​I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart. – Psalm 40:8
 
Throughout the Old Testament there are admonitions to follow God’s law. There are a number of places that speak of the law of God being written on the heart. Here are a few of them:

Psalm 37:31 – The law of his God is in his heart.

Jeremiah 31:33 – I will put my law in … their hearts.

Ezekiel 26:26-27 – I will give you a new heart… and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

The will of God is clear; his will is that the desire of our heart would be to do whatever he commands. It is human to desire to do good, but it is divine to be able to pull it off. All of us can do well once in a while, but few of us have grown to the place that our life is consistently fulfilling God’s law.

David seems to have been at the place of desiring God’s will above all else when he wrote this passage, but that is not the whole story of his life. There are times when he was following his own desires rather than the will of God and those times led him to make disastrous choices.
How does a person keep the law of God within their heart? David gives us a hint in another passage. In Psalm 101:3 he writes, “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes” (KJV). What we see can easily enter out heart and if we willingly expose ourselves to sin then the desire for sin can easily enter our heart.

Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 6, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up . Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses”(verses 6-8).
When our focus is on God’s law there is little room for anything else to get into our heart. By following the instruction of David and Moses we will have the law of God written on our hearts.
 
Prayer: Lord, grant me a heart to seek you and your will. In Jesus name, amen.
Self-Control Is Desiring God’s Law
 
Message:  The will of God is clear; his will is that the desire of our heart would be to do whatever he commands. It is human to desire to do good, but it is divine to be able to pull it off.
 
Affirmation: I know that in my natural state I do not have the power, or will to do God's will, but by his enabling grace I can live righteously.
 
Reflection: Why do you think it is that we as humans, though we know what is right, we turn so often to follow our own will rather than God's? In Psalm 103 David gives us a hint as to what might be our problem. Think on that.
 
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                                                     Day Two — Add To Your Faith Self-Control

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him… Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises… For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith… self-control… If you possess these qualities… they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive.—2 Peter 1:3-8

Message:  It sounds like a contradiction in terms but the only way to have self-control is to surrender control to the Holy Spirit.

Affirmation: I daily surrender the control of my life, my thoughts and my actions, to the control, or influence, of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection: Everything we have learned in the natural realm tells us to be in control, but for most of us that doesn’t work too well. In the realm of the Spirit we gain self-control by walking in the Spirit of God. Reflect on how this concept is explored in Romans 7:14-25 then record your thoughts.
 
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