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Cultivating a Vibrant, Sexual Relationship with Your Husband

There is one aspect of your marriage than seems to be avoided in conversation, encouragement, and accountability, but that requires our intentional attention: our sexual relationship. If you crave renewal, bonding and connection together, start right here.When my husband and I were newlyweds, we were in a community group at our church with five young married couples. The leaders of our group were a mentor couple who’d been married for 20 years. They always encouraged our group to be open and accountable in all areas of our marriage including sex.

One evening the wives sat around the table and one of my friends expressed her concern with her sexual relationship with her husband. It’d been several weeks since they made love. Most evenings she was exhausted from work, being a mom, and just didn’t feel in the mood. She was frustrated and knew he was too. She was also anxious about his purity.

We acknowledged right away that her situation wasn’t extraordinary. We’d been there as wives before and probably would be again.

How God Intended Sex to Be   

When you’re single and dating sex is so incredibly enticing and it’s easy to think that it will be smooth sailing in marriage. Besides, you love each other so much. How could something so delightful take so much work?

But you quickly realize after the honeymoon’s over that you have to be diligent at cultivating your sexual relationship with your spouse. Keeping it alive and exciting doesn’t always come naturally. Sex can become common. And arguments and conflict often surface when sexual intimacy is lacking.

God designed sex between a husband and wife to be enjoyable, even in the midst of life’s demands, as well as our own insecurities and imperfections. He designed sex to be delightful, vibrant, intoxicating, pleasing, fun, adventurous, and bonding. But I can’t promise that you’ll see the marriage relationship portrayed like that on your flat screen.

The Reality of Sexual Brokenness

If sexual brokenness or victimization has been a reality for you prior to marriage, no pain is too great for God to heal and restore. It’s never too late to seek biblical counsel with your spouse and bring to light the hurt and abuse. Talking about your sexual past can help spare you from a lot of pain down the road and can even save your marriage.

Past or present misuses of sexuality like adultery, fornication, masturbation, pornography, and so on that have entered the marriage bed are never beyond God’s forgiveness and grace. God is in the redemption business. Our deep struggles in sin are why we so desperately need the cross. In our unfaithfulness, Jesus already paid our debt. And He is always calling us back to him.

The Secret of the Joy of Sex


In Song of Solomon, Chapter 4, King Solomon and the Shulamite woman have consummated their marriage. Their sexual desires and passions are no longer restrained. They’re diving into all the delights they’ve been waiting for with wild passion:

I have entered my garden, O my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk! (Song of Solomon 5:1).

His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem (5:15-17).

May your mouth be like the best wine, flowing smoothly for my beloved, gliding gently over our lips as we sleep together (7:9).

I am my beloved’s, and he desires me! (7:10).

Those are just a few words out of lines of descriptive Hebrew poetry that reveal the beauty of the sexual union between Solomon and his bride. Who needs romance novels and movies when you can just pick up the Bible! God cares deeply about the sexual relationship because he created it as a very good thing.

In marriage, God has given us the incredible blessing of enjoying our husband’s body, mind, soul, and spirit to its absolute fullest. And it’s a pleasure we get to enjoy for however many years God gives us together.

In the book Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, contributor Ben Patterson says,

The gigantic secret of the joy of sex is this: Sex is good because the God who created sex is good. And God is glorified greatly when we receive his gift with thanksgiving and enjoy it the way he meant for it to be enjoyed.

If we don’t accept the gift of our sexual relationship with thanksgiving and joy, then we’re being disobedient to God’s word and doing a huge disfavor to our husband’s needs and to their purity. But when we enjoy the gift of sex with a joyful and selfless heart as God intended, there’s no greater pleasure and oneness in the world.

Committed to Your Sexual Relationship

Over the years, the friend in my small group has grown in her intimacy with her husband. She started making changes when it came to the time of day they were intimate—she bought new lingerie, and made sure she was taking care of herself physically in the midst of being a busy mom and working. She made sexual intimacy a priority. She was able to confess her past sexual struggles and find healing in Christ.

That was ten years ago and four kids later! To this day their story continues to be a huge encouragement to my husband and I and the other couples from our group. We’ve all stayed committed to keeping our sexual relationship with our husbands the best it can be, while still recognizing there will be seasons of life that are harder than others and the demands of life just don’t get any easier!

Cultivating a vibrant, sexual relationship with your husband isn’t always easy, but it’s worth the hard work of striving for complete oneness and unity with the one you said “I do” too and the one you love most in life.

Blessings & Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Samantha Krieger

www.samanthakrieger.com 

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One Comment

  1. From the time I was first married until much later, I viewed our marital relationship as an aspect of our life together which was somehow altogether distinct and separate from our communion with God and one which I expected God to purify by His influence upon the rest of our lives. I really had no idea of the immense implications that intimacy in marriage, including sexual intimacy, has upon our entire existence with God. One day, as I was prayerfully pondering the seemingly endless number of expressions I had encountered of individuals living with dissatisfaction, uncertainty, and even remorse over their sexual relationships, I was imparted an unexpected enlightenment which entirely changed my thinking on this matter. Some of these expressions greatly paralleled my own experience. I found myself being overtaken by a personal awareness or revelation which changed my entire outlook, not only on this matter but with regard to our entire procreative nature with respect to its critical influence it has upon our entire life’s communion with God. The revelation was simply this: Our nature arises entirely from that of our Creator. God is everywhere, in other words, there is a perfect permeation all of His creation by God which includes each one of us. Wherever God is recognized to be present He will also be observed to be engaged in the act of creating. With respect to this, the aspect of our lives which is our greatest participation in the life of our Creator and His greatest gift to each of us is our procreative nature, which affords us the immense gift of participation in the creation of other saints created, just like us, for the purpose of worship and adoration of God. From this revelation, I was able to observe that our sexual nature is in no way separate, spiritually speaking or otherwise, from our personal communion with God and is in fact a perfect participation in the life of God if engaged in with a disposition of perfect surrender and gratitude to Him for the gift of our participation in the very life of God which created us. Further, I have observed that over the years that as I have lived out the entirety of my life in a state of sustained surrender and gratitude to God, not simply for what He does for me but for who He is. Further I have found that my participation in the procreative act is the very same in nature as my participation in communion with God and is in fact a crucial part of it. I have also observed that when our sexual communion with our wives is engaged in a complete and selfless surrender to God, free from concern for ourselves or our own gratification in pursuit of Godly sanctity there is incalculable benefit to our marriages and to our personal lives. I have found over time that this means of seeking the pleasure of our Creator enabled by our surrender to Him, along with the multitudes of other ways we practice the surrender of ourselves in our daily lives to Him. causes within us a communion with God which compels to us into love of Him much more deeply than any other single aspect of our existence would alone. In this aspect of our lives or any other, we should always engage one another as a participation in the selflessness of our Savior. In this manner, in our intimate relationships we embrace Heaven as we were created to.

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