Spiritual Intimacy in Marriage: 11 Easy Ways to Build and Maintain

Do you think the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood allow couples to build and sustain spiritual intimacy in marriage? One of the amazing things about God that always seems to hit me is how much the things He wants from us benefit us more than it does for Him.

When it comes to spirituality in marriage, there is a way it helps to bring couples closer. It reminds you of the love you have for each other and the love you both have for God. God wants us to be close to Him so that we can become closer to each other. 

I understand how busy being a homemaker is, so I will share some tips to help you build and maintain spiritual intimacy in marriage, grow that bond, and create a spiritual environment for your kids.

What is Spiritual Intimacy?

Spiritual intimacy is the process of complete spiritual disclosure between partners, and it involves a shared spiritual connection, faith, and goals. 

There are many things involved in spiritual intimacy, especially in marriage.

• Having a joint connection and commitment to Christ
• Making Jesus the foundation of your marriage
• Jointly surrendering to the Lordship of Christ
• Joint spiritual growth
• Shared spiritual values

When it comes to a Christ-centered marriage, it is usually easy to detect when the Christ factor is taken out of it. Activities are one of the fastest ways to lose touch with spirituality because, in the hustle and bustle of the day, we can get so carried away that we forget the essence of our very being while trying to meet the demands of everyday life.

Signs You are Lacking Spiritual Intimacy

When this happens, we lose our guard, and things start to creep in unawares. 

These are the signs you are lacking spiritual intimacy:

• Frequent misunderstandings
• Lack of trust
• No meaningful conversations
• Sadness
• You see the flaws more
• Lack of communication
• Sudden dislike and irritation
• Feeling of emptiness

• RELATED POSTS:
• He Reads Truth Bible Review & Giveaway – In Quiet Trust
• 52 Uncommon Family Adventures – In Quiet Trust
• Faith Forward Family Devotional | Review – In Quiet Trust

Importance of spiritual intimacy in marriage

The first thing I’m going to state here is that God personally designed marriage, so He should be involved in your marriage, and this is what will make His purpose for your marriage come to fruition. 

The essence of spiritual intimacy is for couples to accept and nurture God’s involvement in their marriage to maintain the union’s purpose. This benefit is the first and foremost importance.

Others are: 

1. Creates a deep connection

Aside from getting you closer to God, being spiritually intimate with your husband helps you both develop a strong connection beyond physical things. 

If your marriage is deeply rooted in God’s word and His love, it can stand the test of time and situations. Spiritual intimacy is the root and backbone of a successful Christian marriage.

2. Gives you a reason to keep going

When it comes to marriage, you will encounter situations that will test you and run you to the edge.

But what God has told the two of you will keep you going.

Without a knowledge of the promise of God for your marriage, you cannot claim it. Your 3-fold cord is the strongest cord to have.

3. Helps you fulfill purpose

Personally and as a couple, spiritual intimacy helps you fulfill purpose because it connects you to God’s will and brings you under His covering.

4. Strengthens your marriage and keeps it

Possibly because both partners are connected to a single source, it aligns your values, beliefs, and even perspective on things, which helps to bring both of you into an agreement.

It also limits misunderstandings to their bare minimum, which helps strengthen your marriage and keep it.

5. Helps you to understand God’s love

I believe God designed marriage to teach us how it is possible to live in agreement with someone else and how to love purely, genuinely, and freely (His kind of love).

Loving in a way that is giving and not receiving. “For God so loved the world that He gave….” John 3:16a

Spiritual intimacy helps us understand the concept of LOVE from God’s point of view.

I could go on and on about the aspects of marriage that spiritual intimacy helps with (which is all of them, BTW), but that is not my focus this time. I want to show you how you can build and maintain spiritual intimacy in your marriage.

How to build and maintain spiritual intimacy in marriage.

Here are some highlighted tips to help you if you lack spiritual intimacy in your marriage.

1. Remove guilt

One main characteristic of spiritual dryness is the guilt that comes. Constantly thinking or feeling that you are to be blamed, you don’t deserve forgiveness, or that you could’ve done better. Maybe, but then, you wouldn’t have learned about yourself like you just did.

Never stay in the place of guilt; that’s for the devil. Staying in a position of guilt only limits you from receiving the forgiveness and pardon of God. Imagine if the prodigal son had stayed behind because he felt guilty and ashamed!

2. Communicate with your partner

When one partner is spiritually dry, there is every likelihood that the other person is in the same boat. Iron sharpens iron, so if your spouse is hot, you would at least be warm. 

When you discover this patch of dryness in your marriage, you should communicate with your spouse and find a way around it together.

Share your expectations and desires both for yourself and each other. You should also know where you want to be in God, the gifts and fruits you desire, the place of fellowship you want, and other things that can help boost your spiritual level.

3. Have a Discussion

I know I just finished talking about communication, but this is an added point to emphasize your need to talk. Don’t assume that your spouse should know.

Deliberately sit down to consider the things that take up your time, find a way to work around them and create that special hour for communion.

4. Identify your weak and strong points

Who prays more? Who can interpret the Scriptures more? Who wakes up earlier? 

Identifying your strong and weak points can help you to delegate duties properly.

For example, the person who wakes up more will have to wake the other. Also, the person who can interpret scriptures should be in charge of Bible study.

This way, you sharpen each other. Your strong point might be his weak point, so you get to support him in love and vice-versa.

5. Create a golden rule

For me, my golden rule is “God first,” and this should be the golden rule for every Christian couple as well. You might want to add other kinds of rules, but they also have to embody the golden rule. 

The essence of this is to identify what your priority is. When making certain decisions, having misunderstandings, or child training discussions, this golden rule informs these choices.

6. Replace daily activities

Do you know how we seem to get lost in the myriad of activities we engage in every day? Now, what you need to do is to replace some of these activities with spiritual exercises. It doesn’t have to be an hour-long; it could just be a few minutes of meditation, and you will be good to go.

7. Seek God together

It means that you collectively engage in spiritual experiences together to become closer to God and each other. These experiences include reading the Bible, praying, fasting, interceding, worshiping, and even listening to messages.

8. Do Spiritual challenges, assignments, and projects

Challenge each other with various spiritual exercises, and give each other assignments and projects. For example, you can try a Bible reading challenge like covering the letters of Paul within a specific time. You can also try giving each other Bible stories to read, digest, and share. 

These challenges are fun and spiritually enlightening. 

9. Be accountable to each other

You have to be accountable to each other in terms of mistakes and errors. It involves you being open and honest with your spouse. For example, maybe you did something you are aware does not edify your spirit and are probably feeling guilty about it; you can talk with your partner and pray over it together. 

It could also be something like helping you keep track of your personal spiritual goals.

10. Get a circle

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together is a sure way to keep yourself challenged and motivated constantly. When you have close friends or a circle that continually reminds you of the benefits of having a close spiritual intimacy in marriage, it keeps you going even when things are hard.

This tip is indispensable if you want to build and maintain spiritual intimacy in marriage.

11. Be consistent

You might not always get it at first, and things might not move as fast as you imagined, but keep doing it. Be persistent and have faith.

Keep praying, and everything will work out fine.

Let’s Recap!

The key to spiritual intimacy in marriage is to be deliberate. If you want to write out the things you do daily and start looking for an ‘available’ time, you will not have any spiritual progress for months and years. Deliberately make the time, Sis!

Try to input God in the minor things to be constantly aware of His presence. Create a daily routine or challenges and pray for GRACE.

The testimonies you will have in a week will amaze even yourself.

What spiritual routine do you observe in your home? How has being spiritually intimate helped your marriage? I’d love to hear from you as well.

READ ALSO: 5 Unique reasons communication in marriage is important

If you’ve made it this far, I want to thank you for sticking around and reading this post. Leave a comment below to let me know you stopped by. Please be sure to like, pin, and share this post as well! Your support means everything! If you’ve enjoyed this post and want to see more like it, or receive a short weekly devotional, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter below!

[mailerlite_form form_id=1]