Are you lacking spiritual intimacy in your marriage? Not sure? Take a look at some of the signs spiritual intimacy may be missing from your relationship:

1. You may experience conflict in many areas.
2. You may feel incomplete.
3. You may lack a firm foundation for your marriage commitment.
4. You may lack boundaries for guarding your marriage.  

Spiritual intimacy occurs when you as husband and wife surrender your lives and relationship to the Lord. You grow together spiritually when you live out your marriage relationship according to God’s ways and aim to please him in all things.

But spiritual intimacy isn’t available to just anyone. Spiritual intimacy is an ingredient available only to those who have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ and who live to please him. When you are joined with another Christian in marriage, you have the wonderful privilege of seeking spiritual intimacy in your marriage. When husbands and wives are growing in their vertical relationships (individually with God), their horizontal relationship (between the two of them) comes together as well.

Spiritual growth is the job of both husbands and wives as individuals. But spiritual intimacy happens when you experience God together and share what you have learned. So what’s stopping you and your mate from growing together spiritually? You may be experiencing one of these roadblocks to spiritual intimacy:

• “I don’t have time for spiritual things. We have more pressing issues right now.”
• “I’m afraid God will expect more than we can do.”
• “My spouse isn’t interested in spiritual matters.”

You may not realize the power spiritual intimacy can have on your relationship with your spouse. We often describe it this way: Emotional and physical intimacy ignite the rocket in your marriage, but spiritual intimacy fires the afterburners and gets you into orbit! Emotional and physical attraction is what drew you together, but the spiritual connection is what keeps you together. Just take a look at some of the benefits of spiritual intimacy in a marriage:

• It empowers celebrating love.
• It allows you to connect at the deepest level.
• It links you with God’s purposes and plans for you.
• It allows you to bless each other with God’s love.
• It brings your deepest values and desires into agreement.
• It opens the door to the deepest levels of communication.
• It empowers your marriage to survive.
• It connects you to a supportive body of fellow disciples.

So how can you and your mate begin to grow spiritually as a couple? Here are some of our recommendations: