2 Sam 11:14-17 (NIV) In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.

Sin doesn’t just come into our life like a pebble. It comes into our life like a seed. It grows and produces other seeds that grow into more sins. David had gone from adultery to murder. How did he get into this condition? He got into this condition long before he saw Bathsheba through his window.

The results of a temptation, trial, or ministerial assignment only reveal our spiritual condition that was there all along. The time we spend with God and His Word prior to these things gets us ready for all that is coming our way. When we neglect God and His Word, we are setting ourselves up for failure. It may be quite some time before we see the results of our spiritual preparation or lack thereof. But we will see all of its effects when the temptation, trial, or assignment comes.

We often only consider our spiritual failures at the time when we fail. The truth is, we failed prior to what we saw as failure. Often we ask the question: “Why did I fail?” As we look over the situation, we can’t put our finger on anything significant. The reason we can’t find anything is because we are looking at the wrong time period. We failed now because we failed in our past preparations.