggle. You need to look differently at what you are going through concerning your battle with your body. You may not have even realized that you were having a battle with your body. You may not have been aware that many of your thoughts and feelings weren’t coming for you, a spirit being. They were coming from your human body that didn’t get saved. It still has a SINFUL NATURE that has to be dealt with by you and Jesus.

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I WANT to do I do not do, but what I HATE I do. As you submit your body to Jesus, you will start understanding why you don’t seem to be able to live the Christian life like you want to. If you will allow Jesus to help you understand your body, you will stop having confusion as to why you don’t have control over your thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. While keeping in mind that the SINFUL NATURE is in your body, let Jesus show you what your body looks like.

Gal 5:19-21 (NIV) The acts of the SINFUL NATURE are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures); idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. These are the things your body wants to do; if you just pay close attention to when it gets interested and excited, you will see this pattern in it. You won’t see all of them given in this list; but, you WILL see many of them.

As you read this list, you may want to believe that your body isn’t like that. If you still have SELF-esteem and SELF-confidence, you will have a hard time seeing the SINFUL NATURE that is ruling and dominating your body. Jesus isn’t trying to get you to hate or reject your body. He is trying to help you see how much you need to submit it to Him. YOU CAN’T CONTROL IT! As you go through these next Scriptures with Jesus, you will need to accept the fact that YOU cannot win over your body by yourself. You will NEVER have enough determination, will-power, or control over it to win.

Rom 7:16 (NIV) And if I DO what I do not WANT to do, I agree that the law is GOOD. The way to treat yourself and the people around you is described in the Bible and in your conscience. As Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, speaks to your conscience and teaches you the meaning of the Bible, you are being exposed to how to treat people.

Just think about this for a moment: If the world were living according to the Bible, we wouldn’t have all the horrible things happening. God IS Who we need Him to be; He lives by the principles we need to live by; He is insisting on those things we desperately need to obey. EVERYTHING God lists as sins, are deadly; THEY WILL IN FACT destroy you and the people around you. It may take a little time for them to do it; but, they WILL destroy you and others. Your body DOES have the SINFUL NATURE in it; you DO need to learn how to submit it to Jesus. But, there are some things you need to pray about so you can do that.

Prov 14:12 (NIV) There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Prior to salvation, you were doing sins that hurt you and those around you; and, you WANTED to do them. Even though the Holy Spirit was making you feel guilty about them, you still enjoyed the pleasures sin generated in your body; and, you would have preferred to not feel guilty about those sins. But, God knew that all of these sins were going to lead you into a life that would produce struggles, difficulties, and problems with marriage. At this point you WERE NOT willing to start praying against these sins you were committing.

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I WANT to do I do not do, but what I HATE I do. When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, Lord, and King, you became a CHRISTIAN who had all kinds of habits, addictions, shortcomings, failures, difficulties, and problems. You, as a Christian, also had all kinds of plans, goals, philosophies, training, skills, and attitudes that were going to keep heading you into more difficult issues. Jesus is taking you through the step-by-step procedures for making changes that are vital. Your entire life has been spent learning human ways of satisfying your body and making it and you happy. But, a lot of them were leading you into major problems.

Rom 7:19 (NIV) For what I do is not the good I WANT to do; no, the evil I DO NOT WANT to do--this I keep on doing. The big difference between you before Jesus and you as a new or untrained CHRISTIAN is that you are doing these SAME things but starting to DISAGREE with them. Believe it or not, this is a miraculous moment in your life. This is where God has been wanting to take mankind since the fall of Adam and Eve. You, as Christians, now have a MIND that is in agreement with the laws and principles of God. But, you have a body that isn’t in agreement with the laws and principles of God. But, as a new or untrained Christian, you want to pray for the right things but don’t know what they are.

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I WANT to do I do not do, but what I HATE I do. With a mind that is ready to see your life change, you stand ready to find out how to get what you NOW want. Everything is in place ready for you to start spiritual growth; everything is ready for you to learn how to win against the problems you are having with marriage. But, you STILL don’t realize that it is your body that is keeping you from living The Victorious Christian Life.

Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? This is a prayer that addresses your real problem. You must pray prayers that are based on how things really are. If you haven’t come to the place where you DESIRE to know how things really are, you will remain in your problems and difficulties. If you haven’t STUDIED the Bible and found out how things really work, you will stay where you are. And, if you don’t or can’t pray prayers that address the way things really work, you won’t get God’s help.

You aren’t happy with all the problems you are having with marriage. THAT is what God is looking for; you aren’t satisfied with the way your life has been going; that is the attitude of a TRUE Christian. Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible are showing you a better way to live life and it is giving you a dissatisfaction. That is a VITAL stage in your new or untrained Christian life. Now, what are you going to do with this dissatisfaction? Are you going to let it discourage you and cause your to quit? Are you going to get mad at God because He doesn’t seem to be answering your prayer? NO! You have decided to get involved with Jesus and let Him train and empower you to “do what it takes” to get The Victorious Christian Life.

Rom 8:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. You have to accept the fact that God isn’t upset with you; He isn’t mad at you for not being able to solve all your problems with marriage or any other problems you are having. In other words, you need to open the door to your heart and BELIEVE that your heavenly Father accepts you just like you are NOW. He isn’t going to leave you like you are; but, it is going to take time for you to get healed. It took you a long time to get yourself into these problems; now you need to be patient and let Jesus undo, un-train, heal, transform, and retrain you in His ways.

Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in MY SINFUL NATURE. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. You have a body that you are living in; it is YOUR body. Just like you can’t go around hitting people with your car and then claim it wasn’t you, it was your car. Rom 8:12 (NIV) Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the SINFUL NATURE, to live according to it. There are some prayers you are going to have to pray so as to get God’s help with YOUR body.

Rom 7:20 (NIV) Now if I DO what I do not WANT to do, it is NO LONGER I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Can you see how you COULD be separated from your body and then deny all responsibility for what it does? But, if you go the other way and keep accepting it as you, then it will keep defeating you. One reason God isn’t disappointed or upset with you is because you aren’t the one who is causing all these problems in your life ANYMORE. He knows your body has dominance over you; He knows you need Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible to train and empower you to win over your body. That is why He gave you the clean record with Him. He wants you to take advantage of that clean record and get His help with your body.

Rom 7:21 (NIV) So I find this LAW at work: When I WANT to do good, evil is right there with me. Where is evil right there with you? The SINFUL NATURE in your body is right there with you. Before salvation, you and your body were on the same page. The only reason you didn’t go out, during that time, and live like an animal is because God gave you a conscience. Your conscience was and is the Holy Spirit’s door of communication with you. HE made you feel bad about anything animalistic. Your body’s sex drives, survival instincts, selfishness, and desires for importance and value were limited by your conscience.

Rom 8:13 (NIV) For if you live according to the SINFUL NATURE, you will die; but if BY the Spirit YOU put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. As a new or untrained Christian, you are having difficulties with marriage because you haven’t yet learned how to put to death the misdeeds of the body. Your body still has the training, habits, desires, philosophies, and weaknesses it had prior to salvation; but, God sees you and your body as being two different entities. If this is the way God sees it, then that is the way you need to see it.

Rom 7:13 (NIV) Did that which is good (Jesus’ law), then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it (Jesus’ law) produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. You CANNOT ignore all the fun, pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction your body gave you. If you think that life with Jesus will end all this fun, then you WILL NOT DESIRE to win over your body. You will fail the very first step in The Six Biblical Principles. Jesus has plans you and your body that will be very fun, have wonderful pleasure, will give you something superior to happiness, and will satisfy you in ways you never imagined.

Mat 7:4 (NIV) How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You may not see this issue concerning your body as being all that important. You may not care about where your problems with marriage are coming from; you may not even see your problems as coming from you at all. You may be blaming someone else for all your problems; but, as Jesus pointed out before, you are always a participant in how you got into these problems in the first place. It is vital that you accept your part in getting into this condition.