Quitting Smoking: freedom in 20 days: Day 17
To survive overall in life we need to learn to maximize the good times and minimize the bad times. Why do rock stars and movie stars commit suicide? There are several reasons and we will talk about all of them. The first reason is because they dwell on the bad instead of the good. They have millions of people worshipping them and millions of dollars but, instead of thinking about that – they always think about the bad.
We must learn to think right especially in the bad times – cause if I think right, I will do right (act right). Don’t let the bad eat up the good. The devil loves for you to highlight the thing in your life that is wrong. Don’t give in to fear, defeat, hopelessness, or temptation. Your worst day will become your best day if you focus on Jesus. Philippians 4:8New International Version (NIV) says 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. The 2nd reason rock/movie stars commit suicide is because they don’t know their creator. If you have everything and you don’t have Jesus – you have nothing. If you have nothing and you have Jesus you have everything. I personally knew 2 people who had nothing (or maybe less than nothing) in life, but they had Jesus. These 2 people always were happy and always had a purpose.
One thing from your past or present can so consume you that is causes you to miss your destiny because you won’t let it go, or you won’t focus on something else. Maybe they did do you wrong, maybe they are now doing you wrong, maybe you are divorced, maybe you were abused, but don’t let the bad eat up the good! Satan will help you focus on the horrible thing that has happened in your life. Let it go and pray to Jesus “help me to let it go” as many times as it takes to break free.
You can break free from your past. The best way to end old relationships is to start new ones. A Relationship with Jesus, with healthy friends, with healthy activities etc.
Two keys to getting prayer answered are, believing that God will answer your prayer. The 2nd is to ask him for things that He wants you to change and that you are ready to change.
To stop smoking pray about changes you are considering making. #1 Pray that God will help you meet people who have a healthy lifestyle and that He will help you stay away from places and people that trigger your addiction. #2 Ask God to help you to make a commitment to good health. #3 Ask God to help you to make it a habit to always plan your next few days. It is vital to plan because boredom is a trigger to relapse. Routine and concrete scheduling can be a lifesaver for an addict. A schedule, coupled with passion for a new hobby or sporting activity, allows people to successfully and happily break the cycle of boredom. #4 Ask God to show you what your purpose is. (I talked about this in my video called quitting addiction). Ask God to help you to never daydream or fantasize about smoking.
You need to be so committed to finding your purpose that you don’t have time to be tempted anymore. #5 Ask God to help you set realistic expectations for your life. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you come up short. #6 Ask God to help you forgive others. Verse 13 of the Lord’s Prayer say’s “And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”. We need to forgive others so that God will forgive us. We need to forgive others so that God will start to answer our prayers. You need to forgive others so that you can overcome your addiction. #7 Ask God to help you avoid things and circumstances that trigger your addiction. #8 Ask God to help you to be aware of your limitations. Do not take on too much work or stress because these are quick triggers to relapse. #9 Ask God to help you to always be balanced. Be balanced physically, emotionally and spiritually. Limit your emotional swings and get enough rest. Be consistent with your exercise. Read the Bible every day.
Key point #4 All sin is likely a trigger to your addiction. The reason that this is true is because sin takes us out of God’s light and joy and it puts us in the darkness. Once we slip into the darkness it is natural that the addiction will resurface quickly.
Habitual sin will hurt you. Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go. Sin will keep you longer than you wanted to stay. Sin will cost you more than you wanted to pay.
When we stay on the straight and narrow (Christian) path we will see these types of prayers answered and we will see real joy start to enter our life.
Have a time and and place for prayer and Bible study every day.
Read Proverbs 10
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life
Pray “Father keep me from temptation”.
Pray: Father help me to have toughness to be able to say no to my habit.
- Pray: Father, take away my smoking urges and help me to worship and praise you so that I will become more disciplined and stronger.
- Checklist for avoiding relapse: Make disciple and structure and planning a priority. Both to keep your addiction at bay and to aggressively find your purpose in life.
- If this article has helped you, share it with your friends. Share buttons are below the index. Thank you for reading day 17 of this program on how to quit smoking for good.
Index
Day 1 Overcoming cravings
Day 2 Why can’t you quit
Day 3 Start a Journal
Day 4 Overcoming negative emotions
Day 5 You can’t increase your pleasure for the month by smoking
Day 6 Control your emotions and plan your day
Day 7 Learning how to worship God is a key to overcoming addiction
Day 8 Develop positive addictions
Day 9 How to get help from the Holy Spirit
Day 10 Have a list of coping statements
Day 11 Living water and how to live in God’s blessing
Day 12 Genesis can teach us about addiction
Day 13 Results of Adam and Eve’s actions
Day 14 and 15 Self control
Day 16 How to pray to fight addiction and developing toughness
This is a reprint of an earlier article: Quitting smoking
I have a 20 day program called smoking freedom in 20 days (which you can access on the left). With that program I give you a few things to work on each day. Quite frankly I put in way more idea’s in this article than I should have put in for a single read. So you can choose to read this or start with day one of my 20 day program (which you can access on the left).
I usually start these articles by talking about the massive amounts of destruction the addiction will do to you. In this case I am not going to do that because many people know all about the destruction but they still can’t stop. But I will give you the short version. Quitting smoking #1: smoking will ruin you, destroy your health and sometimes harm others. But instead of dwelling on that I am going to talk a little bit about why many people struggle.
Addictions are popular when people have something missing in their lives or when they need to bury some pain or hurt. But when smoking becomes an addiction it quickly becomes a dark hole where relationships, ethics and morals become a much lower priority than they should have.
Quitting smoking #2: For some people one of the main reasons you indulge is because that is one of the few things that you feel like you have control over. It is your choice, it is your thing – it is who you are. But this is a cruel lie. Smoking is a force and it is a driving force. Quitting smoking #3: There are some addictions that we think we are controlling but those addictions are actually controlling us. Over time smoking cause a loss of control of everything.
So why do people keep indulging after they have decided to quit? In most people there is a dueling of personalities. Your mind tells you that you have to stop smoking but your pleasure seeking flesh tells you that it will feel good.
Key Point #1 As long as you are ruled by the pleasure principle you will always struggle with addiction. The pleasure seeker may become selfish, immature, demanding and short sited. Quitting smoking #4: In the long run, pleasure which is from an addiction always has a price to pay which is much higher than what you want to pay.
Quitting smoking tip #5: Instead of being ruled by the pleasure principle strive to be ruled by the moral principle. The moral principle is wise and rational and it leads to real long term joy instead of fake short term pleasure which leads to destruction. This principle believes that rules like that of your country or laws from the Bible are there to make your life better. When you follow this principle you willingly give up your solution of choice (smoking) in exchange for another activity. Quitting smoking tip #6: The reason you make this choice is because you now believe that choosing an alternative activity will give you the best life over the next 7 days and longer. So if you stay clean today and develop new activities you may have a hard day today but your week and your future will be better.
Quitting smoking tip #7: Always choose the Wisdom of staying clean today so that you can have a good life all week, and all year instead of giving in to the short term pleasure and destruction of smoking for one day. Over time staying clean is a lifestyle which is always better.
Smoking is an escape for many people. One can escape from tension, anger, lack of success, pain and many other things. Quitting smoking tip #8: We need to get rid of the escapist mindset because our one day of escape always ruins more than one day and it often ruins a whole week or longer. Along the same lines many have the philosophy that if it feels good do it. The problem is, that the feeling good of a few hours usually causes the feeling bad of a few days. Instead of having this damaging mindset, embrace finding your purpose, and living the right way which will lead to happiness over time.
Quitting smoking tip #9: Develop the habit of thinking about other things all of the time instead of thinking about smoking.
Quitting smoking tip #10: We can see that being overly sensitive to emotional pain or failure is often a trigger to addiction. So first of all we need to be determined to be tougher and more emotionally ready for life’s constant problems. 2nd, negative emotions can lead us into addiction.
Quitting smoking tip #11: we need to always work on getting rid of anger and other negative emotions which are often hidden triggers. Lastly we need to avoid circumstances which lead to negative emotions (if possible). Good planning and flexible planning can help you avoid circumstances which will trigger you.
Quitting smoking tip #12: John Howard Prin also wrote “In time I learned that if my external motivation was strong enough, then my internal impulses could be curbed.”
For some people a great enough amount of pain or a change of thinking will cause them to change their behavior.
Quitting smoking tip #13: If what you think about has changed, then your internal impulses can be controlled.
This is key point #2. You need to think about the benefits of quitting more often than you think about the experience of smoking. Quitting smoking tip #14: Make a note to remind yourself to do this untill it becomes a daily habit.
Quitting smoking tip #15: You need to think more about the destruction smoking causes you than you think about the pleasure/pain relief it gives.
But we have to be brutally honest: we are as sick as our addictions are. If your addictions are causing harm to others you need to immediately get outside help.
Quitting smoking tip #16: Addiction tells us that something we can do (indulging in smoking) can compensate for what is missing inside of us. It is a lie. Religion will tell you to quit smoking. To control the fire that burns inside of you. But I will tell you that you need to increase the passion in your life. Your life needs to surge with more passion for something then it ever has before. You were created to have a dramatic impact on this world. Most of you have never experienced the rush of knowing what God wants you to do.