The Substitution Principle

We face a daily battle between this new nature we have in Christ versus our old, sinful nature. To win this battle, we have to change the way we think.

Our thoughts determine our feelings and hence we act according to how we feel. So if you feel sad, it's because you're thinking unhappy thoughts. If you want to get out of this depression or whatever struggle you may be in, you need to ask the Holy Spirit to change your thoughts -- give you something better to think about.

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. (Romans 8:6, NLT)

All our thoughts come from 2 sources: God and Satan. If it's from God, it's inspiration. If it's from the latter, it's temptation. And God gave us the freewill to choose. I don't know about you, but I would choose to be inspired any day than struggle with temptation. But if the evil one wins most of the time, the way to retaliate is to replace your thoughts. If you're battling with pornography and you come across a website that you know will tempt you, close it and go to a different website -- one that could inspire you instead. If you want to quit smoking and you keep thinking about cigarettes, you need to focus on something else. It's the principle of substitution -- whatever you want to change in your life: DON'T RESIST IT; CHANGE IT.

If you ask the Holy Spirit to give you refreshing and inspiring ideas to trade with the old, unhealthy ones, you will find that it will be given to you. Then when you start thinking about something good instead of evil, or something positive instead of negative, in no time at all, wickedness, immorality, maliciousness ---- all sinful thoughts will lose its charm and won't have any effect on you anymore.

But it all starts with giving the Holy Spirit free access to your irrepressible thoughts so it will be replaced with thoughts of God. Read your Bible and memorize verses. That's a good place to begin.

Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored. (Romans 8:7-8, MSG)