When God created our world, He put into place a spiritual law called the law of sowing and reaping. We will reap what we sow, as we mentioned previously. Another way to say it is, what we give out (good or bad) eventually comes back to us over time.
This law applies to spiritual, emotional, and physical matters. A farmer sows cotton seed in the ground and eventually reaps a harvest of cotton. A person sows financially into a ministry, church, or missions they support, and God provides through multiple avenues to give them more to sow. A person sows their time and energy into reading Scripture and they reap the fruit of faith, wisdom, and understanding which directs their life into victory here on earth and for eternity.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:7-9 NIV)
If we yield ourselves to God’s Holy Spirit daily through sowing into prayer time (unity practice), we open the door for God to personally start dumping His bucket of grace and mercy on our relationship over time. We can almost see Paul jumping up on a table here to get his point across and fervently shouting, “Don’t give up! Keep sowing to the Spirit! Keep seeking God and declaring His promises! Keep praying!”
In other words, don’t practice spiritual unity for a week or two and then forget about it. Strong physical muscles are built by us holding to our work-out routine, then continuing to maintain it in order to remain strong. Likewise, we build strong spiritual unity through consistent, daily effort which results in a lifelong bond, if we hold firm to it.
A Gallop Poll done by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement showed the divorce rate among couples who pray together regularly is 1 out of every 1,152. If we can make our odds of divorce less than 1%, why wouldn’t we? According to an article in Redbook magazine, a University of Chicago survey on married couples revealed, “75 percent of the Americans who pray with their spouses reported that their marriages are “very happy” (compared to 57 percent of those who don’t). Those who pray together are also more likely to say they respect each other, discuss their marriage together, and — stop the presses — rate their spouses as skilled lovers.”
We started praying together each morning about six months into our first year of marriage. Couple prayer time wasn’t something we ever planned to do, but it has unquestionably been a life-altering experience for us! It was introduced to us as more of a challenge.
Shortly after getting married, our wonderfully wise pastor kindly asked the whole church if we would all be willing to sign up for a one-hour period in the day where we would commit to praying for the ministries and people of the church, as well as our nation, for 30 days. We thought it sounded like a noble cause to dedicate an hour to daily, so we jumped on board. After the month was over, we decided to keep praying together for at least 15 minutes each morning.
We really don’t know where we would be without this. It doesn’t remove all conflicts or challenges in life, but it definitely has connected us more than anything else and has helped us navigate through many of life’s storms. If you and your spouse currently pray alone, why not draw another leap closer to God and each other by adding couple prayer?
Matthew 6:33 encourages us to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” When we give God first place in our relationship, He will add His grace and power to our union in ways we couldn’t even imagine. We have found the more years we pray together, the more we grow in love and respect. We enjoy our relationship more now than when we were first married.
Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another” (John 13:35). Putting God first strengthens us to walk in love at home and have peace with those closest to us. By this the world will see we love each other. Is it true a marriage that prays together stays together? It sure has worked for us! Will it work for you? Why not take the challenge and see what happens?
Can’t wait to hear how God moves in and through your relationships,
Pastors Shaun & Amy
