Our gracious God and Heavenly Father,
We praise You as the fountain of all being and all blessing. Your streams of mercy are never ceasing. Your redeeming love deserves our loudest praise.
We praise you for Ed and Imelda; thank You for saving them; thank You for bringing them together; thank You for guiding them to this day; and thank You for Your promise that You will always be with them, even as they walk together now as husband and wife.
Father, thank You that Ed and Imelda come before You today not as their own, but as those who belong to Christ— in body and in soul, in life and in death— they belong to their faithful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Shape their marriage by this truth: that they belong to the Savior, and in Him to one another.
As husband and wife, help Ed and Imelda to believe the gospel everyday– that their precious Savior has fully paid for all their sins with His precious blood. Lord Jesus, if You should mark iniquities who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, with You there is steadfast love, with You there is plentiful redemption, that You may be feared, and adored, and exalted.
Keep Ed and Imelda from keeping any record of wrongs in their marriage, knowing that all their sin, not in part but the whole, was nailed to the cross and they bear it no more. Help them to forgive each other every day from the bottom of their hearts.
Cause them to recall that when their sins had orphaned them, the Friend of sinners sought them, bought them with His precious blood, and brought them home to His banqueting house, and the banner of them is love– unconquerable and inseparable love.
On this day of joy, help them to rest in the knowledge that no one in heaven above or on earth below loves them more than Jesus Christ does. Teach Ed and Imelda how to reflect this love as husband and wife: a love that is patient, steadfast, and kind.
Father, bless them abundantly. Make their marriage a beacon of gospel grace. Make their home a harbor for hope for the hopeless and a resting place for the weary. Make them wholeheartedly willing and ready, from this day forward, to live for Christ and for each other, reflecting Your welcoming love to the world.
Father, when trials come— remind Ed and Imelda that Your love for them is unconquerable. Remind them that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to Your purpose. Help them to overcome every obstacle in the power of Christ who loved them first and who has conquered them by His grace.
Father, by Your Holy Spirit, comfort them with the knowledge that their lives, their marriage, their eternity, rests not upon the shifting sands of circumstances, but upon the firm foundation of amazing grace. Grant them as husband and wife an unshakeable hope, the very hope of glory.
Fix their eyes this day on Christ, the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for them. As they hold fast together now as husband and wife, may they know that they are held fast by Jesus, whose love will never let them go.
We ask all these things through our faithful Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives with You and reigns with You, together with the Holy Spirit, one God, forever blessed and forever praised.
Amen.
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