The Reality of the Christian Life

Song of Solomon 5

In this chapter we see the bride in a room ready for bed as her husband tries to get in the room. At last she goes to him to let him in but he is gone. She goes throughout the city looking for him and as she is looking the gate keeper (like a police officer) thinks that she is up to no good and manhandles her. She then is crying for all of the women in Jerusalem to help her find her love. She is desperately looking for her love.

As anyone that is married will tell you marriage is not the easiest thing and in marriages there are disagreements. This chapter may be a picture of an argument that the bride and husband had. Even if it was not, we see the bride looking for her husband wanting his presence and knowing that she should be with him.

The Reality of the Christian Life

If we look at this in a spiritual sense we need to know that just like in marriage there will be some hardships so too in the Christian life there will be trials. We need to know how to handle these trials when they come. We have looked in the past at different passages that say we will face trials (John 16:33; Romans 5:3; and James 1:2) and when those trials come we need to be prepared. Just like in marriage when the tough times come, you must be willing to work through the trial and endure and when you do, your marriage comes out stronger than before. If we assume that there was something that was going on for the bride and husband to not meet because of a disagreement we see that the bride then wanted to resolve it.

When we face trials realizing that as Christians we are going to go through hardships, we cannot throw in the towel. We can not give up and think God has abandoned us; we must persevere through and see our faith shining through. When we do we see that God never abandoned us. In verse 8 we see the bride’s motivation for searching for here husband and it was love. She was sick with love for him. We need to be sick with love for our Savior, that is how we endure through the hardships, the evil, in this life. When we know this we see that we can make it. When we mess up and fall short, it is not over. We are forgiven when we seek forgiveness and we grow from these trials and shortcomings.

The reality of the Christian Life is that it is not easy, it is not for the faint of heart. You have to look at it has a marathon not a sprint race and in this marathon there will be obstacles that you would not be ready for. The great news is that your coach is there with you at all times helping your through. Our heavenly Father is our coach in this race. Be prepared and keep going.