Just Curious? Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Just Curious?-   -----  ----------------------------- Date: 08/25/2000 Keywords: "accountable" "confide" "motive" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 2 Samuel 11:1-5* 1. In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3. and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4.  Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." Questions 1. Why do you think David sent someone to inquire about the woman he had seen? Do you think he was simply curious, or was he already contemplating adultery?   2. How do you think David would have answered the above question at that moment?   3. What if that "someone" in verse 3 had asked, "Why do you want to know?" What do you think David would have said?   Practical help Sin often begins in isolation (see eXXit study entitled "Suffering Neglect"). Temptation is more likely to progress into willful sin in the absence of someone who might question our motives.  It is easy to deceive ourselves until we have to explain out loud those things we aren't willing to admit even to ourselves. David may very well have convinced himself at first that he was just curious about the woman he had seen. What about you? Do you play mind games with yourself? How often do you make a quick decision to go to a porn site because you're "just curious?" Next time you find yourself doing that, stop! Ask yourself, "What do I need to know that I don't already know about these sights? Do I  have any intention of taking a quick look to satisfy my curiosity? Have I ever done that? Why am I trying to kid myself?" Then try to find someone else you can confide in who will agree to ask you these kinds of questions on a regular basis to hold you accountable. Pray that God will provide such a person, and then don't neglect to look for him! eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2000 by eXXit *Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.