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airIam2worship
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« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2005, 06:59:58 AM » |
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Hi Lisa, GOD bless you, for your attempts to quit smoking. I used to be a smoker, and no matter what the doctors told me (always bad news) I still smoked. Then I realized that I was not just hurting myself, financially & physically, but more important than that I was being a hipocrite, I knew I was hurting the temple of the Holy Spirit. I realized that if I was going to let a man made habit get in my way now, what would happen if the rapture came and I was left behind due to my lack of self control? Would I be able to reisist getting the mark of the beast for a cigarette? Remember the Holy Spirit will not be operating through Christians after the rapture, I thought I I can't do it while the Holy Spirit is still operating here on earth why would I think i would be able to do it when He wasn't? I would be prone to a lot of evil, probably stealing cigarettes, lying, denying Christ, all these thought just invaded my mind. Later on I realized that the only way to win a battle is to go right to the enemy and fight him, in this case I was my own enemy, I kept on making excuses for myself to keep smoking. I had to be real tough with myself. I might sound like I am being real tough with you now, but it's only because I know that every born again Christian has the ability to stop doing anything that is harmful to the body, soul or spirit. It does not matter what the addiction is, it may be smoking, drugs, porn, lying, stealing, covetousness, gambling, flirtatiousness (is that a word?), anyway you know what I mean, overeating anything at all that hinders your walk with GOD. You must make a commitment and JUST DO IT. Nothing worked for me before I made a very serious commitment to GOD that I was going to quit. Slowing down, or weaning didn't help, patches didn't help, gum didn't help candy didn't help, doctor prescriptions didn't help, lack of money didn't help, (I would borrow money), nothing worked. Finally I was so disgusted with myself that I stood right in the mirror and lookd at myself and really gave myself a very harsh scolding. I said, "How would you feel if GOD was so undecisive about redeeming you, or how would you like it if He thought you were not worth the shed blood of His Son because you still smoke,or How do you think Jesus feels everytime you light up a cigarette?" I mean I was really hard on myself. Well to be honest it worked. everytime I felt like smoking a cigarette I thought about these things, I would remove myself from the enviornmet I was in that made me want a cigarette at that particular moment, I would read the Bible, pray, and once I was done doing that I would call my husband at work and tell him I was craving a cigarette, he would talk to me and undoubtedly pray for me as well but I would do this until I QUIT... I am not lying to you I even went to my pastor and confessed to him I was having a problem with cigarette smoking and believe me it wasn't easy, as a matter of fact it was downright humitliating and embarassing, but when I think about it it was much more worth it and what a joy it was to call him and tell him I had quit. YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!! I'm praying for you. We all are, now you do the right thing, remeber GOD will not force you to do something you won't want to really do. So JUST DO IT \0/.
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