2 Samuel 11:1
And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
As great of a man as David was, he still made a great mistake that led to sin, and he dealt with its consequences for the remainder of his life. The thing about sin is that its consequences do not care about your spiritual accomplishments; sin’s consequences happen to all who choose to accept sin’s invitation. I would imagine if David could have relived his life again that he would have avoided that one night that transformed a peaceful life and happy family to a dysfunctional family and a tumultuous life.
Two words are responsible for changing David’s life. These two words were David’s choice. Nobody made him do what these two words are, but it was his own choosing to do them. The two words are tarried still. If we could take these two simple words out of David’s life, we could remove the horrendous results that these two words brought to his life. These same two words are as damaging to your Christian walk as they were to David’s life. Let’s look at these two words and how they affect you.
First, David tarried when he should have continued. To tarry means he stopped. To tarry means he paused what he was doing. All Satan is trying to do is to get the believer to pause for a moment what they are doing so they can get rest, but pausing right living always leads to sinful decisions. There is no pause button in the Christian walk. Many people have paused their life to take a break only to realize they never regained the momentum of what they once had for God. You can tarry for a moment, but every moment you tarry doing nothing for God is time wasted that could have been used by God to do greater things. We will never know what miracles God would have done in David’s life during the time that he tarried. Time to tarry to take a break is time God could have used to do something miraculous in your life. You will never tarry from doing right and find good come out of it.
Second, David was still when he should have been moving forward. You cannot do anything by faith when you are standing still. Faith is always a forward direction that requires action and movement. To be still instead of stepping forward is a faithless action that always leads to a dying Christian walk. Many churches are dying because they are still instead of active by faith. Many believers are cold and indifferent toward God because they are still. Serving God is always an active action and not an inactive action. You cannot please God by being inactive. To be still instead of moving forward may seem safe, but it is the most dangerous decision a believer makes because they stop living by faith and start living by sight.
Because David tarried still, he still tarried and ended up in sin. You may choose to tarry still for a moment, but you will still tarry until temptation overcomes you. The greatest way to fight temptation is never tarry still but move forward. You cannot accept temptation’s invitation if you are moving forward and away from temptation. Everyone will face temptation, but those who choose not to tarry still but move forward by faith are those who will overcome temptation’s invitation. My friend, if you never tarry still, you will never stay where temptation’s lure overcomes you.
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