1) Destruction by neglect
Lets consider Colossians 3.
Verse 2 tells us to “set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” It reminds us what we are to concentrate on as a result of Jesus being in our life.
Verse 5  says “Therefore put to death....”- then gives a list of things. All of this is rubbish in our life we need to deal with.
The passage has a dual aspect a) It says look up b) it says put to death. Then verse 8 and 9 says put off the old man or you could say let the old man or the old way of doing things just go or slip away.

Remember what we are looking at is destruction by neglect
So we must understand
We are not talking about sin- you don’t neglect that. You repent of it, turn away and let God deal with it. We cannot destroy sin by neglect
Things in your character that need dealing with cannot always be resolved by facing them or praying about them. If you are constantly trying to face up to a character flaw there can be a tendency to cause you to brood on it. For example you may be aware of a bad temper and before you know it that thing is amplified more than needs be.
No one is immune we all have things we should not think about but resolutely neglect and allow it to decline in its centrality of our life. We do that by concentrating on the opposite. In other words things above or God’s way of doing things.

Galatians 5:16 says “walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh” It doesn’t say sort out the lusts of the flesh then you will walk in the spirit. We have to put it off. We have to let it go. As we do the rubbish is destroyed. It’s a process but its one we have to work at.

For example if you have a plant in your house you will know there is a big difference between  nourishing and feeding it or just ignoring it. If you do the latter it will begin to wilt and fade. Eventually it dies off. You destroyed it. But not by administering weed killer just by neglect.

Let me say this
I challenge you today to get before God and let him show you what areas of your character you need to work on and then start practising. Practise makes permanent. Now I am not saying have a witch hunt of you and start imagining stuff that is not there. Most of us don’t need to go navel gazing. We already have a good idea if we are honest about it what God will say. So just run with it and don’t get all bogged down. Stay open to Him.

2) Direction by sacrifice
If we are going to develop our character we have to start going in the right direction. So take a look at Matthew 5:29. Jesus here is talking sacrifice. So for a moment let’s consider it. Sacrifice here feels like a  chastening thing. We get the picture that it is a  just cut that out mentality. Sacrifice however, is also worship. Worship means that I choose to give back to God the best He has given me and in doing this He makes it His and mine forever.
You know the best God has given you is the right to yourself with all your idiosyncrasies. What He wants is to allow our self life to be rightly centred in personal passionate devotion to Him.
As we sacrifice to Him we are transformed in our nature into the spiritual. That involves not only praying but also performing and leading a disciplined life.

So often it is not wrong things we have to change and give up but the good that is not good enough. Here is a question; will I give up the best I have for the best Jesus has? You see there may be things we think are okay and we can live with but God says sacrifice those so you can have the best to enjoy.

3 Designed by desires
Psalm 37:4 has this to say  “ delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”.
John 15:7 says “ If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it will be done for you”

Building and developing character is founded on design. That is firmly based on desire. Desire is what you determine in your mind and settle in your heart and set yourself towards as a goal. These scriptures show us that if our delight and desire is in God and His Word your own desire will be fulfilled and you will be transformed as a result.
Again you are placing your heart, your life, your character in the hands of God and desiring His will for it rather than what you would do.
So the basis of spiritual reconstruction of your character and clearing out the rubbish is implicit faith in Him. Not by our own wits or what we can achieve but what He can achieve in us.
By doing so our qualities and our choices that form our character become changed to His choices, His character, His way of doing things. What is more we don’t approach that change reluctantly. We don’t kind of take the view well I suppose I had better change. If we take that view we never will. No, it has to be part of a design and plan for our lives because our delight is in Jesus.

Therefore we begin to make a new mark. The rubbish in our lives is removed and we begin to replace our old way with good solid spiritual traits and qualities that will last for all eternity.