May He Grant: May 3rd

From our archived blog:

May 3: Pray that God would strengthen our marriage. Ask for clear communication, graciousness, kindness, and unity in the midst of many distractions and challenges.

It’s Day 3 of our month of prayer focus, May He Grant. You can read more about our heart for this month, and print out a complete guide for the month here. We have been married for eleven years, and have walked through many things during that time. We are blessed to be on this journey of reaching the Bibleless for God's glory together!

Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.  The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man."  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:22-24

Just as with any marriage, we face struggles. At ICC we were reminded that our marriage is not about us, it's about God. Our marriage is for His glory, and one of the ways He is glorified is using our marriage for our sanctification - a way for us to die to ourselves, and become more like Him. Pray that I (Melissa) would be strengthened to submit and respect to David. Pray that David would be strengthened to love me the way he is called too. It is only through God's grace that our marriage can be this kind of picture!

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her  to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,  and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--  for we are members of his body.  "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."  This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:22-33