Sex is a point of contention for many couples. And certainly resolving much of this is simply healing from past wounds, finding freedom, and maturing in our practice of love toward each other. But there are also more sinister forces at play that seek to kill, steal, and destroy the unity the sex act consistently renews in our marriage and radiates to the world around us. As such, sex is not just about our personal joys. It’s also a battleground in our spiritual warfare against evil – resisting the dark attempts to diminish the power of our oneness and the fruit of love it produces.
To be sure, stewarding our sex life is good for our marriage in general. But it’s a mistake to assume this is just about our own happiness. And it’s more tempting to give up when things get hard. For instance, we might stop initiating when we feel our wife is always on our case about something, or we might blame her for her insecurities or low self-esteem when we don’t connect sexually as often as we might like.
On the one hand, there are likely many things as sinful and imperfect men we need to address in our own right. And our wife will have the same. But it’s good to also have eyes to see how spiritual warfare impacts our sex life.
The suspicion and distrust, resentment, anger, shame, or the like we experience – blocking our desire to connect sexually – might be coming straight from the pits of hell. And evil wins when we assume this is just about each other. We spend all our energy blaming each other, or ourselves, while the strength of our unity slowly erodes.
We resist by practicing discipline in our sexual life like we do in every other part of our spiritual life. We don’t wait until we’re “in the mood.” We pray and worship and meditate on God’s word because this is our lifeline. And in a similar way we choose to be intentional about our sex life knowing it’s always more than just sex.
Our Yes to sex is our humble yet courageous stand against the forces of evil seeking to destroy the oneness of our marriage and cast doubt on Christ and the church as well.
Fight for your sex life for its own sake. And for the spiritual implications your oneness also brings into the world.
