How do you enhance spiritual intimacy with your spouse? It may be as simple as sharing your response to the Sunday morning sermon, especially if you share something that you will try to apply to your own life.

It may be sharing something you read in the Bible in your personal quiet time with God. One thing you don’t want to do is preach to your spouse. Share with him or her something meaningful to you, not something you think your spouse should apply to his or her life. Praying together is also a way to build spiritual intimacy, even if you hold hands and pray silently. Joining hands means that you are also joining hearts. Coming to God together builds intimacy.

Take time to pray individually or as a couple. Thank God for your loved ones and His plans for you to share spiritual intimacy. Ask Him to bless your efforts to develop or enhance your spiritual intimacy with each other – and with Him.

Take time to discuss together or reflect on these questions:

How do you encourage spiritual intimacy in your spouse?

How does your spouse encourage spiritual intimacy in you?

What’s the difference between sharing something with your spouse and preaching to him or her?

Consider these passages for further study on Spiritual Intimacy:

Psalm 23:1-6 A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

John 4:23-24 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Colossians 3:16-17 ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Psalm 1:1-6 Psalm 1

¹ Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Applying spiritual intimacy can increase your relationship with the Lord and with yourself. Challenge yourself to find more ways to increase spiritual intimacy with those around you to keep yourself spiritually strong. Gary Chapman‘s thoughts are great.

Most wish they could share more freely with each other about their spiritual journey. We often speak of emotional intimacy or sexual intimacy, but we seldom talk about spiritual intimacy. Yet this affects all other areas of a relationship.

Just as emotional intimacy comes from sharing our feelings, spiritual intimacy comes from sharing our walk with God. We don’t have to be spiritual giants to have spiritual intimacy as a couple, but we must be willing to share with each other where we are spiritual.

The husband who says, “I’m not feeling very close to God today,” may not inspire great joy in his wife’s heart, but he does open the possibility for her to enter into his spiritual experience. If she responds with, “Tell me about it,” she encourages spiritual intimacy. If, however, she says, “Well, if you don’t feel close to God, guess who moved?” she has stopped the flow, and he walks away feeling condemned. The burdens we share with each other often include feelings of spiritual dryness or difficulty. Spiritual intimacy within marriage requires a willingness to listen without preaching.

Take time to pray and ask God to give you the courage to talk with your loved one about your walk with the Lord. Ask the Lord to help you be kind as the two of you listen to each other and share each other’s burdens.

Discuss together or reflect on these questions:

What have you done or said lately to encourage your spouse in his or her spiritual walk?

What have you done or said lately to discourage your spouse in his or her spiritual walk?

What is your biggest obstacle to spiritual intimacy as a couple? What specific steps can you take to overcome it?

Consider these passages for further study on Spiritual Intimacy:

Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Ephesians 5:23-32

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[a] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

1 Peter 3:1-7

Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, ² when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. ³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. ⁵ For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, ⁶ like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

⁷ Husbands, in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

This moment of realizing how fast people are quick to judge simply does not listen. If we take the time to care and listen more when get on a deeper relationship with each other to learn how we can share our spiritual intimacy.

Great thoughts of Gary Chapman.

Share your experience in the comments of how you encourage spiritual intimacy and listening.