Marriage is God's masterpiece and its blueprint contains designs leading to oneness in all aspects of a marital union. Intimacy exhibits oneness. Togetherness is multifaceted and it is never limited to only one plane. Among the many dimensions of a relationship--emotional, spiritual, sexual, work, crisis, intellectual, aesthetic, recreational--sexual intimacy more often than not is valued as highly important than the others. Marriages are endangered and will be vulnerable to threat when there is a lack of physical oneness. Sex is more than what the television, movies and books say it is. It is God's tool to make a marriage thrive and flourish and if it is His design, then it ought to be sacred and holy. As wives or husbands, we are designed to meet the sexual needs of our spouses exclusively and if we drive a wedge between us in terms of physical intimacy, we are entertaining the work of the enemy. Sexual needs unmet paves way for us to be drawn away from our marriage and worse to fulfill such longings somewhere else. It has been the most effective tool of the enemy to destroy marriages as evident in the increase in adulteries, separations, annulments and divorces. Anything that divides is undoubtedly God's work and we must be vigilant at all times. But we have to keep in mind that selflessness is always the key and meeting in the middle is vital. Whether we deprive or are deprived, we must bring our case to the Lord and allow Him to work His ways in our marriage. Only when we receive Christ and comprehend his selfless love, will we be able to deliver and meet the the needs of our marriage and our spouses--including sexual intimacy.
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Lord, like any other marriage, I know You know that mine has never been perfect. Frustrations and expectations abound and the romance dwindled as years went by. There were times when intimacy felt more like a burden rather than a blessing. I drew myself away from my marriage for selfish reasons, justified it with unmet emotional demands, used sexual needs as a bargaining chip to punish, and conceitedly thought those to be my rights as a wife. Not only did I allow staleness to set in, I also drained my own marriage of its very life and robbing it a sense of honor. But because You are a God of all grace, You willingly reached to my very broken heart with affection even when I did not deserve it. Your grace flipped a switch and convicted me to change gears and walk by faith. Thank You Father for this grace, for washing me clean and re-training me to be the virtuous woman you have designed every wife to be. I pray that You guide me further in renewing my God-given opportunity of intimacy with my spouse both in and out of the bedroom, with You as the foundation of not just our friendship but our sexual relationship. Amen.
The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. -- 1 Corinthians 7:3
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Lord, like any other marriage, I know You know that mine has never been perfect. Frustrations and expectations abound and the romance dwindled as years went by. There were times when intimacy felt more like a burden rather than a blessing. I drew myself away from my marriage for selfish reasons, justified it with unmet emotional demands, used sexual needs as a bargaining chip to punish, and conceitedly thought those to be my rights as a wife. Not only did I allow staleness to set in, I also drained my own marriage of its very life and robbing it a sense of honor. But because You are a God of all grace, You willingly reached to my very broken heart with affection even when I did not deserve it. Your grace flipped a switch and convicted me to change gears and walk by faith. Thank You Father for this grace, for washing me clean and re-training me to be the virtuous woman you have designed every wife to be. I pray that You guide me further in renewing my God-given opportunity of intimacy with my spouse both in and out of the bedroom, with You as the foundation of not just our friendship but our sexual relationship. Amen.
The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. -- 1 Corinthians 7:3