These daily marriage devotionals are compiled from verses that we have shared with Christian couples in many counseling sessions over many years. Please read one per day and meditate on how it applies to your marriage. (Note: if you are not certain you are a Christian, please read The Sinner’s Prayer)
When Cares Choke the Word
A concern may become so dominant that Scripture is still read but no longer directs the marriage. Worry, money, pleasure, ambition, or possessions can occupy every thought, leaving little room for spiritual fruit, patient love, or obedience.
And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. (Mark 4:18-19 KJV)
Jesus describes influences that gradually choke the Word. The danger is not merely having responsibilities or possessions. It is allowing earthly concerns and desires to crowd biblical truth out of practical decisions, conversations, schedules, and priorities.
Identify the principal thorn affecting your home. It may be anxiety, overwork, entertainment, debt, social media, ambition, or endless acquisition. Decide together what boundary, reduction, or change would create more room for Scripture, prayer, fellowship, and attentive love.
Conduct a weekly “fruit check.” Ask whether your present habits are producing patience, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, and spiritual growth. Where fruit is disappearing, do not blame one another. Remove the choking influence together and return attention to God’s Word.
Prayer: Lord, reveal the thorns that are choking Your Word in our marriage. Give us courage to remove distractions, misplaced desires, and anxious habits. Make our home fruitful through faithful hearing, believing, and obeying of Scripture. Amen.
Thorns can be removed, and neglected soil can be cultivated. Your marriage does not have to remain spiritually crowded and unfruitful. God’s Word can regain its rightful place and produce fresh growth as you receive it with responsive hearts.
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If you miss one, two, or many days, don’t worry about it and don’t try to catch up. Just start where you are and keep going. We have found the Holy Spirit can prompt you to return to just the passage you need for today.
This is an ongoing labor of love because these marriage devotionals will never be finished, but we have to start somewhere, so we will update often. We appreciate your support and prayers because this is a work of God not us. And please forgive us because we have never found a verse that doesn’t apply to marriage somehow.
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. (Proverbs 30:5)
Going beyond marriage devotionals
- Leave and cleave – God gave husbands instruction to leave and cleave because they need to break ties with their birth-families to forge their marriages
- The perspective of a successful marriage – If this perspective can lead to an incredible Olympic victory, imagine what it can do for your marriage. It’s almost a miracle!
- Biblical relationship checkup – This Biblical relationship checkup helps couples find where they are on God’s map of a successful marriage and find direction for improvement
- Help for hurting marriages – When I am weak, then I am strong. Help for hurting marriages is found in the wisdom of these Bible scriptures. Apply them as often as needed.
- Tying the Knot: A Premarital Guide to a Strong and Lasting Marriage by Rob Green – Field-tested and recommended by multiple counselors in a thriving counseling practice, Tying the Knot has already guided many couples into a stronger and more joyful union. Let this nine-week pre-marriage study reorient your life and marriage around Christ, so you both will experience all the blessings of marriage as God designed it.
- Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs by Emerson Eggerichs – Cracking the communication code between husband and wife involves understanding one thing: that unconditional respect is as powerful for him as unconditional love is for her. It’s the secret to marriage that every couple seeks, and yet few couples ever find. While both men and women deserve both love and respect, in the midst of conflict the driving need for a woman is love and the driving need for a man is respect. When either of these needs isn’t met, things get crazy. Taking God’s biblical practice of marriage and applying it with practical techniques, Emerson Eggerichs shows how mutual Love and Respect can balance a marriage and encourage a successful relationship.
- Love Life for Every Married Couple: How to Fall in Love, Stay in Love, Rekindle Your Love by Ed Wheat – This is a favorite classic book because it has stood the test of time. Physician Ed Wheat has helped thousands of couples improve their love lives and build happier marriages. In Love Life for Every Married Couple, he’ll help you improve your marriage through sharing, touching, appreciating, and focusing healing attention on your mate.