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To use our sexuality as a spiritual discipline—to integrate our faith and flesh, so to speak—it's imperative that we understand this: God made flesh, and with it, some amazing sensations. While the male sexual organ has multiple functions, the female clitoris has just one—sexual pleasure. By design, God created a bodily organ that has no other purpose than to provide women with sexual ecstasy. This was God's idea. And God called every bit of his creation "very good" (Genesis 1:31).

Betsy Ricucci has approached this issue from a feminine perspective: "Within the context of covenant love and mutual service, intimacy should be exhilarating (Proverbs 5:19, NASB)…Believe it or not, we glorify God by cultivating a sexual desire for our husbands and by welcoming their sexual desire for us."

Here are six ways we glorify God through pursuing intimacy with our spouse.

In his book Music Through the Eyes of Faith, Harold Best tells the true story of a young man who became heavily involved in a satanic cult that developed an elaborate liturgy focusing on the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The young man later became a Christian and started attending worship services. Everything went well until the church organist belted out a piece composed by Bach. The young believer was overcome by fear and fled the sanctuary.

Best writes that Bach's work "represents some of the noblest music for Christian worship. To this young man, however, it…epitomized all that was evil, horrible, and anti-Christian."

Sex is that way for some Christians. Past associations and guilt feelings have created severe spiritual roadblocks. Christians try hard not to believe that sex is inherently evil, but because of previous negative experiences, for many it certainly feels evil.

Sex cannot pay spiritual dividends if its currency is shrouded in unfounded guilt. Gratitude to God for this amazing experience is essential.

It took me awhile to realize I was inadvertently insulting God by my hesitation to accept the holiness of sex. What kind of God am I imagining if I can allow pain—such as fasting—but not pleasure to reveal God's presence in my life? Instead of being suspicious of pleasure and the physical and spiritual intimacy that comes from being with my wife, I need to adopt an attitude of profound gratefulness and awe.

If guilt rather than gratitude casts a shadow over your experience of sex, practice thanking God for what sex involves. For instance, a woman could pray, quite explicitly—but in all holiness—"God, thank you that it feels enticing when my husband caresses my breasts." Couples can even pray together, thanking God for the pleasure surrounding marital consummation. This simple thanksgiving can sanctify an act that all-too-many Christians divorce from their spiritual life.

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