the longing for that one thing you think you need...

The enemy never tells us the whole story when we're faced with the most luscious temptation. ~ Sheila Walsh, The Longing in Me The Longing for That One Thing You Think You Need... Sheila Walsh, The Longing in Me In his study on the life of King David, Chuck Swindoll wrote, "David, being a man with a strong sexual appetite, mistakenly thought, To satisfy it I will have more women. Thus, when he became king, he added to the harem, but his drive only increased. One of the lies of our secular society is that if you just satisfy this drive, it'll be abated."1   David was bored, restless, and tired from not doing anything.   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.' Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. — 2 Samuel 11:2-4   The shocking thing about this passage is how easy falling into sin was. That's the thing about sin.   When your guard is down, the unthinkable becomes doable.   David was a godly man, a man who time after time had refused to step outside the plan of God for his life, no matter what it cost him personally. He had spent years in caves and fields, hungry and at times all alone, and yet stayed true. But now things in his life were easy. He saw no perceivable enemy, so now his real enemy showed up.   In his book Temptation, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that when any of us are faced with temptation, whether it's sexual or ambition or vanity or desire for revenge, "at this moment God is quite unreal to us. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God."2 We see that forgetfulness here as David sends a servant to find out about the beautiful woman on the rooftop.   Note the quietly veiled warning in the report brought back to David: "She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite." In those days, when you inquired about someone, people would tell you the name of the person and his or her father, sometimes even the person's grandfather, but never the spouse. But the servant David asked about this woman knew his master well and was trying to warn him.   Uriah wasn't simply a soldier in David's army. He was one of "the Thirty," an elite squad, the best of the best in military terms (see 2 Samuel 23:8-39). At times they served as the king's bodyguard. David knew and depended on this loyal man, but that didn't stop his plan. At that moment all he knew was this: he wanted Bathsheba, so he took her.   There's a profound warning for us here. It's easy to sit in the comfort of our lives and think, Well, I'd never do that! I believe every single one of us is capable of the most blatant sin given the right set of circumstances. The only thing that will save us in a moment like that is to turn around and run from it with everything that's in us. Don't walk. Run!   "Run from sexual sin!" the apostle Paul wrote.   No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. — 1 Corinthians 6:18   The enemy never tells us the whole story when we're faced with the most luscious temptation. He entices just enough to get us hooked. He didn't tell David that in no time at all Bathsheba would send word that she was pregnant.   So often what we think will make us happy brings nothing but heartache. In light of impending heartache, what would David do now? He had two choices: He could own what he did — fall on his face before God and ask for forgiveness and confess his sin to Uriah and ask him to forgive him for his one-night stand.   Or, he could cover up the affair.   That's the option David chose. And life would only get worse from that point on. Why? Because panic is a poor decision maker.   David didn't think twice about sleeping with Bathsheba. But once he learned she was pregnant, he had no desire to get caught, so he sent for Uriah. His plan was to bring Uriah home from battle for a night, anticipating that he would sleep with his wife and then assume the child was his. But David underestimated Uriah. This was not a common soldier or an ordinary man. He had served David since the early days when David ran from Saul. Although he was a Hittite by birth, his parents had probably converted to Judaism since the name Uriah means "My light is the Lord."   Uriah still considered himself to be in battle mode, so he refused to go home. Instead, he slept at the door of King David's house with the servants. When David questioned him the following morning, Uriah replied,   The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master's men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing. — 2 Samuel 11:11   David might have stolen Uriah's wife, but he couldn't manipulate Uriah's heart.   From this point, the story takes a dark and somber twist. Realizing that he couldn't bend this godly man to his will, David determined to kill him. He sent Uriah back to the battle with a note for Joab, the commander of Israel's army.   'Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest,' he wrote. 'Then pull back so that he will be killed.' — 2 Samuel 11:15   He made Uriah carry his own death warrant.   What David didn't know was that he had just handed Joab the perfect ammunition for blackmail. He would live to regret this murderous deception for so many reasons. Joab was just one of them.   David's plan worked. So, he got what he thought he needed to make him happy. He went after what he longed for: Bathsheba. And now, with Uriah dead, he could have her free and clear, and no one would be the wiser.   Think about this for a moment. What David did, apart from being evil, made no sense. If Uriah had come back from battle and discovered his wife was pregnant, why would he have suspected David? When we panic and try to cover up our steps, we open ourselves to crazy thinking. Telling the cold, hard truth when we've deliberately sinned is hard to do, but it is so much better than the wall of lies we build to try to cover ourselves. Why? Because those walls always fall on us. We wrongly think the truth will destroy us. It may hurt us in the short term, but it won't destroy us. That's the territory of the enemy.   1992   I sat across from my husband in a small café on the oceanfront in Virginia Beach. I'd been out of the psychiatric hospital for a few weeks and felt very fragile. I could see he was torn as to whether he should tell me some things or not. A pastor friend said he must, and his best friend told him not to.   Continue reading on our blog... ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full       Watch the Video Watch the Video Some cravings are misguided, but they all stem from the same hunger... for God Now only $9.99 for a limited time   The Longing in Me by Sheila Walsh Softcover, Regular Price: $16.99 Sale: $9.99 SHOP NOW Do your desires have you going around in circles? You may be looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places.   You vowed you'd never repeat the same mistakes — yet you find yourself right where you started. What is it that keeps drawing you back into the same old traps? The fact is, your longings are built from the blueprint of your needs: for protection, for love, for God. And those needs aren't going anywhere.   Sheila speaks candidly about the trials in her life, including the heartache of her first marriage, and intertwines her story with the biblical saga of King David. As both Sheila's and David's stories make clear, some cravings are misguided, but they all stem from the same hunger — and they will haunt you until that hunger gets satisfied properly.   If you keep reaching out to the wrong people at the wrong times in your own life, The Longing in Me will help you understand that your cravings are not the problem. It's where they lead you that makes all the difference.   PRAISE FOR THE LONGING IN ME:   "Sheila Walsh has the uncanny ability to plumb the deepest truths without sounding superficial or preachy. She touches the heart, soothes the soul, and lifts the spirit." ~ Max Lucado, New York Times bestselling author of You'll Get Through This   "To sit under [Sheila's] ministry is to come nearer to the heart of God. Sheila is the genuine article and I am confident that all who draw near to her story, experience, and wisdom will be forever changed." ~ Bobbie Houston, cofounder and senior pastor of the Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia   "We share an ache in our hearts, an emptiness in our souls. It's an emptiness only God can fill — Sheila's book taught me that in new and beautiful ways. Now it's your turn." ~ Karen Kingsbury, New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including Brush of Wings Save 40% Off The Study In The Longing in Me 6-session Bible study, Sheila unpacks the deepest longings of a woman's heart and encourages us to discover God's relentless pursuit of them through those very longings. Study Guide, Regular: $12.99 Sale: $7.79 Combo pack, Regular: $41.99 Sale: $25.19 Buy Now Miss any of our recent articles? Fall Celebration by Myquillin Smith One Choice Every Couple Should Make in Their Suffering by Patrick Schwenk One Plot or Two by Kayla Stoecklein *Sale prices valid through 9/30/2020, excluding eBooks. eBooks purchases are fulfilled by our partner, Glose.  Free U.S. shipping on orders $30 or more, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Save on All our Best Deals!     You are subscribed to Faith.Full, the women's newsletter at FaithGateway   FaithGateway ~ our mission is to help you grow and share your faith.   Copyright © 2020 HarperCollins Christian Publishing. All Rights Reserved. 501 Nelson Place, Nashville, TN 37214, USA Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions *Manage Your Email Preferences or Unsubscribe  Subscription Information This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally