Pray that God would continue to help me battle smoking.\u00a0 I go days without it, thinking I am finally free,\u00a0and then bam I fall flat on my face.\u00a0 I cannot tell you how hard this addiction has been!<\/p>\n\t
All addictions are difficult, including smoking. But unless you strive against it, there is no breaking it. The only ones I ever see be fully successful in conquering addictions are those who quit cold turkey and determined that their life was not going to be dictated to them by some chemical. When I was a teen there was a goodly Christian woman whom I knew. We were over one day at her house for dinner and she said she had to explain something that we might see and wonder about. There was an unopened pack of cigarettes on her dresser in her bedroom. She said she used to be a smoker, but eleven years ago she ran out of cigarettes. There was a thunderstorm that night and it was pouring down rain, but she got out and walk to the corner station to get more cigarettes. Then it hit how ridiculous it was that she “had” to go out in a storm for something as worthless as a pack of cigarettes. Then she thought about the verses, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?<\/em>” (Romans 6:16) and “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any<\/em>” (I Corinthians 6:12). She decided then and there that she wasn’t going to let a rolled up piece of a plant run her life. When she came home, she plopped the pack down on her dresser and never touched another cigarette in her life. She left the pack there to remind herself of her commitment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Pray that God would continue to help me battle smoking.\u00a0 I go days without it, thinking I am finally free,\u00a0and then bam I fall flat on my face.\u00a0 I cannot tell you how hard this addiction has been! Answer: All addictions are difficult, including smoking. But unless you strive against it, there is no…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[420],"class_list":["post-10930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-smoking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68405,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-vaping-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":10930,"position":0},"title":"Is vaping wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello minister, My question concerns non-nicotine herbal diffuser smoking pens and an e vitamin bar smoking pens. If these pens (typically used to wane people off of smoking) are without harsh toxic chemicals or don't contain marijuana, are they safe to smoke? Answer: E-cigarettes or vaping pens are typically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61086,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-it-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10930,"position":1},"title":"Why Is It? (Taylor)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gene Taylor Some things are difficult for me to understand. 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I suspect that this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1659,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-wrong-with-smoking\/","url_meta":{"origin":10930,"position":3},"title":"What is wrong with smoking?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is wrong with smoking? Answer: Perhaps I should turn the question around and ask \"What is right about smoking?\" After all, it is an expensive habit that is known to cause damage to the body of the smoker. So what benefit does smoking give that should cause a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16902,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-cigar-smoking-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":10930,"position":4},"title":"Is cigar smoking wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I saw\u00a0your articles on smoking. I have always believed heavy smoking is bad when it is something done constantly. Actually I hate cigarettes and the only time I do smoke is about three times a year. I have a cigar with one of my best friends as we sit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9690,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-wrong-with-pipe-smoking\/","url_meta":{"origin":10930,"position":5},"title":"What is wrong with pipe smoking?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am interested in hearing your comments about pipe smoking. I don't know anything about it, but one engaging in it says he does not inhale. I have encouraged him to quit, but to no avail and could use some help as to how to do this. Answer: The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}