Our relationships with friends, family, coworkers, and colleagues shape our lives. We demonstrate our love for people with communication, time spent together, patience, and compassion. When we move to a new town, start a new job, or attend a new school, we can feel lonely and disconnected, we feel like we lost something very important. Simply put, we all want to belong. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, after human’s basic needs (physiological and safety) are met, humans need to feel secure in intimate relationships and friendships (MacLeod, 2016). That’s why we need prayer for relationship strengthening, restoration, an guidance.
That’s because God designed us to live and work in community. Have you stopped to think about the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40)? It boils down to “Love God and love others as yourself”.
Praying about our needs
Prayer is communication with God. We can talk with Him at any time – all we have to do is speak His name! 1 John 5:14 – “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us”. This also means that we can talk to Him when we feel lonely, a need for connection! God hears and answers prayer for relationship strengthening, restoration and guidance.
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Putting it into Practice Prayer for Relationship Strengthening, Restoration, and Guidance
How can be put prayer for relationship strengthening, restoration and guidance into practice? (I mean, how often are we told, “Just pray about it” but not given some kind of guidance?) I suggest following these steps:
1. Begin with Praise
When you pray, begin by thanking God for what He has given you or done for you. Not sure where to start? I find myself saying, “God, I praise You and thank-you because You have given me hope and a future. You love me enough to extend the gift of underserved grace through Your Son, Jesus”. Doing this puts our hearts in line with His. If you’re not sure where to start, meditate on Psalm 145.
2. Ask God to bring people into your path
Like I said, before, prayer is our opportunity to communicate with God. I love that I can be honest with Him – “Lord, I am feeling lonely. I need some friends to connect with! Please restore my lost relationships with my friends. Please bring people who can be solid friends into my life”. This is the time when prayer for relationship really comes into play. What characteristics are you looking for in a friend?
3. Ask God to protect you from people who aren’t in His will for Your life
A friend in college told me about prayer and, at first, I thought it was odd. But I believe it fits here as we’re talking about prayer for relationship. My friend shared with me that when she started praying this, she saw man she was interested in dating get redirected to different classes, jobs, or even schools. I’ve said this prayer many times and people (even other Christians) have moved on from my life. It’s hard to understand why things happen, but this prayer has given me peace that God has an active and loving hand in my life. “Lord, You are a God of love and You protect Your children. Give me wisdom regarding the people I come in contact with. Lord, give me guidance and please protect me from people who are not in Your will for my life”.
4. Thank Him
When I think about God’s character, I am reminded that God is always motivated by love. “God, thank You that You listen whenever we call Your name. Thank You for what You provided me with today . You are a loving Father and I am grateful! Amen!”
I know that He will answer prayers in His time and He will meet all my needs. I love to meditate on this verse when I need a reminder: “Do not be about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6 ).
What are the fruits of the prayer?
The Lord is faithful and He is always looking out for our best interest. God will bring people into your life to meet your relationship needs. When that happens, remember to thank Him for His demonstration of love.
McLeod, S. (2016, February 04). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved November 09, 2017, from
Also read: PRAYER OF FAITH – Faithful Examples in the Bible
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Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your grace which You so generously, and continuously, bless us with. You are worthy of all praise and all glory.
I lift my hands in humble worship and adoration. Bless and empower my words and thoughts today, O Lord that they may be pleasing to you, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Romans 12:9-10 Don’t just pretend that You love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
1 Peter 4:8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Guide and direct our relationship
I pray that You continue to guide our footsteps and our lives as we walk in agreement, according to Your will. I trust that our new relationship is a blessing from You, O Lord and I pray that You guide us and show us what we need to know.
Open the eyes of my heart, Father God, and reveal anything that is not of You. May I not go into this relationship love-blind but rather spirit-wise.
Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
Open the eyes of my heart, Father God, and reveal anything that is not of You. Click To Tweet
Draw us closer
Bless our relationship and draw us both even closer to You and to your will for our lives. May I never be unequally yoked.
Lord, teach and guide us that we will always seek You first in everything we do. May our love be fill with genuine affection and may we honor each other at all times.
1 Peter 3:7 In the same way, You husbands must give honor to Your wives. Treat her with understanding as You live together. She may be weaker than You are, but she is Your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. If You don’t treat her as You should, Your prayers will not be heard.
Proverbs 31:10,11 Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is worth more than precious rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.
Bond us together
Bless our lives in our journey together and fill us with Your Glory. May we be bonded together, Lord, in the type of love Your Son Jesus showed on the cross.
Let our lives be a wonderful reflection of Your grace, as we abide in it forever. In Jesus’ name, I humbly pray, Amen.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
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A struggling relationship is a source of immense emotional pain. If you’ve ever endured a broken marriage or a slowly-dwindling long-term dating relationship, you know how difficult it can be to find lasting reconciliation.
If this is you, the power of prayer may be just what you need.
Faith is a powerful thing, and appealing to God for the health of your relationship can have amazing results. Used in conjunction with other efforts, such as relationship counseling, prayer can be downright miraculous.
Rest assured that God hears your prayers, and that He cares about you. His answers may not always come in the form we expect, but they do come when we ask for help.
And sometimes, the very act of praying can bring about huge change in your life. When we pray, we take our abstract desires and put them into words. We say what we want out loud. Sometimes, that’s enough to help us make sense of our problems and go about finding the solutions—God works through natural means as much as He does through the miraculous.
But whichever way prayer works out for you, it’s always worth your time. To help you learn how to use prayer well, let’s take a look at 7 examples of prayers for a struggling relationship.
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Have you experienced having broken or wounded relationships? Do you want God to heal those relationships?
Every person is unique and created differently by God. Each of us has a distinguishing mark, quality or characteristic in our body, temperament or personality make-up, mindset, habits, inclinations, and choices. No two persons are created exactly the same even identical twins. As such, we carry ourselves differently and approach things and life accordingly.
Inside the basic unit of the society which is the family, the married couple relate to each other as husband and wife. Out of this covenantal union before God, they produce offspring. Parents relate in a certain way to children and vice versa. Depending on the spiritual maturity and character of parents, they rear, nurture, and nourish their sons and daughters in the ways they were raised up by their own parents. They have a set of beliefs, guidelines, and standards in enacting discipline and instilling good moral and spiritual values to their kids.
However, as their children reach a transition called adolescence, more often than not, they act out and rebel against their parents and family for one reason or another. Relationship between parents to children is affected. If left unresolved, the son or daughter will reach adulthood and build his own family having a wounded relationship with father or mother or both and worse yet, with other siblings.
Either the husband or wife within the marriage life will encounter problems perhaps with the health, career, finances, or personal struggles within. Relationships will be challenged as each spouse struggle to remain or leave the marriage. Divorce, legal separation or annulment is the result of marital conflicts. Each in turn re-marries repeating cycles of pattern that last a lifetime.
Relationships with relatives, in-laws, and extended families are also severed as hurting people hurt people. Causes of relational problems include the areas of money or inheritance, legal conflicts, jealousy, envy, greed, miscommunication and misunderstanding, breached confidences, gossip, slander, conspiracy, division, abuse (verbal, physical, sexual included), sickness, shame, dignity, honor, and generational /family issues.
Every individual attended school, contracted work or built up a business. Relationships developed within these spheres can also be wounded with another set of causes or reasons. It can be competition, favoritism, performance-orientation, success drive, crab mentality, violations inside contracts or mere misunderstandings among students, classmates, teachers, employers, employees, clients, and contractors.
When we step inside the church or ministry, relationships among believers, ministers and church leaders, co-workers and attendees are not also perfect. Usually inside the Christian circles, the conflicts are because of sins, judgments, accusation, condemnation, self-righteousness, spiritual arrogance, questioned integrity, controversial doctrines and disciplines and immorality, among others.
Friendships created since childhood until later age are not exempted from wounding. In fact, the most painful of all relationships is the one where lies, betrayal, loss, abuse, and desertion between friends took place. Even Jesus Himself was betrayed and left by His supposed to be loyal disciples and friends.
If you have experienced wounded relationships, there is still hope for you. God is still in the business of redeeming and restoring relationships.
The first step towards healing broken relationships is to reconcile with God by accepting His Son Jesus into your life as Lord and Savior. When He has entered your heart, He can help you heal the first relationship you need to start with—with Father God.
Get to know Him through His Word and His presence. Establish a deeper relationship with Him. When you set your heart and relationship at right with God (vertical relationship—you and God), He will fix and heal your wounded relationships (horizontal relationship – you and others)
As you commune with God day by day, He will heal your own wounds. Once you are healed and made whole, you will be able to pray about your broken relationships. Humility, sincere forgiveness, and wholehearted love are needed to be released to those who offended you and those you have hurt.
List down the names of each person and the issue or concern related. One by one through prayer, forgive, release, and declare a special blessing for each of them. Ask God also for forgiveness for your sinful reactions for their offense or sin. Remember not to blame, complain, criticize, judge, condemn, belittle, uncover, or curse them but just speak blessings to them.
Forgiveness does not depend on feelings if we want to forgive them or not but true forgiveness is an act of the will. We may truly forgive but do not force yourself to forget what happened. Do not re-live or contemplate on the painful memories. Ask God to remove the pain, trauma, shame, grief, terror shock associated with it.
You will know that you have truly forgiven if when you are reminded of the person and your heart will not throb so hard and you will not feel any agitation, irritation or untoward feelings. You will not even rehearse their litany of offenses. And when faced with that specific person, you are able to look him in the eye and feel light or normal towards him.
At this point, you need not approach each person you had problems with in the past. Allow God to change his heart and continue on praying and blessing him.
If you reached a point that you are then ready to face each person, strengthen your spirit, soul, and body and seek God’s will, heart and intention for that person. Surrender the relationship to God and He will go ahead of you to speaking to him that it is time to make right the relationship.
Like in the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob cheated and stole the birthright and their father’s blessing from Esau, his older brother. Jacob had relationship problems also with his father-in-law, Laban. It is only when Jacob encountered God and wrestled and prevailed against God, that he was changed from being a cheater to becoming a prince of God. Even his name was changed to Israel that became the chosen nation. (Genesis 25)
Eventually, God has worked also in the hearts of Esau and Laban to reconcile with Jacob in the end.
Set your heart towards God and He will redeem your friendships and relationships. You may use this prayer for healing a relationships as a pattern—
“Almighty Creator and Father God, I humbly come before You now asking You to forgive me from all my sins. Set aright my heart towards You. I admit all my sins, weaknesses, and shortcomings, please cleanse my heart and spirit from all impurities like what You did in the heart of David in Psalm 51 when he confessed the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. Create in me a pure heart O God, renew a steadfast Spirit within me, cast me not away from Your presence and do not take away Your Holy Spirit from me.
I respond to Your invitation for an intimate relationship with You. Teach me so that I may know Your heart and show me Your ways everlasting.
I ask You now to heal all my wounded relationships—family, extended families, friendships, and those relationships at school, work, business, church, and ministry. I forgive them ___ (mention each name and each offense) and forgive me also for all my sinful judgments and reactions towards them ____ (mention your sinful reactions for each person).
Cleanse all of us now Lord and restore our relationships. Speak to me now and to them and I entrust to You each person that You will also heal them and they will forgive me as well. I declare blessings for them ____ (mention blessings for each person) and I thank You and glorify You for all the good things they have done for me and for my benefit _____ (mention each wonderful thing from each person).
By the blood of Jesus, we are now cleansed and healed. Continue doing Your work in our hearts until you set and appointed a time for us to meet face to face and redeem the relationships.
In humility, sincerity, and purity of heart, I bow down to You in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. I worship You, praise and adore You for Your goodness and kindness to all of us. Manifest Your presence and orchestrate events so that all wounded relationships will be healed from now on.
I pray for protection for these relationships being restored that the enemy will not enter to steal, kill, and destroy and will not retaliate and do backlash to any one of us. I plead the blood of Jesus to all of us and I declare Psalm 91 over our lives.
Thank You God for hiding us under Your wings. Come quickly to save and rescue us. I love You with everything within me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Rejoice right now as God begins to heal your being and your relationships with others. Leave us a comment below on how this prayer article ministered to you and your friends. We would love to hear from you and we will appreciate your ideas on prayers for healing you want us to include in the future in this website.
Here is a Prayer for Healing Finances
Here is a Prayer for Restoration of Marriages
Here are some bible verses on physical Healing
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