3. Sex Is an Opportunity for Deep Intimacy 

Finally, sex between a husband and wife provides an opportunity for deep intimacy.  We must guard our hearts with all vigilance so that we do not lose sight of God’s call on every husband and wife to really get to know each other.  Sex without intimacy can only lead to a growing sense of alienation and emptiness, with the marriage as well as each partner becoming a hollow shell without the inner essence of God’s love and grace.

There are three things that are too amazing for me,
four that I do not understand:

the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man [lit. a young virile man] with a maiden [lit. a virgin].
      
This is the way of an adulteress [or an adulterer]:
She [or he] eats and wipes her [or his] mouth and says,

“I’ve done nothing wrong” (Prov. 30:18-20).

God has built into His creation a certain sense of order, beauty, and harmony.  The wise person recognizes this and worships God in awe, wonder, and amazement.  Whether it is the eagle, the snake, the ship, or the chaste young couple on their wedding night, God’s way of doing things is beautiful and wondrous.  But there is something that is most unfortunate and even tragic: the sight of an immoral person who has lost sight of the sense of the sacred and now treats one of God’s choicest gifts as nothing more than a physical appetite that needs fixing.  This is truly a person who has fallen from the loveliness of sexual knowledge and intimacy as God has designed it into the empty and hollow depths of selfish depravity.

3 Steps to Experience God’s Perspective of Sex in Your Marriage

In order to enjoy sex as God intended for every married couple, follow these three steps:

• Begin with your highest calling, your knowledge of the holy: “to glorify God and to en-joy Him forever!”  As individual husbands and wives, keep your devotional lives fresh: on a daily basis, read the Bible and pray separately as well as together.
  
  
• Glorify God through your bodies by avoiding all evil outside of marriage and by serving each other within marriage, especially in exchanging sexual knowledge (1 Cor. 6:18—7:5).  Really get to know each other!
  
  
• Schedule your intimate times together as if your were dating again.  Yes, enjoy the spontaneous moments when they come, but the busier you get, the more they will get squeezed out.  So schedule it!  Make your love life a priority!

© 2003 Christian Family Life

Christian Family Life was incorporated by Don Meredith and Barry Leventhal on October 1, 1971.  In 1972, Don and his bride of five years, Sally, began to give marriage seminars in many churches around the country.  In 1975, Campus Crusade for Christ asked Don and Sally, along with others, to help start a ministry for engaged and married staff members. FamilyLife conferences continue today and have impacted literally thousands of couples over the past twenty years since its inception.

The Meredith's latest undertaking is Two Becoming One, a recently re-written twelve week small-group study in which Don and Sally reveal how to discover God's blueprint for marriage.  Two Becoming One also includes practical directions on how to integrate both the spiritual and practical sides of marriage into your everyday life.