It is never too late to repent. The time to repent is always now. You cannot go back, but you can respond in the present.…Consequences may still come, but for a true believer, it is never too late to be restored to fellowship with God.

One of the most vivid biblical stories of a man making a mess of his life is that of King David. He spends years running from Saul, fighting the Philistines, and sometimes even facing the intense, grief-filled wrath of his most trusted friends. During this time, he writes Psalms, walks in close fellowship with God, and is called a man after God’s own heart.

Like most of us, David probably longed for the day when he could live in peace. He finally experiences that time when he becomes king, establishes Jerusalem as his capital, builds a house, and rests in his palace. It is in that moment that he makes the worst decision of his blessed life—he sees Bathsheba bathing on a roof, calls for her, commits adultery with her, and then commits murder in an attempt to cover it up.

Have you ever really blown it—made a sinful choice with the potential to destroy your life and possibly the lives of those around you? The story of David in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 offers insight into what we should—and should not—do when faced with our own moral failures.

Stop Digging

When you find yourself in a horrible hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. David made everything worse by trying to cover up his sin. He committed adultery with the wife of his trusted servant Uriah while Uriah was away fighting on David’s behalf. Then David called Uriah home, hoping he would sleep with his wife and assume the child was his. That plan backfired.

When caught in sin, the first instinct is often deception: cover it up, deny it. Some even deny wrongdoing when the truth is obvious to everyone.

David’s future son, by Bathsheba, may have had his father in mind when he wrote this proverb:

“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
—Proverbs 28:13

When David’s deception failed, he escalated his sin and had Uriah killed. The cover-up is often worse than the original sin. Do not pile one sin upon another—it never works. This mindset values temporary consequences over spiritual ones. The most important thing in David’s life was his relationship with God, yet he was willing to trade that for how he was perceived by others.

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