Prayer: Father, may I be a Nathan in someone’s life. May I be a mouthpiece for You. Helping those caught up in adultery to leave it and forsake it and return to their first love. Amen.
Reading: 2 Samuel 12 key: vs. 11-13 ““Thus says Adonai: Behold, I am going to raise up evil against you from your own household, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. Indeed you have done it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun.” Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Adonai.” Nathan replied to David, “Adonai also has made your sin pass away—you will not die.” TLV
Attention: I want to show my readers today how pervasive and offensive our sin is to God. Notice, that God is doing all the talking through Nathan. God makes several “I” statements about what He has done for David. How it was He who anointed David, delivered him from the hand of Saul, gave him Saul’s house and wives, and gave him “the house of Israel and of Judah.” God asks him “Why then have you despised the word of Adonai by doing such evil in My eyes?” God charges him with the murder of Uriah and taking his wife. God’s final charge “Indeed you have done it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun.” He will be disgraced publicly.
It is then, that David cries out, “I have sinned against “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that everyone who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
I can feel his despair, his desperation to admit his guilt.
I have spoken before about a man I used to work with. He claimed Christ but was openly having an affair with a married woman, who also claimed Christ. I prayed about it and went to him, appealing for him to leave this inappropriate relationship. Much to my relief, he did.
I want to say this to those men who would say, I have never committed adultery by having an affair. Yeshua’s own words recorded by Matthew says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that everyone who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
We do not have to have acted on a full-blown affair to have committed adultery. If through our eyes, we have engaged our heart, we are guilty of adultery. In an age where men have been inundated with nudity through movies, advertising, pornography, and NFL half-time shows, we have become numb and casual about the programming of media.
I heard a statistic years ago about the number of murders and violence young boys see by the time they are teenagers. The incidence of sex, nudity, and violence through gaming devices have exponentially conditioned our young men to think nothing of it.
I encourage all men to ponder the impact of the programming of television, movies, gaming, and streaming on our mind and hearts. If we claim Christ and belong to Adonai, then we must align ourselves, our mind, eyes, and heart to the standard of holiness He declares.
Action: I choose today to establish self-control of my eyes as honoring to God.
Yield: I choose to surrender control of my eyes to the Lordship of God.
Engage: I choose to engage in the practice of eye control in obedience to God.
Relationship: I choose to stay in close intimate relationship to God.
Prayer: Father, I am reminded of a children’s song which dedicated their eyes, hands, and feet to the Lord. As a little child, may I be aware of my eyes, hands, and feet, dedicating them unto the Lord. Amen.
Memory Verse: Matthew 5: 27-28 ““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that everyone who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” TLV
Music Video: Islington Baptist Church—O Be Careful Little Eyes
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”