Spiritual Timeout

2 Samuel 11:1 In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. On the surface, it seems quite innocent. Instead of gong to battle, David stayed behind, took a break. Maybe there was nothing wrong with sitting this one out, but the problem went deeper than that. David not only checked out physically, he also took a spiritual time out. That's when it all unravelled. An innocent walk on the roof turned into lust, which led to sin, which led to more sin. It wasn't long before David was in way too deep. Sin always takes us farther than we want to go, and it hurts us more than we are willing to hurt. It hurts others too. And it doesn't matter if you're the King of Israel, if you check out spiritually, you will fall into it. The flesh does what it does, except when we walk under the guidance of God's Spirit. Sometimes we are tempted to stay on the sidelines instead of actively fighting in the battle, but the sideline of complacency is prime hunting for our enemy. In many circumstances, avoiding temptation can be achieved by simply staying in the fight of faith.