When Enough Is Enough: One Woman’s Testimony On Giving Up Smoking For Good

We must constantly ask ourselves this question: Are those things I’m living for, worth Christ dying for?

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When Christ saves a soul, that person is severed from the world. He leaves behind his roots and moves on. This means you must say good-bye to old friends, habits and lifestyles that put you in rebellion against God in the first place. Holding onto your old life will bring you down. If you want to be free of the junk that hounds you, then you MUST turn your back on it, shun it, flee from it and run away…or your sin will destroy you. We must constantly ask ourselves this question: Are those things I’m living for, worth Christ dying for?

When Is Enough, Enough?

When I made the decision to repent of my sins and make Christ Lord of my life, there were quite a few sins that I immediately put away – they were easy. However, some other sins weren’t so easy. Sin looked all the more shinier after I was reborn because Satan was trying to get me back.

How long does God give a person to repent and quit their sinful ways? How long does He send warnings for? For how long will He watch as we flit away our inheritance and play with sin before He says: “ENOUGH!”?

After being convicted by the Holy Spirit that my smoking was a sin, I could no longer avoid it. The only thing I could do was pray; and I prayed for years, often changing the words that accompanied my pleas for Divine deliverance. Sometimes, I only half-meant my prayers because I really enjoyed smoking, but I knew it was wrong to continue, so I asked the Holy Spirit to also give me a true repentant heart. Not “doing” anything but praying about it was very difficult. As sinful beings, we still feel the need to “do” something as though God needs our help or offering Him some administrative guidelines might speed Him up a bit. I was reminded that God works, often silently, in the background. He has His will, His timing and His reasons. My job was to keep praying, praying and praying.

The “Road To Damascus” Moment

One night as I was getting ready to take my dog out for a walk, I wistfully looked up into the night sky and said to God: “what I need is a road to Damascus moment.” At the same time, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me: “Tonight, just walk and don’t talk” (as I often use that time to talk to God). We were just about done our walk roughly 30 minutes later and as I was walking up my driveway, my feet stood still; I looked around the surrounding darkness when out of nowhere there was a wind that began to swirl around my feet, up my ankles and legs, around and around my body to my head and when it reached my face, I instantly inhaled it as much as I could and for as long as I could. I don’t know what lead me to do that, but my arms went out and I stood there inhaling this wind. When it stopped, I noticed there was no wind anywhere else and then it clicked. I said to God: “That was it, wasn’t it? It’s over! YOU have delivered me!” Something in me simply knew that I wasn’t going to smoke again. I haven’t felt a craving or a desire to light up again. I had my first cigarette when I was 4 years old and had been smoking the better part of 40 years. Nothing but Divine grace and His love could get me to quit.

Our Only Hope

All I can say to any one is take your addiction and give it to God. I remember one night I literally took my pack of smokes and lifted it in the air and said: “Here Jesus. Please, please deliver me from this”. One should never think that God doesn’t love them or that they are not saved because they have an addiction. The One who hung the moon and the stars is certainly capable of handling addiction in the one that He loves! Let the Holy Spirit prepare you for your deliverance – even if it takes years. God always hears a sincere and humble prayer.

Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. – Galatians 5:1

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