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Cant stop smoking cigarettes
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:
--- Quote from: Roy Martin on March 02, 2009, 08:51:37 AM ---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?
--- End quote ---
NO!
--- Quote from: Ray ---
"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).
--- End quote ---
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.
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