Lord, grant us the strength to answer Your call to be a living sign of Your love. Make our love for each other like Your love for us: passionate, intimate, gentle, kind, and patient. May we be as present to each other as You are to us, so that all the world can see Your presence manifested in our tender love for one another. Help us stay close to You, [stay connected and growing] in the Body of Christ, and continue to nourish our love with Your love. In Jesus Name, Amen.

• Strength for us to rise up to the high call of Jesus Christ.

• Strength for us to overcome temptation and to stay away from sin.

• Strength to sustain us, enrich us, and enable us. 

• Strength to choose the narrow road and walk in it, never straying away from God's paths.

"For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world." - 1 John 2:16 

"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." - Matthew 26:41

[I pray] that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." - Ephesians 3:16-17

"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." - Isaiah 40-31

• A deep love for God in both of us.

• A deep love for each other, in the same way Jesus has loved us.

• Love established in us, like the 1st Corinthians 13:4-7 kind of love.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” - ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:4-7‬ ‬‬

"...and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints." - 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

• For us to be fully present with God.

• To be fully present with each other, undistracted and fully focused. 

• For others to feel God's presence in our love for each other, as a couple.

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." - Psalm 16:11

"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." - Psalm 27:4

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace." - Numbers 6:24-26

• For a rich closeness to God. May we abide in Him and He in us.

• May we each have a closeness to fellow believers (including couples) in Body of Christ, to learn and grow from each other.

• Mutual closeness between us, as a couple, in a deep, abiding, and enriching love.

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you..." - James 4:8a

"You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord..." - Jeremiah 29:13-14a 

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." - John 15:4-5