Song of Solomon 8:5 NASB95
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness Leaning on her beloved?”
Every one of us, regardless of our level of spiritual maturity, has to walk through the wilderness from time to time. Those places of pain, trauma and loss are real. Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you have tribulation.” Tribulation in this fallen world is unavoidable, and the real test will be when you find yourself in the wilderness is will you lean into your pain or into His presence. If the pain identifies your journey through the trauma, then the enemy will steal all that he can, but if Christ’s presence identifies your journey through the wilderness, then when you come up out of that place, you will be unrecognizable because of transformation. The enemy hates it when we see the wilderness as an opportunity to lean into our beloved because he knows that instead of being able to steal from us, the Holy Spirit will be depositing things in us that will mark us forever for God. Those who come up out of the wilderness leaning on their beloved become plunderers instead of being plundered. Notice that it doesn’t say that the Shulamite leaned on her beloved until she came up out of the wilderness. It says that she came up out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved. Whenever you and I go through seasons of loss or trauma, and we lean into his presence and strength, that leaning becomes a permanent posture. Isaiah 33:23 says, “The lame (the leaning) will take the plunder.” The wilderness doesn’t last forever, but the leaning does, and the enemy suffers the permanent consequences.