Hi, again...
I've heard many 'solutions' over time, and everyone is different, so there's no 'one right way' for all, but I do find it interesting how many ppl who believe in Jesus will easily forget Him when giving answers and advice to certain things.
Talk about homos marriage, or lesbian preachers, or alcoholism or cheating, and ppl don't hesitate rightly putting God at the forefront of overcoming these 'sins',
but 'other things' will often get pages of pschobabble and advice and appeasement and excuses and 'there-there, try this, try that, its so haaaarrrd, try again' blahblah, but barely a word about Jesus or scripture or sin or shame is mentioned.
Look, I'm not meaning to sound condemning, there IS no condemnation for true christians, praise the Lord, and Lynn has given every indication that she's a blood-bought, born-again, child of the living God, so idk, maybe she has struggles believing in, or having full assurance of, the gift of salvation once for all forever, but many do, sometimes.
Maybe that's a separate issue, maybe not, idk.
Smoking is not the unpardonable sin, but sometimes we have to quit playing games with the enemy, and call things what they are, ... especially when all other things have failed.
Again, not to be condemning, but just to be honest before the Lord and with ourselves.
But, If a person has come to the point where they want to stop doing something, they've admitted it's wrong, claim they've tried many times and methods to stop, including prayers, and asking God and God's people for help, and they still do it, MAYBE it's just become deliberate sin, and until that gets honestly admitted, there's probably not going to be any real victory over it.
God understands, but do we want to?
Among all the other horrible things I've done in my life, I also smoked a pack a day for at least 40years, and I had no real desire or intention of quitting. But often there was that nagging 'voice' letting me know from time to time that it was wrong and I should quit.
I had to harden my heart against that, and common sense, to continue.
I convinced myself it was the 'hypocrite establishment' that was forcing me by guilt-trip to stop smoking, ostracizing ME as a free American into not doing what I want with my own body...?
(as THEY say)
After all, weren't these the same ppl shoving pro-choice, so-called, down my throat when it comes to murdering babies? Now they're going to tell ME, a 'good, God-fearing', tobacco farmers supporter (and all those chemicals, I guess), that I can't smoke cigarettes? All the while they're pushing to legalize smoking dope?
Hah!
Weeellllll, one day I was reading scripture, and I'm into the beauty of 1st Peter, being born-again by the Word, as a gift from God, and without going into all the details, the bottom line was, I put the bible down, and did what I always do, .....
I non-chalantly lit a cigarette while contemplating what I read.
Suddenly I recognized that the sin is not really smoking a cigarette, but my rebellious, defiant, black heart! THAT'S what I needed deliverance from, ME, not the stupid cigarettes.
My indifferent determination that I was going to smoke trumped the Word of God, without me even giving it a second thought. SHAME ON ME!!! God has set me free from so many other things, and yet I'm gonna cling to this?
If I could be so Lah-di-dah in the face of God's grace in His Word,
how secure did I have a right to be in other areas of my life?
Or even death?
And even though my salvation is not based on my own behavior, my Savior surely deserves better of me than to be so childishly defiant, or claiming it's 'my right' to smoke, or 'it's tooo haaarrd' to quit.
Hah!!!
Okay, some things are hard, but TOO hard to stop for Jesus?!
Too hard for an East-Coast American Christian, no less?!
Whether it's a Philly-Boy or a Jersey-Girl or a NewYork-Goombah?
No way!!
As we speak, there are ppl being tortured, beaten, and murdered simply for believing in Jesus, and they're standing up for Him and defying the enemy, showing faith and courage in the face of overwhelming odds, because of His great love for them, and yet, I'M gonna crumble under the weight of a cigarette addiction and give the enemy the victory because it's tooo haarrdd??!!'
Pah-hah!! Nope! No more!
Well, it's been over two years since that last cigarette, praise the Lord!
And I take no credit for any of it, this is All the Lord's doing.
He coulda, shoulda, 'offed' me long ago, but by His grace and mercy,
He's carried me all my life, still has me here now,
(for some crazy reason idk, ?), but I don't want to take Him for granted,
But I trust Him to continue this work in progress I am.
Gosh, I'm such a wretch, yet He continues to be so Good and Merciful.
Psalm23 (ty ladylynn et al.), John10:1-30 (ty PastorJoe, S. Ferguson et al.).
Our Good Shepherd. Again and again. Thank you, Jesus.
(Oh yeah, initially, I bought one of those stupid e-cigs, but after a couple of days of that, I started thinking, 'Wait a minute, I just quit a 40year habit of smoking cigarettes for Jesus' sake, and now I'm gonna start smoking batteries??!!
What kind of a moron am I??
I'm not only a sinner, I'm an idiot!!!')
So that's gone, too.
Do some of these victories come easily?
Maybe some do, sometimes, for some ppl.
Maybe sometimes not so much.
Uuuummmm, and, So what?!
We sing ,'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive all honor and praise'.
Is He?
Do we mean it?
Do we really believe Him? (Of course we do!)
If we ask Him for something to eat, will He give us a stone?
If we ask Him for His Holy Spirit, He will give Himself to us.
He already gave Himself FOR us, Hallelujah, and He gave us each other for encouragement and help along the way.
What a good and loving heavenly Father we have! What a friend we have in Jesus! Praying for you to let Him give you the victory. Actually, He already has. You know what to do. You need only take hold of it. Take hold of His hand, He already has you in His!
Jesus loves you.
Peace.