When Rachel and I first met and married, she did not know how strongly we would be pulling for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team throughout our years of marriage. In fact, early in our marriage, or rather through most of our marriage, she could not have cared less about football. I even wasn’t all that interested for many years. I did not watch football much when I was a teenager, although Mom and Dad would have the games on during the fall.
When we moved back to the states, Nick Saban was hired at Alabama and that’s when my interest in Alabama football really took off – especially because now I had two girls who could share the excitement with me. But Rachel…? No.
After we moved up here, Rachel still did not share my passion for football or for Alabama football. Until we went to our first game two years ago. And she experienced the excitement and the energy of being in the stadium there in Tuscaloosa. That changed everything. Now, not only does she want to watch Alabama football, but she even watches some other football games with me. And she’s starting to pick up the “lingo” of football!
I never really thought about praying that Rachel would share my interest in football, but when you pray for your spouse and you pray that you will grow closer together, doesn’t that include growing in your mutual interests and desires that you want to spend time together with each other? As we finish our series on the “Prayer Life of Jesus,” today we will focus on that – praying for ourselves and our spouse that we’ll grow together in mutual interests and desires.
Today, we’re going to look at three specific prayers of Jesus, all of which He prayed while He was on the cross. Two are recorded by Luke while one is recorded by Matthew and Mark…
FORGIVENESS – Luke 23:34:
In this series of studies, I have already done a study on praying for our spouse’s obedience, so I’m not going to focus on the “forgiveness” aspect, which we all desire. I’m focusing on praying for our spouse’s dreams.
Everyone has dreams. Some of our dreams are spiritual – like wanting forgiveness of our sins. Some of our dream are material / physical / or earthly in nature. That doesn’t mean they are wrong. It just means that they are lower down on the priority level. But, sharing interests with our spouses is not low down on the priority level. Or it should not be. Are you praying for that?
SAFETY – Luke 23:46:
Again, I have already had a sermon in this series on praying for our spouse’s safety. Here, we are talking about praying for our spouse’s desires, as Jesus expressed His desire for safety in the Father’s hands.
Husbands, if you want a happy and fulfilled wife who is a joy to be around, ask her if there is a dream within her heart that she longs to see fulfilled. Listen openly as she describes it, with no judgment, no condemnation, and no lecture on why it’s not possible. Pray that she will be able to surrender that desire to the Lord and allow Him to work things out as He knows is best.
Wives, you should do the same…
PRESENCE – Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34:
Are you truly present in your spouse’s life and heart?
Do you pray to be present in your spouse’s life and that your spouse will be present in your life?
Pray that your and your spouse’s dreams can coincide and that you can work to fulfill those dreams. It will strengthen your marriage and better prepare you for the challenges ahead.
Paul Holland