Build Your Strategy For Ongoing Purity, Part 9

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply

Title: Build Your Strategy For Ongoing Purity, Part 9 ------------------- Date: 5/28/2003
Keywords: “danger” “temptation”
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

This is the ninth of a twelve-part series designed to help you build a strategy for ongoing sexual purity. The first six parts were posted in late April. Click here to see the first study.

Passage: 2 Samuel 11:2-4*

2. Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

3. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"

4. And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

Questions

1. What were the early stages of temptation that David should have paid more attention to?

 

2. What are the first signs of danger for you personally when faced with temptation?

 

Practical help

David’s sin with Bathsheba had devastating consequences upon his family and his reign as king. Things could have been so different if he had simply paid attention to the danger signs.

Maybe the first sign of temptation for him was the thought of getting out of bed and going to the roof. What was he hoping to find there? On the other hand, David’s going to the roof could have been innocent enough, but the lingering gaze and the desire whelming up within him when he first saw the woman should have alerted him to trouble. He could have stopped there had he heeded the early warnings!

James was so right when he wrote “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15)

We need to be reminded of the downward progression that occurs when we entertain the first stages of sexual temptation. There are early warning signs for us in each case. Ignoring them can lead to devastating results in our own lives and for those we love.

Action Point 9: Develop your own “early warning system” to detect the first signs of temptation.

eXXit homepage
Index of three-minute studies
Copyright 2003 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."