Replace, Don't Simply Remove

Don't you love the huge bouncy-ball displays at Toys-R-Us or Walmart? Many times I've removed a ball from the big cage to simply bounce it a few times then toss it back into the rack...I'm sure the employee's love me!

What happens when you remove a ball from the rack? That void gets filled with other balls, right? I'm sure the designers of this rack knew that they were demonstrating an important Biblical principle!! It's the principle of replacement...

In Luke 11, Jesus is telling about what happens when someone simply cleans themself up. Verses 24-26 say, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first."

When God convicts you about wrong things, if you simply cleanup those things, you'll eventually go back to them, and you'll be worse off then when you started. However, if you replace them with good, godly things, there will be no room in that void for the old things to come back.

Here's an example from Ephesians 5:18-21. Find the thing that should be removed, then find the things that it should be replaced with, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."