Tight Knots - Pray your way to a great marriage

Pray your way to a Great Marriage 30 Day Prayer Challenge We’re so glad you’ve decided to accept the “30 Day Prayer Challenge” to pray your way to a great marriage! Your decision means that you truly want a blessing in your home. The challenge will also result in spiritual growth in your home, marriage and your individual lives.

As Christians we are instructed to pray for one another (Ephesians 6:18), because fervent prayer changes all situations even those that may seem impossible (James 5:16) The Story of the “Tower of Babel” in Genesis 11:5-6 KJV And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do is an excellent illustration of what can happen when people are in agreement. The people of the earth spoke one language and decided to build a tower so tall that it got to heaven, the only problem was that it was not in line with God’s plans and God truncated their plans, putting confusion into their midst by changing their language so that their understanding was lost.

We can infer from this that if we come together in agreement for God’s plans to be fulfilled in our marriages, God will hear us as He wants our marriages to depict His love for the church, His bride. As we pray for our marriages and others too on the marriage journey, let’s remember that our prayers matter and will bring down heaven here on earth in our homes.

As you pray for your marriage this month, we would like to encourage you to keep track of what God will do in your marriage, home and your lives. We hope that when the opportunity arises you will take time to share what God has done, God bless you as you pray for and encourage each other.

Join us on twitter @tightknots or facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tightknots-marriageministry/255469104572725 to share your thoughts and testimonies with us. You can

also email us at tightknots@jesushouse.org.uk

Day 1 Genesis 1:28 MSG He created them male and female. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

Prayer: Holy Spirit give us wisdom on how to look after the things that God has given us responsibility for. Thank you for blessing us with fruitfulness and thank you for blessing the works of our hands.

Day 2 Mark 11:24 MSG That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything.

Prayer: Holy Spirit thank you for giving us the knowledge that when we ask for everything that we want, we will get it as long as we embrace the God life. Help us to live holy unto you Lord in everything we do.

Day 3 Matthew 6:33 MSG Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out.

You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Prayer: Holy Spirit teach us how to put God first in our everyday lives, help us to seek the things of God and remove worry and anxiety from us in Jesus name.

Day 4 Mathew 6:34 Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Prayer: Holy Spirit thank you for letting us know that if we give our entire attention to what God is doing we will not have the opportunity to think that things may go wrong. Give us the grace to encourage each other when we feel that things are hard. May we always have the knowledge that God is helping us deal with whatever hard things come up.

Day 5 James 4:10 MSG Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.

Prayer: Holy Spirit teach us to humble ourselves before the Lord, because when we do this, we know that we will be exalted.

Day 6 Psalm 37:3-4 MSG Get insurance with God and do a good deed, settle down and stick to your last. Keep company with God, get in on the best.

Prayer: Holy Spirit help us delight ourselves in you, so that the desires of our hearts can be met.

Day 7 1 Kings 2:3 Do what God tells you. Walk in the paths he shows you: Follow the life-map absolutely, keep an eye out for the signposts, his course for life set out in the revelation to Moses; then you'll get on well in whatever you do and wherever you go.

Prayer: Holy Spirit help us to walk in the path that you show us, help us follow the Life-map and keep our eyes out for the signposts of success. Help us to get on well in whatever we do and wherever we go.

Day 8 Deuteronomy 8:17-18 If you start thinking to yourselves, "I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!"— well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.

Prayer: Holy Spirit help us to always remember to praise God in everything that we do. May we never ever think that we are strong to do it all by ourselves. Thank you God for giving us the ability to make wealth, may we never abuse our opportunities in Jesus name.

Day 9 Matthew 5:14-16 MSG Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Prayer: Holy Spirit teach us how to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. May we never lose our saltiness, so that we can teach our children how to live holy and they can pass this down to our generations to come.

Day 10 Mark 3:25 MSG A constantly squabbling family disintegrates.

Prayer: Holy Spirit teach us to tolerate each other instead of squabbling for a house divided against itself cannot stand. Give us the grace to always live as one flesh, so that we can set a great example for our children and future generations.

Day 11 Genesis 2:24 MSG Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh.

Prayer: Dear Lord help us to be one flesh every day in our marriage, let us always see our union the same way you see it.

Day 12 Ephesians 5:25 MSG Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting.

Prayer Husband: Dear Lord help me to love my wife unconditionally, exactly as Jesus Christ did for the church, help me to show her love by giving her my all.

Wife: Dear Lord give my husband the grace to love me the same way Jesus Christ loved the church, give me the grace not to abuse his love and show me ways that I can receive it.

Day 13 Ephesians 5:22-24 MSG Wives understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ.

The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

Prayer Wife: Dear Lord help me to understand and support my husband in ways that show my support for Jesus Christ. Help me to submit to him as he exercises his leadership the way you do to your church.

Husband: Dear Lord give me the grace to provide leadership to my wife the way you do to your church. Help me not to be domineering instead teach me how to cherish my wife.

Day 14 Genesis 1:27 MSG God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female.

Prayer: Dear Lord we are truly made in your image, may our marriage be an example unto others and reflect your true values for mankind in Jesus name.

Day 15 Proverbs 12:4 MSG A hearty wife invigorates her husband, but a frigid woman is cancer in the bones.

Prayer: Wife: Dear lord help me to be an excellent wife so that my husband can be proud of me, may he never be ashamed of me, help me to always please him.

Husband: Dear lord give my wife the grace to be a hearty Wife, let me always be proud of her and give her the grace to always please me.

Day 16 1 Peter 3:7 MSG The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honour them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God's grace, you're equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don't run aground.

Prayer: Husband: Dear lord help me to be a good husband to my wife, teach me to honour and delight in her and treat her as my equal so that my prayers will not be hindered.

Wife: Dear lord as a woman, I lack some of the advantages that my husband has, give him the grace to be good to me, help him to honour and delight in me.

Day 17 Ephesians 4:26-27 MSG Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

Prayer: Dear lord help us not to sin when we are angry, give us the grace not to exert vengeance on each other and help us to settle our differences and not carry them into a new day.

Day 18 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 MSG Don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership; that's war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands?

Prayer: Dear Lord help us to keep relationships and company, that will have a positive impact to our marriage, direct our paths to places that you want us to be, may we always abide in you.

Day 19 1 Corinthians 7:4 MSG The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband. Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights."

Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out.

Prayer: Dear lord teach us to satisfy each other in the marriage bed, let us not be selfish by satisfying ourselves. Teach us to serve each other and give us the grace not to “stand up for our rights”. Help us to make the decision to serve each other in and out of the bedroom.

Day 20 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 MSG

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

Prayer: Dear Lord help us never to give up on each other, let us care for one another more than we care for ourselves; teach us not to be selfish towards each other. May we not be proud, envious, arrogant, rude, resentful, and irritable towards each other, let us always rejoice with the truth about each other and tolerate one another. Most importantly, let us completely trust you, hope for the best and never look back until the end.

Day 21 1 John 4:18 MSG There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

Prayer: Heavenly Father forgive us for judging each other, remove the spirit of fear from our marriage, and let the spirit of love have permanent residence in our marriage in Jesus name.

Day 22 1 Peter 5:7 MSG Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.

Prayer: Heavenly Father forgive us for being anxious and not trusting in each other, because if we don’t trust each other we can’t trust you. Help us to cast our entire burden on you and remember us help us remember that you are careful when it comes to things that concerns us.

Day 23 1 John 1:9 MSG On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.

Prayer: Heavenly Father we ask that you forgive us for our sins, cleanse us from things that we have done in the past to hurt each other. Purge us of all wrong doing that is harmful to each other.

Day 24 Romans 15:13 MSG May the God of green hope fill you up with joy; fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

Prayer: Heavenly Father fill us and our marriage with your Joy and Peace, may we constantly be energised by the Holy Spirit so that our marriage can brim over with Hope.

Day 25

Jeremiah 17:7 MSG “But blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the woman who sticks with God.” Prayer: Husband: Heavenly Father help me to completely trust you and help my wife stick with you always.

Wife: Heavenly father help me to stick with you always and help my husband trust you completely Day 26 2 Corinthians 5:17 MSG Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, creator of all things, creates in us a new life as we unite ourselves with Jesus. Help us to leave the past where it belongs so that we focus on the new things that you have in store for us.

Day 27 Romans 8:35 MSG Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture Prayer: Heavenly Father protect our marriage from troubles, hard times, hatred, and help us to focus on you always, don’t let us be distracted from your plans for us.

Day 28 Luke 16:11-12 MSG If you're honest in small things, you'll be honest in big things; if you're a crook in small things, you'll be a crook in big things. If you're not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store?

Prayer: Heavenly Father help us to be honest with each other so that we can trust each other with things that concern us. Where trust has been abused, we ask that you bring healing in Jesus name.

Day 29 Mark 5:36 MSG Jesus overheard what they were talking about and said to the leader, "Don't listen to them; just trust me Prayer: Heavenly Father helps us to trust you more, because when we trust you we can trust each other. Help us to manage third party relationships by helping us trust and listen to each other.

Day 30

Proverbs 21:20 MSG Valuables are safe in a wise person's home; fools put it all out for yard sales.

Prayer: Heavenly Father help us to value our marriage more than we already do, let us not to be foolish by not trusting each other. Help us to value our strengths and help us work together on our weaknesses.