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How to Handle Spiritual Attacks on your Marriage
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How to Handle Spiritual Attacks on Your Marriage
Your marriage is not the enemy’s playground unless you let it be. Learn how to shift from “me vs. you” to “us vs. the Enemy” and begin guarding your covenant with prayer, truth, and unity.
Feb 23, 2026
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Marriage is a covenant relationship and, therefore, becomes a target for the enemy of our souls. Often, we find our marriages are the landscape for spiritual battle. Not only is it easy for us to view our spouse as the enemy, but we can also feel the onslaught of spiritual forces that seek to pull our relationships apart.
Amazingly, it’s the simplest things that can cause the greatest turmoil in our marriages. Simple miscommunications can usher in hurt, angry words, division, and heartbreak. Busy schedules can lead to emotional distance, loneliness, and discouragement. The stress of parenting can result in personal weariness and tension in your marriage. The many good things we each are busy doing can be sources of disconnection, miscommunication, and exhaustion, leaving room for the enemy to sow conflict in our relationships.
If we aren’t careful, the small things can become big things that, over time, threaten to pull apart the covenant relationship that we have. We have to be on guard, be proactive about living in unity as a couple, and pray against the endless lies the enemy so often fills our heads with about our spouse. Our marriages are so valuable, it makes sense that they are an easy target. When spiritual attacks target your marriage, you must respond with prayer and grace.
The Real Enemy
How often do you look at your spouse and think of the ways they could do better, have failed you in the past, or you just feel disconnected from them? It’s so easy to go down the “me vs. them” rabbit hole! Negativity is second nature for most of us. Often, it really, truly feels like they are personally against you, but we must remember that in marriage, you become one flesh. Meaning no matter what, you are on the same side! What impacts one of you always touches the life of the other one.
Shifting from “me vs. you” to “us vs. the Enemy” can protect marriage from divisions. The more aware we are of ways the enemy divides us, the better we can guard our marriages. Common strategies the enemy uses include constant misunderstandings, building irrational irritation between us, isolating us from the community, the gradual loss of intimacy, and increased temptation. Recognizing that the enemy is behind the strife we face in our relationship, and learning strategies to guard against these patterns, offers life and hope to our homes.
What the Bible Says about Marriage
Genesis 2:24 says, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” When we get married, our lives merge and are unified. We live together, our fates intertwined, our hearts spiritually intimately connected. God designed marriage as the foundation of family, community, and spiritual formation. The enemy does not want our homes, communities, or lives to thrive, so he uses all his resources to pull apart and undermine what God has put together. When Satan divides us, we are weakened. Unity keeps our marriages safe from attack.
Coming up with a mantra that reminds us that God placed you together as one flesh can be a simple way to pull each other back together. Verbally declaring “we are on the same team” when conflict arises can help de-escalate the situation. Or even a gentle touch, reminding you both that you are for each other, can stop divisions from growing.
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/andreswd
Guard Your Thoughts and Words
2 Corinthians 10:5 states, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Oh man, over almost 20 years of marriage, there are so many words and thoughts I have unkindly directed at my spouse in frustration that I wish I could take back. It’s so hard to control ourselves when our minds have already run away from us, consumed with hurt and frustration, but once those harsh words go out into the world, they do damage that we have to find a way to reconcile and move forward as a couple. Thankfully, God’s love is great enough to cover our sins! He makes a way for grace and healing to flow in our homes, but we have to do our best to capture our negative thoughts because they so easily fuel marital discord.
Speak Life Over Your Marriage
Proverbs 18:21 states, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” When we get stuck in negative ruts or struggle with feeling hurt by our spouse, it’s easy to feel hopeless. Our lack of hope makes it harder and harder to speak life over your relationship. Failures begin to outweigh the wins, and negativity takes over the narrative about your marriage.
We have to avoid those dangerous, but so easy to spout out, “always” and “never” statements. Resist thinking that “maybe you were not meant to be” or “you would be better off without each other.” These types of statements invite darkness into your relationship. We start to believe that our relationships are broken beyond repair.
Replace Lies with Truth
Replace the lie that we can never fix this with the truth that God restores what is broken. Choose a scripture to declare over your marriage that offers hope and truth to the situation. This year, I made Isaiah 43:19 my phone background because I am clinging to this verse as a declaration that God is going to do a new thing in my marriage. We will not remain stuck in our old, unhelpful patterns. God will renew our love for each other, help us forgive one another, and help us believe that our marriage is a gift.
In conflict, bring those words of hope into the conversation. Let these words you have chosen to cling to offer a path towards a new narrative of grace for your marriage.
Pray Together
Prayer invites God into the conflict, and the enemy loses ground when we join together in prayer. We must diligently pray that we each remain humble, always considering our spouses’ needs before our own. Pray that your hearts remain soft, that you give each other the benefit of grace when miscommunication happens. Ask God to protect your marriage against division. Let unity be your goal. Call on God when you need wisdom on how to act, speak, heal, or move forward. He is gracious in providing the wisdom we need.
When possible, pray together; this habit keeps you close to each other and to the Lord. If you don’t pray daily, set key times to pray during the week. We always pray on Wednesday nights and as a family at our weekly Sunday Brunch and devotion time. In more intense seasons, we’ve committed to praying together daily. Find a rhythm that works for you, but even if your spouse won’t pray with you, be diligent to lift your marriage to the Lord on your own. We can stand in the gap for our marriages, asking God to do only what he can on our behalf.
Marriage is a holy gift we are given. Hebrews 13:4 says, “ Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” We have to fight for our marriages. Keep ourselves pure and remain faithful to the covenant we made with our space and with God when we said “I do.”
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/jacoblund
Amanda Idleman is a writer whose passion is encouraging others to live joyfully. She writes devotions for Your Nightly Prayer, Crosswalk Couples Devotional, Your Daily Prayer, and more. She has work published with Her View from Home, on the MOPS Blog, and is a regular contributor for Crosswalk.com, Biblestudytools.com, and Christianity.com. She has most recently published a devotional, Comfort: A 30 Day Devotional Exploring God’s Heart of Love for Mommas, alongside her husband’s companion devotional, Shepherd. You can find out more about Amanda on her Facebook Page or follow her on Instagram.
Originally published February 23, 2026.
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How to Pray for Toxic People in your Life
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How to Pray for the Toxic People in Your Life
God created those who hurt us. He has a good plan for their lives. He knows the “why” behind their destructive behaviors. As hard as it may be, let your prayers for them be guided by the power of His Word.
Feb 24, 2026
There are many phrases used in our culture that we may not completely understand or that might be used as a broad brush label for people who either have certain character traits or behave in a particular way. We need to be very careful with how we use these phrases so that they aren’t overused and we don’t mislabel someone.
One of these phrases refers to someone as being a toxic person.
What Are the Qualities of a Toxic Person?
I researched the behaviors that might be found in the daily life of a person who would be considered to be toxic, and although this is not exhaustive, I have compiled a short list to read and keep in mind:
-The person might have a victim mentality and feel as though they are always the one being treated poorly or that they are the one who is always being wronged.
-They might thrive on gossip and slander, talking negatively about others and often spreading lies and ruining the reputation of others.
-They might be a person who does not know how to treat others in a loving fashion and might even be abusive in some way – emotionally or physically.
-There will be a level of control over the people in their lives, and you might feel like you cannot make your own decisions, think the way you want to think, or do what you want to do.
-They are very manipulative people and will do what it takes to get you to do what they want you to do.
-They will be critical and negative of others, unable to see anything positive in others or circumstances.
-They like to get their way and will often belittle those around them in order to get what they want.
-They might relate with a lot of sarcasm and are not sensitive or caring about the feelings of others. If you bring it to their attention, they will make you feel like you are too sensitive.
-They might have an addictive personality, using a substance or bad habit to fill an unmet need. They might try to pull you into their addictions to make themselves feel better about what they are doing.
When you are around a person with all or some of these traits, you will probably walk away feeling stressed, anxious, and generally negative. There are many reasons why a person might have these personality traits or behaviors, and those reasons are probably too many for us to delve into in this article. Still, I would venture to say that they are people who are dealing with their own hurts, past traumas, or stresses and have not been able to process them correctly. They probably don’t even realize how they are behaving toward others, as they might even be in survival mode!
How to Pray for the Toxic Person:
The first (and best) thing we can do for people exhibiting toxic behavior is to pray for them.
God is in the business of opening people’s eyes and changing them. Only God can turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Pray that He will make them aware of their sinful behavior and change them.
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36)
Pray that God will show them what is behind their behavior. There must be a reason why they act the way that they do. Ask God to expose the motives, trauma, or hurt that might be causing them to act in a way that could be labeled toxic. Ask Him to let them see what is going on in their hearts.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart…” (Matthew 15)
Pray that they would be open to loving confrontation from you or another godly believer. If he is not ready, it will be unprofitable.
“Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.” (Proverbs 9)
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” (Matthew 18)
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6)
You Must Relate to the Toxic Person in a Biblical Manner:
After confronting them and bringing to their attention how they behave, be prepared to bring other godly believers with you if the person will not listen to you.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. (Matthew 18)
Although you might need to walk away from a relationship with a person with toxic qualities, as a believer, that should be the last resort. But you do need to be careful to relate to the toxic person biblically. There is room for protecting yourself and following biblical principles in how much time you spend with them and whether or not you make them your “companion.”
“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15)
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (Proverbs 13)
“Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.” (Proverbs 22)
You must prayerfully and carefully consider how to handle all relationships, use the Word of God as your guide, and keep in mind that we are all sinful human beings. We are not going to be perfect. Toxic behavior is a heart problem, and we all are capable of exhibiting these behaviors if we are not in fellowship with God.
None of us have grown up in perfect homes, experienced perfect relationships, or are immune from situations that can hurt us or cause emotional trauma. We need to remember to treat the “toxic people” in our lives in the way we would want to be treated if we were behaving in this way because of something we have gone through in our past.
We need each other, and God uses us in each other’s lives to help us see our areas of need. That is how the body of Christ is meant to function.
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Originally published February 25, 2026.
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Copyright © 2026, Crosswalk.com. All rights reserved. Article Images Copyright © Getty Images unless otherwise indicated.
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Good Morning and God Bless All of You Worldwide 🌐 🙏
Good Morning and God Bless You! I want you to know that I am very sick physically and mentally right now. I have a brand new health problem right now. I am suffering from Renal Failure right now. My kidneys are not as healthy as they used to be. I have been drinking plenty of water and cranberry juice as of late. I rarely drink coffee ☕️. Coffee ☕️ has been keeping me up all night long. I would like for you to please keep me in your prayers because I am very sick right now. I have gained a total of 15 pounds 💷 since February 28th of this year. I have to take Lasik medication 💊 just to remove the excess fluid from my heart. I want everyone to please pray for me because I am currently residing in a nursing home 🏡 🙏 at the moment 🙏. I am very sorry for mentioning my health problems to everyone right now. It is that Diabetes Type #2 is making things complicated for me right now. I weigh 264 pounds right now. The nursing home is not a bad place for me to live right now. At least I have somewhere to live right now. God is truly blessing 🙌 🙏 💖 ✨️ me each day of the week. I am still clean and sober since Wednesday May 2 1990. I no longer have a desire to drink alcohol, beer, and anything else that would get me high anymore; because I have asked God to remove my desire to crave or drink alcohol as well as smoking marijuana and cocaine cigars. I have to keep moving during the day rather than lieing down immediately after I eat my meals. Otherwise, I have to make a request for my doctors to reduce my medications 💊 because of the weight gain from taking Neurontin and Invega. I want everyone to please pray for my family members 🙏 because they are having health issues themselves. I want all of you to know that I am using the 🚻 🚺 🚹 every 20 minutes during the day every single day. My medications 💊 are increasing my appetite for foods and I have been drinking a lot of fluids because Diabetes will make you very thirsty. It will cause anyone to have dry mouth. I am also taking other medications 💊 that will cause dry mouth and brain 🧠 fog. Finally, I want everyone to know that I am grateful 🙏 to have a place to live right now. I have a place to live right now. The residents are very friendly and very understanding towards my personal needs. Where I am living at right now is inside of an upscale neighborhood in suburban Dayton, Ohio. The area is teeming with nature. At least the bus will take you right in front of the building. The number #7 bus will take you to where I am living at right now. The staff members are very emphatic and concerned about everyone who is living over here. I want everyone to please visit me because I am suffering from Depression and Schizoid Affective Disorder right now. My relatives visit me from time to time ⏲️. I will admit that I have been here for 2 months right now. The place that I am living at is called The Cottages of Clayton Assisted Living Facility in Clayton, Ohio. I am only 9 miles from Downtown Dayton Ohio. I want everyone to know that I had to get used to living in a facility like this because it almost reminds me of the Montgomery County Jail in Downtown Dayton Ohio. I remember when I first arrived here; I was homeless and depressed. I really need some brand new clothes right now because I have gained a total of 39 pounds within the past 2 months now. I am eating 3 meals per day. I received medication each day of the week. I have been reading 📚 the Holy Bible and other books 📚 that consists of self help books and religious literature as well as my information regarding my health problems right now. Please pray for everyone who are living at the facility because they are in need of prayers 🙏 as well as myself. In Addition to the finances itself: I have to pay a lot of money 💰 just to live here. My Great Grandmother used to live inside of a facility like this across town during the 1990s. She lived in a facility like this; while I was attending the University of Toledo in Toledo Ohio. My Great Grandmother died before I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Interdisciplinary Studies. I am having vision problems as well. Diabetes is eating me up inside of my body. I am also suffering from Diabetic Retinopathy right now. Most people that I know cannot believe that I am suffering from multiple health problems. I am suffering from Renal Failure right now because I have been having problems related to my urine and Creatinine blood levels as well. I really need all of your prayers because I really do not know exactly how long will I live like this! May The Lord God Continue to Bless All of You Worldwide 🌐 🙏. I am very grateful to have a place to live right now. God Bless You All 🙏.
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