See Part I Monday, November 15, 2010
There seems to be a great debate as to whether or not smoking is a sin, since the Bible doesn’t say, “Thou shall not smoke!” But God says, “Thou shall have no other gods (idols) before me!” And if you are a smoker, then you have an idol that you have put before God. Anything that controls us is an idol. Also it is very bad for your health, and Romans 12:1-2 says we are to offer up our bodies as living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. And last but not least, smoking does affect your testimony to others. Why should they believe that your God can deliver them from drugs and alcohol when you’ve been a Christian for sometime and still smoke? How can you encourage others about the Power from the death of our Lord when you haven’t tapped into it yourself? Non-Believers most often do not read the Bible, but they read us. That is why, how we live is so important. Therefore how can we be a good example to those who are lost when we are standing out in the freezing cold to smoke a cigarette? How can we share the gospel effectively with our coworkers when they think we’re nuts for freezing our butts off and standing in the rain day in and day out to get a smoke?
If you are a smoker, it is time to let your cigarettes go! Not tomorrow, not next week, not waiting for the New Year, but right now! The first step is to make the decision in your heart that you want to let go. That they will no longer be something that you put before God. Next except that your addition to cigarettes was taken care of at the cross. You have to believe that you are delivered and then you must begin to walk that deliverance out. What do I mean? Now you have to start being a non-smoker. Say it, “I am no longer a smoker!” “I will no longer defile my body!” “I shall have no other gods before God, Creator of Heaven and Earth!”
Everyone is different and I have met many who just prayed and threw their cigarettes way and it was done. But I have also met those who have had to fight the temptation to smoke in order to be free. My mindset is get rid of your cigarettes and go “Cold Turkey!” Sometimes playing around with something that is not good for us, keeps us in bondage and we never totally get free. I know a woman who started weaning herself off of cigarettes. She cut herself down to ½ pack (10 cigarettes) a day and then it was two less each week until she only smoked after meals and then she cut it down to one cigarette after dinner. But she smoked that one cigarette for a couple of years. The bottom line was, she still held on. She may have cut her risk of lung caner down, but she still hadn’t moved into a place of complete trust in God with this issue as she held on to that one cigarette. Now it was my turn to say something, “Why do you still smoke at all,” I asked her one day? Her reaction was very similar to mine, in fact she was even more indignant because she had went from smoking a pack a day to 1 cigarette a day, how dare I question her!! But a couple of weeks after our conversation she called to tell me she was done. The seed had been planted and she realized that there was something amiss in her that she still felt she had to have that one cigarette a day. You would think it would be easy, to let go of one cigarette, but yet she found herself in a battle for a few weeks to not smoke it. So, my best advice to you is to give them up all at once and tough it out if you have to.
Getting a plan together is your next step. You might want to make sure you focus on how the emotional or psychological addiction might affect you. Here are a few suggestions to help start you on your way.
•Pray seeking help from the Holy Spirit.
•Tell someone who has your best interest at heart you’ve stopped smoking, to ensure accountability, and have someone praying with you.
•Prepare yourself emotionally for the times when you may be tempted to light up. As smokers we have triggers and habits that set us off to want to smoke. After eating a meal a cigarette really seems to help our food digest (not true but still that is how it feels). What are you going to do to replace this? Overeating is often a replacement in this area, but you want to make sure that doesn’t happen to you. What about getting up right after eating and doing a chore? Put a load of clothes in the washer, wash the dinner dishes even if someone else in the house is supposed to. Make your hands and mind busy.
•Learn some calming techniques to replace the coping skills that smoking filled for you. We often reach for a cigarette during stressful times, as overeaters reach for food. So, you are going to have to pray for guidance and wisdom during these times, and reach for your Bible.
•For the oral fixation you might experience. Eating carrots or celery sticks is a healthily substitution. Also sucking on sugar free lollypops or hard candy can help.
The side effects of quitting smoking are positive, such as a healthier outlook, increased lung function and better-smelling clothing, but sometimes it can also cause mild depression, anxiety and stress. This is where an exercise plan can really come in handy or spending time with others who are not smokers.
Prayer is going to be your greatest weapon of all. There might be a time when no matter what you try, the cigarette demon just won’t get off your back, but I can assure you that as 1 Corinthians 10:13 states, there is no temptation we encounter that God has not already made a way of escape for us. So some days, prayer alone is going to get you through.
When I stopped smoking I was smoking almost 2 packs of cigarettes a day. I would hate to think about what condition my lungs would be in from almost 40 years of smoking. Also, the expense! I don’t see how I could truly say that I was being a good steward over my money. Not if I were literally setting fire to it. Smoking isn't just bad for your health; but bad for everyone around you. It also adds to overall bad health in general and leads to many different illnesses other than lung cancer. Below is the link for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the page for information on the ill effects of smoking. The facts are devastating to say the least.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/
My prayer is that you become the person who says, “No” when asked, “Do you have a light?” And not the one who is asking.
Love & Hugs
Ponnie
Wednesday's Blog: Jennifer "Working Single Moms"
No comments:
Post a Comment