God has just the right spouse in mind for you. But sometimes He waits until you are both ready to leave singleness and fully embrace married life—and all the changes that come with it.
Don’t be discouraged if everyone you know is married but you. God is preparing a soul mate that is worth the wait. And you can do more than wait. You can pray for your future spouse.
When I say pray for your spouse, I don’t mean to pray the future spouse into existence or to call them forth. I mean to pray for your future spouse so God can prepare them—and you—for marriage.
So how, then, do you pray for your future spouse?
1. Ask for God’s will to be done in their life.
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
This prayer is not selfish, but it does serve you. The person God has designed to be your spouse must ultimately submit to God’s will, step by step, in order to be ready to receive you.
If your future spouse is rebelling against God’s authority or seeking after someone God has not ordained for them, it’s only delaying your eventual union.
Think about it. God is preparing You both for one another. Ask Him to let His will be done, which may mean transformative changes in thoughts, desires, and behavior.
2. Ask God to give them wisdom.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:15-17).
You want your future spouse to be filled with the wisdom of God. You want them to walk with wisdom in financial matters, relational matters, and every other matter because what they do will affect you. Pray for wisdom now so they can avoid the pain of mistakes and delays in meeting you. Pray they will make wise choices.
3. Ask God to give them strength to resist temptation.
“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).
The enemy loves to defile the single soul with sexual immorality. You want your spouse to save themselves for you in purity, so pray that they will flee immorality and escape every temptation of the wicked one to snare them and bind them.
4. Ask God to give them the grace of humility.
“The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life” (Prov. 22:4).
Once you marry, you will each have to bend to each other in humility. It’s not easy becoming one flesh. It requires honoring one another, yielding to the Holy Spirit, and otherwise preferring one another. Without humility, marriage is especially difficult.
5. Ask God to help them keep Jesus first in their life.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).
If Jesus is not first in your future spouse’s life, He will not be at the center of your marriage. If Jesus is not the Lord of your marriage, then He is not Lord at all. In the most successful marriages, both spouses put Jesus first.
Now, don’t just pray this for your future spouse. Pray these prayers over yourself too. Do your part in making yourself ready for your God-ordained spouse. Pray every day and work on yourself while God is working on them and ordering your steps to one another.
