Jesus, help me realize that most people don’t understand the way marriage issues works. I, like most people, think I can do anything I want, if I simply want it bad enough. But, if that is true, then I am suffering from marriage problems because I must not “really” want to get rid of them. Teach me that, that is the assumption of a lot of people; and, it can be my belief as a person who is overcome by struggles with marriage. It may be difficult for me to believe, but help me realize that my struggles with marriage need supernatural help.

Jesus, You understand me and all that I am going through. You not only understand what I am going through, You know why I am going through them. You know there are things my body and mind can experience that will become a demanding force in my life. You have listed things in the Bible that have problem generating characteristics.

Jesus, I, like everyone else, have had my attitudes and opinions about those things God identifies as sins. Show me that I can often not only misunderstand the issues of sin, I may not even know what God’s reason is for labeling them sins. What if the cans, bottles, and packages in my grocery store weren’t labeled? What if the people running the store mixed food containers with deadly chemicals in similar containers? I would have all kinds of unlabeled containers that I had no idea whether or not they were okay for me to eat.

Jesus, make it clear to me that labels are vital to my everyday living; I need to know what I am buying and how to use it. Help me see that God understands the vital necessity of making sure I know what each thing in life will do, if I expose myself to it. Like the containers in the grocery store, help me see that God has labeled everything AND has given a description of how to use it and what it will do if used improperly.

Jesus, a lot of the leaders in my life don’t like the concept of sin. They have found that extreme pleasure can come from those things the Bible labels sins. They believe and they want me to believe that everyone can do anything they want and it will all turn out okay. They tell me that all I have to do is follow my heart and my life will be fine. However, since I don’t want my life being dominated by problems, I will be very sorry if someone doesn’t warn me about the pitfalls of certain activities. If only people had helped me understand what I was facing in life before I had to deal with them and face the consequences of misusing it.

Jesus, help me realize that some of the things the Bible lists as sins are sins because they are wrong; but, there are some of them that I and my spouse disagree with God about and feel they should be okay. These areas where we disagreed with God and sinned anyway are areas that we have opened doors in us that are causing things like marital problems and conflicts. Plus, help me understand that the Bible doesn’t list all the mistakes I can make. Teach me that there are things I can do to hurt or ruin my life that quite simply weren’t evil or bad. Over my lifetime, I have looked things over, weighed my options, made a sincere choice or series of choices, started living my life based on my choices, and then discovered I made the wrong decision.

Jesus, help me see that the pain that comes from marriage struggles can be just as severe through making a mistake as it is from doing something that was bad or wrong. The fact that I messed up and hurt myself and my partner, or someone else, or something important to me is enough to cause me regret and pain. Jesus, help me and my spouse get rid of the pain, guilt, and regret; help us make changes to the results we got from our mistakes or sins. Put us on a path where I and my partner are able to stop making so many mistakes.

Jesus help me REMEMBER THIS: It doesn’t matter to God how bad my mistakes or sins are, it doesn’t matter to Him how many of them I have committed, His main concern is whether or not I and my spouse want help and deliverance from them. Show me that my desire is VERY important to God; He wants to know whether or not I WANT His help.

Jesus, help me really learn this principle: Adults are people who have lived long enough to have had a chance to find out a lot of things about life. Babies and children are people who are just starting out facing the circumstances that life will bring them. Parents are adults that are SUPPOSED to use their training and experiences to protect babies and young children. Babies and young children have a very open and free attitude about everything.

Suppose a parent allowed their child do whatever they wanted. More than likely that child would not make it to becoming a teenager. There are so many things that an unsuspecting child might try that could not only hurt them, it could kill them. That’s the way it is in Christianity; it is the obligation of all mature Christians to warn and train new Christians. New and untrained Christians don’t realize where all the dangers are in life; they don’t have all Jesus’ principles and training to protect them. Jesus, help me to be trained into a qualifited spiritual parent.

Jesus, help me learn these principles so I can apply them to my life: As you know, not all children obey their parents; even though it is obvious that their parents know a lot more than they do, they often feel that their parents don’t understand their situation. God has provided the Bible, church, Christians, and a conscience that works inside us. However, we have ALL insisted on making our own decisions; but, that is what having a God-given free will is all about.

Jesus, since God wants me and my partner to be able to run our own lives and make our own decisions, help us handle this privilege in a good way. However, like children, I need God’s parental supervision. After I have had a chance to try things my own way, sometimes I decide to allow You to get involved. But, I soon find out that You won’t do anything I don’t give You permission to do.

Jesus, teach me that my marital problems take a certain amount of my self-control away from me. Show me that God’s objective is to free me from the damage caused by marriage issues and give me and my partner our control back. Then we will be able to decide where, how often, and when we want to work together with You. This is so You can keep us from getting inflicted with marriage struggles again.

Jesus, as I involve myself in the Biblical principles in this study, I have certain ideas as to what I want this program to do for me. Different people join programs dealing with marital issues for all kinds of reasons. If my desires are minor where I just want to get rid of the pain, help me see that I may approach these studies with low goals. If I would like to see things not only improve in the areas of my struggles with marriage, if I would like all the other areas of my life made better as well, then my goals will be high. In that case, help me open up to major possibilities.

Jesus, since I am in charge of my own future and since You will only do those things I want, help me understand that I need to be aware of how great and powerful You are. Teach me that You are only limited by my will, my desires, and my cooperation with You. It can be like a wealthy person living in an old, rundown house, with very little food. They have the potential and the opportunity to live a very luxurious life; but, because they aren’t taking advantage of their resources, they are missing out on what could be. Help that not happen to me.

Jesus, suppose I stop into a store because my appliance broke down, only to discover that I was their one-thousandth customer. Because of that, they allow me to pick a full house of new appliances. Teach me that this is the way God works; I came to Him just wanting to get my marriage issues taken care of and He is offering me all kinds of supernatural provisions and gifts. Jesus, You are willing and able to do much more than I might imagine. I have joined this study because the issues of marriage have caused my life to breakdown; but, I can discover a lot more is available to me. Show me that the difficult part for me having such a wonderful and powerful God is me realizing it and taking advantage of all the possibilities.