The Replacements

Crash dieting is not your answer. Some believe that in order to lose the maximum amount of weight in a minimum amount of time requires an abrupt stoppage of food. These diets are mostly unsustainable and, in the long term, extremely unhealthy. A safe, effective and proper way to lose weight, cleanse your system and get healthy is to replace foods. Instead of sweets, try certain fruits. Instead of the massive cheeseburger, eat something smaller with less carbs. Save yourself the torture and replace foods instead of banning them.

Crash dieting is not your answer spiritually. Maturing in Christ and in His Word is not as simple as just stopping bad or sinful habits. A choice to do so is extremely hard to sustain and could potentially leave you frustrated and doubting. Abruptly ending the wrong things creates a void that needs to be filled with the good things of God. Here's what Paul said in Colossians 3:

⁸ But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

⁹ Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

¹⁰ And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

¹² Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

¹³ Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

¹⁴ And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

¹⁷ And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

I see three steps here; 1) Put off    2) Renew your mind    3) Put on.

To mature in Christ is put off things that are sinful and evil. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language has to be brought to an end in all our lives. But it doesn't end there. Next, your mind needs to be placed on Him. In other words, change the way you think because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7). But that's not the end either. Finally, we must put on the right things. We have to replace the wrong habits with the right ones. Spiritual replacement is the foundation of spiritual maturity. 

We try so hard to end the wrong in our lives. This cycle can be so frustrating if we don't learn to replace the wrong with what's right. Put off, renew your mind and then put on.