Guard Your Heart - King David

Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

2 Samuel 11:2-3

In the aftermath of an illicit sexual affair, we’ve all heard someone say, “We didn’t plan it. It just happened.”

Though no man in his right mind would plan an indiscretion that could ruin his marriage, his children’s lives, his reputation, and his relationship with God, it’s inaccurate to say that such affairs just happen. Far from it! In every case of infidelity or sexual immorality, someone takes steps that lead to trouble.

Let’s be honest. Since the dawn of creation, our enemy the devil has worked overtime to trip up godly men. He knows our weaknesses, and he knows how readily we respond to visual stimuli. That’s how God has wired us, and that’s why sexual temptation so often comes to us through what we see.

The tragic story of King David’s sin with Bathsheba graphically demonstrates how the enemy uses our eyes to trip us up. David fell because he allowed himself to stare lustfully at the beautiful Bathsheba. Once he began mentally entertaining illicit possibilities, a sinful thought quickly turned into a sinful action.

David apparently learned from his blunder because he later wrote, “I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar” (Psalm 101:3). Consider it hard-earned wisdom that doubles as great advice.

Have you learned to safeguard your heart by safeguarding your eyes? When you train yourself to go on the offensive and keep guard over where your eyes linger, you hold the key that prevents sexual immorality from just happening.

For just a moment, imagine that you are David. You see a lovely young thing bathing in the next apartment. What do you do? You could continue looking, or you could quote some pointed counsel from God’s Word to yourself: “Can [a man] walk on hot coals and not blister his feet? So it is with the man who sleeps with another man’s wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 6:28-29).