Maybe it was a party you knew you shouldn’t have gone to. Perhaps it was a marriage everyone told you was doomed from the start but you were going to prove them wrong. Maybe it was a financial decision that led you into ruin. We all have regrets, we all have mistakes, we all have parts of our life that we wish we could do over again. When we look at the greatest regret of King David’s life, we find a life-changing truth:

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her (2 Samuel 11:1-3). 

Did you catch where David was? Where he wasn’t supposed to be. David was supposed to be at war with his men. That was his place. That was his responsibility. Either through entitlement, fatigue or overconfidence, David stayed home. David wasn’t where he was supposed to be, and it led to one of the greatest regrets of his life: his affair with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband and the death of their first child together.

So where are you currently where you shouldn’t be? Are there friends influencing you that you know don’t have the best intentions for you? Is there a relationship with someone of the opposite gender at work that is currently innocent but still not appropriate for a married person like you? Are you stretched financially and in danger of one big expense knocking your feet out from underneath you? If you’re in a place where you shouldn’t be, get out as soon as possible. You’re greatest regrets come when you’re not where you’re supposed to be.