I've always heard and understood the process of renewing my mind and making transformational life changes as this: Remove and replace. Take out the bad; replace with the good. Remove the lies; substitute with the truth. Take out the wrong; replace with the right.
There is truth in that. Take off the old self; put on the new. We need to stop believing the lies in order to believe the truth.
But I think I may have always put too much focus on the removing, the stopping, the taking-off-of-the-old. Those are all daunting tasks; ones that never quite end. So it's easy to get bogged down in the murky waters of all that needs to be fixed.
I need to focus more on the replacing, the starting, the putting-on-of-the-new. More than focus on my need to stop believing the lies, I need to focus on simply believing the truth.
To get rid of darkness, I don't focus on the pitch-black I see all around me. I don't continuously tell myself that the dark is bad and I really need to get rid of it. I don't try to convince it to leave. "Shoo! Go on, get outta here!" I do one simple thing.
I introduce light.
I flip a switch. Light a candle. Turn on a flashlight. Immediately, the darkness is dispelled. I don't have to get rid of darkness to replace it with light. All I do is add light, and darkness leaves.
As I seek to renew my mind and transform my life, I'm learning to adjust my line of sight. Instead of staring at all I need to get rid of, I'm trying to stare more at all I need to add. I'm locking my eyes onto the cross.
When I introduce the power of the cross to any area of my life, everything else gets pushed out of the way.
When I add light, darkness leaves. It doesn't have a choice.