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[Roy Martin]

I have been smoking cigarettes for 40 years.God has taken so many things out of me that I cant count them.I ask God every day to take this deadly desire from me.Every day I say to myself that, no not today will I smoke.I can say that and think I really mean it and be smoking again 10 minutes later or ask God to take it from me,say amen and smoke a cigarette.I really really hate smoking.Its the hardest thing Ive ever dealt with to give up.Its not a simple choice as some might think.I really need help and prayer from all of you to be free from this.I cant stand it anymore.I'm in tears right now as I'm typing this. Why cant I stop this? I just don't understand it. I'm scared constantly of cancer. I know that God can deliver me from this and I know that I have to do something on my part but I haven't been able to do it.Please pray for me to be delivered from this and that God give me the strength to over come.
I trust God with all my heart and know that he hears my every prayer but I feel so alone from Him when it comes to giving up these deadly cigarettes.What is wrong with me? Why do I feel completely helpless? Ive never felt this way with any of the other things God has taken from me.Why do I not have even the slightest bit of control.Please help me God, and people reading this.

Sincerely
Roy

I feel selfish to be asking for help with this, considering all the sick people out there.Its very rare that I ask people to pray for me.In most cases its between God and me and He always works it out with me w/o going to people.Am I wrong to ask for your prayers and advice?

[Patrick]

I have been smoking cigarettes for 40 years.God has taken so many things out of me that I cant count them.I ask God every day to take this deadly desire from me.Every day I say to myself that, no not today will I smoke.I can say that and think I really mean it and be smoking again 10 minutes later or ask God to take it from me,say amen and smoke a cigarette.I really really hate smoking.Its the hardest thing Ive ever dealt with to give up.Its not a simple choice as some might think.I really need help and prayer from all of you to be free from this.I cant stand it anymore.I'm in tears right now as I'm typing this. Why cant I stop this? I just don't understand it. I'm scared constantly of cancer. I know that God can deliver me from this and I know that I have to do something on my part but I haven't been able to do it.Please pray for me to be delivered from this and that God give me the strength to over come.
I trust God with all my heart and know that he hears my every prayer but I feel so alone from Him when it comes to giving up these deadly cigarettes.What is wrong with me? Why do I feel completely helpless? Ive never felt this way with any of the other things God has taken from me.Why do I not have even the slightest bit of control.Please help me God, and people reading this.

Sincerely
Roy

I feel selfish to be asking for help with this, considering all the sick people out there.Its very rare that I ask people to pray for me.In most cases its between God and me and He always works it out with me w/o going to people.Am I wrong to ask for your prayers and advice?

NO!

"God is in total control of our destiny. God determines which trails we will go through; how severe they will be; and when we might have victory over them. We can "try" according to our own ability to overcome, but for the most part, we are too weak. We can keep ourselves from doing certain things, but not others.
So what is one to do? PRAY!
Yes, I know you've done that many times, but you never quit. God knows our state. It seems logical to think that if God wants us not to sin, and if we deeply desire NOT TO SIN, then surely He would be quick to grant such a wish. But this is not the case.
There may be numerous reasons for this:
It builds patience; we feel guilty and guilt can be a good thing as we eventually shame ourselves into obedience; we not only need to desire to stop whatever we know is sin, but we need to come to hate that sin, and the more we are plagued by it, the more we tend to hate it; our sin proves to us in undeniable terms that we really are powerless over our own behavior; it drives us to throw ourselves on God's mercy.

Sometimes we can come to believe that God has given up on us, or maybe we aren't even being called by God to be an overcomer of sin. This is not true. God is calling you alright-your request for spiritual help is proof of this. There is not, however, a secret formula for overcoming sin of any kind.
Smokers often have the very same addiction to smoke as others have to alcohol or sex. And many are addicted to all three.

Here is some instruction from Peter:

2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness.
 
2Pe 3:18  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and for ever. Amen.

We do not conquer all our sins just because we desire to conquer them, but we are to "grow" toward that goal. If you recall from my LOF series, "grace" is used as a verb in that it "teaches" us by life experiences how to live a godly life in this wicked world. Grace is not just an act of undeserved mercy by God, but it (grace) is also His way of teaching us through what most of us know as "the school of hard knocks."

We never become sinless, but we do reach the place that Paul stated that sin no longer has "dominion over us" (Rom. 6:14).

Roy, I also smoked for many years. One day the guilt was just too much and everything went into the dumpster (coincidence it was trash day?  ).
Continue to pray for this to pass. I'll stand and pray with you!

[mharrell08]

Amen Patrick!

Roy, you are in our prayers...this too shall pass.



Marques

[EKnight]

Hi Roy,

I hear your plight loud and clear as I too smoke and it disgusts me.  Several weeks ago I was visiting my aged mother who thought I had quit smoking and then saw that I was back to smoking and she scolded me.  I told her I was waiting for God to come to my rescue, she scoffed at me.  She said oh so it's God's fault you smoke?  Well no not exactly but I just let it go at that.  But I was very angry because one of my sisters was there too and she can't control her eating and nor can my mother, who is a diabetic and does not follow the diet that she should.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

I have tried at least five times to quit smoking. The longest I lasted was eighteen months.  It is not only the vanity of weight gain that brings me back but more importantly it puts me in a perpetual bad mood which causes a strain in my marriage and my family life.  The weight gain I could live with, it is the latter that always causes me to return to the cigarettes.  I know it sounds like a cop out but I need the cigarettes to keep the peace.  God knows this and I hope and pray that someday he rids me of this sin while at the same time keeping me sane and peaceful.

I understand your addiction and I will pray that God takes it away from both of us.

Eileen

[arion]

Roy,

I feel your pain brother.  I have never smoked as this is not an area that has ever grabbed me.  But there are temptations in my mind that have plagued me since my teenage years.  I have never physically acted on them but yet the 'hook' still tries to grab me time after time.  Just when you think your making progress it comes back out of left field and slaps you.  I have asked the Lord innumerable times for victory and yet when I least expect it, wham!!  I was listening to one of Ray's tapes awhile back and he was saying that in an area he struggled with and had prayed over for a long time that one day the struggle was just gone.  Nothing he had done but it was God's time for him to have victory (paraphrasing from memory here).  Some day the victory will come I am confident of.  Until then for reasons God has reserved to himself each of us have the thorns in the flesh we are given to humble us by and brother, nothing like these things to take the wind out of our sails.

[Samson]

Hi Roy,

          I can empathise with you Brother because I'm a smoker too. Not much advice from me, but it
seems that you are ahead of me, in that you feel guilt and strongly desire to quit. I was going to Post
an Email comment from Ray regarding smoking, but someone beat me to it. I appreciated this sentence
from Ray's Email Posted by Patrick in this Topic: WE DO NOT CONQUER ALL OF OUR SINS JUST BECAUSE
WE DESIRE TO CONQUER THEM, BUT WE ARE TO GROW TOWARDS THAT GOAL. Also grace is the way he
teaches us by the School of hard knocks. (from Patricks Post quoting Ray, paragraph 4).

I quit smoking twice for seven years(1982-1989 & 1996-2004), my former Religion prohibited it on
threats of expulsion. I never actually quit because of a desire to do so. Type A addictive type
personalities like me find it most difficult to quit(IMO). Admittedly, I fear how I will act after quitting.
That's how badly addicted, I am. My Wife has stated, she would have to take a vacation, fearing how
Hyper and irritable I'd become.

Roy, since you sincerely desire to quit, pray to God incessantly to quit and when God decides to remove
your desire to smoke, you will quit. You already feel guilt and shame, that's a good thing. Perhaps your
example might inspire others, including me.

                                     Kind Regards, Samson.

[Roy Martin]

Thanks guys,
That was some good replies and scriptures.Thank you for your prayers and I also have you in my prayers and thanks for having people like all of you on this forum.Ive got to get my wife to read your replies.Not a day passes that I dont get hammered on about smoking.I tell her Im trying very hard and pray constantly but she doesnt hear what Im saying.She blames me for it but she doesnt understand yet.She is still reading LOF series. Even after reading it myself and feeling down on myself for still smoking,well it took your reminders and scripture to let me know that I simply can not do it.I was to the point that I was about to stop praying for deliverance from smoking.During reading your replies I stopped and ask God to make me hate this more and more( Cigs.) Thank you for your understanding and for being a true brother in Christ. I can see now that God put in in my heart to ask for prayer.Isnt that just wonderful to say the least? Man I love the way He works.What a teacher and father He is.
Peace
Roy

[cjwood]

hi roy,
i have never really had a problem with smoking cigarettes (my problem was always with smoking pot). i no longer smoke weed but sometimes i think back on it and wonder what it would be like, but then i remember the scripture about a dog returning to his vomit, and that pretty much does it for me. my husband is a smoker and i admit on occasion i have had a cigarette with him. actually, when he went back overseas to work last month (he works as a mud engineer on an offshore oil rig off the coast of africa) he left a pack of cigs at home. i decided one day to smoke one and then another one. after the lightheadedness passed i was okay. the next day i smoked another cig. after about the 5th day i smoked another cig, but then the guilt hit me. i went to bed and prayed to God and repented of smoking the cigs (ESPECIALLY since i had breast cancer 9 yrs ago) and asked God to forgive me. believe it or not, i smoked another cigarette about 2 days later. i prayed and cried out to God telling him that i hated my carnal flesh and that i didn't want to smoke anymore. it was about that time that a thread was started on the forum about repentance. i think aqr/george started the thread. in that thread he wrote that the meaning of repent was a turning away from (like turning your back on). i did a word search of repentance on the emails to ray link on the forum. in an email ray responded to he was saying that we can't even repent on our own. we can't even repent until God causes us to do it. He is the one who brings us to repentance, but i was thinking that "i" was the one who was desiring to repent and that "i" was the one who did the repenting, BUT, i was so wrong. i then realized that when i repented to God for smoking the cigs that i was doing it from my fleshly heart and not from my spiritual heart because "i" was thinking it was up to me. wrong paleface! now i know the truth about repentance and it was brought about through my brother's thread on this forum, and through ray's email. there is no limit to the truths that we have to learn from God and that we can learn through each other on this forum and through ray's heart/spirit which he has been blessed with by God for our learning. and most importantly, everything we learn on this forum/website always points back to the scriptures. anyway, i no longer smoke anything (cigs or pot). praise to God for this. however, i still have "thorns in my flesh" which i deal with daily. as the others who have already responded to your prayer request, i too will stand with you in prayer for God to remove the desire completely from your heart to stop smoking. remember that it is ONLY in God's timing and in His plan for you that you will stop smoking. continue to pray daily for Him to remove this addiction. thank you for the post.

claudia

[cherokee]

Hey Roy,

Just letting you know you are not alone. I also struggle with this addiction. I will keep you and all others who are struggling in my prayers.

Suzie

[Roy Martin]

I had my wife read this post just to get me off the hook of her downing me, but now I feel like I need that constant fussing at me.I think I'll tell her to keep it up.Sure its in Gods timing but it just seems like it might be one of Gods way of making me hate it more,I don't know.

Roy Martin

[aqrinc]

Hi Roy,

I will Pray for you to quit now. My 2 cents worth of advice; i smoked from 12 years to 25 years old. Was up to 2.5 packs per day before quitting, just quit cold turkey 31 years ago. I have never smoked or had the urge to smoke since, i did not know how, to or what, to Pray then. GOD does look out for fools (me back then) and little children (His Now), so try that, quit and turn away from it.

george.

[Ricky]

Hello Roy, We are in the same boat with this one. Me 38 years now. I hate it more than anything. It almost feels like I need it just to keep on living. I can only hope and pray that Ray is right on this one, He says when God wants you to quit, it`s done. There is a scripture that says, What goes into the body does not make it unclean for worship. I do not know if this also means smoking along with food, booze or drugs or what ever else people put inside them.
   Bless you Bro.              Ricky

[koine480]

       Roy,I understand your pain and your frustration having been someone who smoked for so many years. You need to remember that Nicotine is one of the most potent and addicting drugs known to man. It is thought that withdrawal from Nicotine is even more difficult than something like Heroin. So, don't beat yourself to death over this. You've come along way already,my friend. Keep on A truckin, as the ole saying goes.
      
       There is something out there that can help you. It is called "Chantix", and it must be obtained with a prescription from your doctor. It does not work like a nicotine patch, simply replacing the Nicotine in the cigarette. Rather, it blocks the pleasure receptors in the brain that are stimulated by Nicotine.
      
       You take one pill a day for the first week and smoke as you normally do,although less is always better, then you stop smoking and continue to take a stronger pill thereafter for the course of the treatment which is usually two months. I would recommend that you take it for a third month, if you can afford it.
 
       If you have a drug plan I think it will cost you around $75.00 a month. Without one it will be much higher, but that's the deal. I really think it is good stuff or I would'nt be telling you this.

       I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I hope it is of use to you. I will certaintly pray on your behalf that you may conquer this demon that has harmed so many of us. You have'nt done anything to be ashamed of. Lots of us have been there and some still are.

                                                                            Your brother,

                                                                                   Ron M.    

            

[Linny]

Hi Roy,
Just to encourage you that it can be done. It hurts but it's doable. I quit when I married a nonsmoker 18 yrs ago. I had to do it cold turkey too.
After one year, you couldn't have gotten me to smoke. It's worth the pain to smell good again and have your lungs back!

[Roy Martin]

It is amazing how we do things that we know will kill us and the tobacco company gets rich off of it. That alone should make us quit. Yes, we have to hate it with a passion to overcome it.
God took it out of me over night of smoking pot. Now Im saying, God please make me hate this with a passion.I just hope I dont get cancer before I hate it the way I need to. Its very scary.
 Is there never a time that God expects us to give something up rather than expecting Him to take it away? I think I know that answer already from Rays teaching and scriptures. I just dont feel right in getting comfortable about smoking. I want to fight it with all Ive got in me even with it being in Gods timing and hands. I know that I cant do anything on my own but Ive still got some carnal stuff going on with this. Smoking is of the flesh. Excuse me but I just had a thought from my last sentence that I have to pray about and dwell on.
 Thanks for all the input and support.Its all been very helpful.
Peace and love
Roy

[jg]

Hi all,
     Glad I came to look over the site today.  I needed to read this one!  Friday, I have to go for a lung scan, the last x-rays of my chest showed "chronic changes" as the Doc put it.  Then next week its off to a stress test.  I've been smoking on and off since I was 17, (53 now) and its catching up with me. 

I've wanted to quit for a long time too, praying for it to happen, just like some of you folks.  Now that I'm showing some pretty bad symptoms I guess maybe I'll get serious about quitting. 

Hope it goes well for you Roy! 

Later all,

Joe

[Ninny]

Joe, that is scary!
My sister just a couple months ago had the lower lobe of her lung removed from cancer! she was given a good report no chemo no radiation needed. Did that stop her from smoking?? For three weeks!! Now she is smoking again!! PLEASE don't let that happen to you!
My sister told the doc. "I will never touch another cigarette!: He looked at me and said, "They ALL say that! But many don't quit!" She wants to quit, but I guess a painful lung surgery wasn't enough of a deterrent! I can't really judge since I have never smoked...
Kathy

[Roy Martin]

Joe your story is another straw thats about to break the camels back.
  Here is whats going on and has been for the past year. Every time I get really in to it with all my heart and ask God to take this habit from me,I hear the same words in me every time.( If you will take a step and make it through one day) Is this just my imagination, my own unaware thoughts or is it God? I have no doubt that its God, but Im asking for witnesses. God has spoken to me many times but this time I feel like I need witnesses.Whats up with that? Im under heavy spiritual battle right now over this tobacco thing,even more so since I started this post. When it starts going like this then I know something is about to happen and its usually a break through. I have to admit that this is one of the toughest Ive dealt with to overcome. Are there any witnesses to what Im hearing?
 Peace
Roy

[Marky Mark]

Joe your story is another straw thats about to break the camels back.
  Here is whats going on and has been for the past year. Every time I get really in to it with all my heart and ask God to take this habit from me,I hear the same words in me every time.( If you will take a step and make it through one day) Is this just my imagination, my own unaware thoughts or is it God? I have no doubt that its God, but Im asking for witnesses. God has spoken to me many times but this time I feel like I need witnesses.Whats up with that? Im under heavy spiritual battle right now over this tobacco thing,even more so since I started this post. When it starts going like this then I know something is about to happen and its usually a break through. I have to admit that this is one of the toughest Ive dealt with to overcome. Are there any witnesses to what Im hearing?
 Peace
Roy

Roy,an email to Ray,hope it helps.

http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,2529.0.html

God Talks?
« on: November 29, 2006, 09:09:24 AM »
Dear Ray,
 
Thanks again for your great website. It continues to teach, challenge and excite my mind!
 
I have questions for you on the topic of communicating with God. Many Christians I come across talk about "hearing from God." I often hear people say that the Lord "spoke" to them and "told" them to do this or that or make this decision rather than that decision. One friend even told me he sometimes hears from God audibly. Whilst I am sure people can and do hear from God, I admit that at times I am a bit sceptical when people say this. It also leaves me wondering what is wrong with me that God doesn't speak to me or at least in the way he does to others. I know I prayed to God a lot to be given truth and understanding on the subject of eternal punishment and since then I have been introduced by friends  to some great books by a theologian - Baxter Kruger as well as finding the wonderful material on your website. I have certainly felt that God has communicated to me through reading this materia l. I have been moved to tears at times as I have discovered more and more about God's heart. However there are many times I ask God for direction and it feels like the only answer I get is silence! Anyway am hoping you can help with these questions - How does God communicate to us? Do you think these people are for real? Does God "speak" to you? What does scripture have to say about this topic ?
 
Would appreciate any light you can shed on the above.
 
May God bless you mightily,
 
Caroline (from Australia)
 

Dear Caroline:
"And the Father Himself, which has sent Me, has borne witness of Me.  Ye have NEITHER HEARD HIS VOICE AT ANY TIME, nor seen His shape" (John 5:37), pretty much takes care of all the tens of thousands of liars out there who have claimed otherwise.
 
God speaks to us through His Spirit and through His Word, but not in an audible voice. I have prayed many times and God then later put the answer into my mind.  Likewise I have many times needed to know the answer to something in the Scriptures, and my understanding would be opened to something I read many times before, but didn't understand before.
God be with you,
Ray

Peace...Mark

[Roy Martin]

Thanks Mark.
I have never heard anything audibly. When I say hear in my heart, its not audible. Its more of an overwhelming thought like a clear understanding of something. I know that all is in Gods timing and I cant speed anything up regardless of what my thoughts are. I have never even come close to making it one day w/o cigarettes but God knows when I will. I thought for a few moments that I could do it and the stronger I thought I was about it,the weaker I got. Oh man, I just dont know.
 This is no little thing to me but I guess Ive said all I can say about it.
Peace
Roy