Pray: Father help me to focus on the fact that smoking causes financial destruction. It always has and it always will.
Why are some people happy without having any addictions? The reason always is because they have something in them that is filling them and satisfying them.
8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” 13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” .John 4:7 – 18
In the above story, Jesus Christ spoke to a woman about two kinds of water:
- “This water,” which would not satisfy and would not quench thirst. The woman would have to keep coming back again and again to get more of “this water.”
“The water I give” which would quench thirst eternally.
Then Jesus brought up the fact that the woman had had multiple relationships (5 husbands and a current live-in, 6 total). Obviously, she was finding no permanent satisfaction in these relationships so she had to keep going back to find a new love, each time hoping that this time would be the last. In bringing up her “unquenchable thirst” for different relationships, Jesus revealed to her that she would never be truly satisfied until she began “drinking” from the water He would give her.
List the “water” that you’ve been drinking from and how it has left you “thirsty.”
Note: Jesus offered this woman living water. He said that if she drank it she would not be thirsty anymore; in other words, she would be satisfied and not desire one relationship after another. Here is hope for you and me! Here is the method to enjoying freedom from smoking, or any addiction. If you discover how to receive this “living water,” and how to drink it, you will not be thirsty anymore; in other words, you will be free from the craving of and slavery to addiction. addiction, in its essential allurement, promises to quench our thirst. In other words, it promises satisfaction. And honestly, it does satisfy – but only for a time. Pretty soon we discover that we are “thirsty” again, and as the years go by we find that we are really never genuinely satisfied. Right?”
Read Proverbs 3
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life
If you are on track great; if not review day 7.
2. Get rid of smoking with prayer: “Father help me to make it a habit to always plan my 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.
Yesterday we talked about praying to be filled with the Spirit of God. The question is what steps do we need to take to be filled. www.wikihow.com had a Christian expert write the following regarding being fill with the Spirit.
“The first step is to become a believer in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who made the full payment for our sins on the cross. Without this acclamation of faith, one cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit, for biblically, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and of Christ. This is very clearly stated in the New Testament.”
If you follow a non Christian religion please read the Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. I don’t recommend Christianity because I was taught it as a child. I recommend it because the physical evidence for it is overwhelming and my personal experience has been overwhelming as well. Wikihow.com continued.
“The second step is to confess known sin and seek and receive forgiveness for all sin by reliance on the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Scriptures teach that God works in those whose lives are free of sin. Keep “short records” with God about sin. Confess sin instantly, letting no departure from God’s will continue.”
Matthew 5 is about how we can change so that we will start to be blessed by God. www.relijournal.com noted the following
We must forgive others.
Prayer is one of the best ways to break down the wall of unforgiveness in our hearts. When we begin to pray for the person who has wronged us, God begins to fill us with His Spirit.
We also see ourselves in a new light, guilty of sin and in need of forgiveness. If God did not withhold his forgiveness from us, why should we withhold forgiveness from another? How many times do you need to pray per day to forgive _____?
The Sixth Beatitude v8
God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
The Bible tells us the same thing in Psalms 24, 51 and 119. They also tell us exactly how to make our hearts pure. To become pure is to become holy. Psalm 119:9 reads, “How can a believer keep his heart pure? By keeping it according to the word of God”. If we live by God’s instructions we will keep our hearts pure. We will only find out what God’s instructions are if we read the Bible and talk to him!
This beatitude tells us that if we are pure in heart then we will see God. That means we will see God in Heaven, but it also means that we will see and experience Him now.
Deception and lies destroy purity. The world teaches that deception is acceptable. School friends may say it’s OK to copy a piece of homework, work colleagues may encourage us to keep something from the boss. These are all examples of deception, even though to some of us they may be seen as little lies and not big ones! Either way it is deception and it contaminates what is pure.
“For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of a love, and of a sound mind”. 2 Tim 1:7
Repentance in the Bible is a condition you must have before you can be saved. To repent means to change. “With addiction it is the same thing, we need to change. A change of mind” – a decision, a choice, a determination of the heart, a deliberate exercise of the will – in which one determines to act differently in the future than he has in the past. As a Christian to change we must hear, believe and obey God’s will to understand how to change. With addiction we must hear, believe, study and be disciplined with renewing ourselves in order to change. Do we have genuine sorrow for the fact that we fell back into addiction again? Have we thought about and tried to understand why it was so wrong?
In Christianity simply admitting one has sinned is not enough. Some people know they have sinned but don’t care, or at least don’t really regret what they did.
Joel 2:12,13 – Turn to God (repent) with weeping and mourning. Tear your heart, not your garment. God wants, not mere outward expressions of grief, but sincere sorrow. We must sincerely wish we had never done the act.
2 Corinthians 7:10 – Godly sorrow leads to repentance unto salvation. One who does not repent cannot be saved, and he cannot truly repent without sorrow.
James 4:8,9 – Sinners must mourn and weep.
A person may admit he did wrong and may even stop committing the sin, but that does not prove he regrets what he did. He may think it was justified under the circumstances, but he simply has no reason to do it again.
It is also possible for a person to know he is wrong and be sorry without really making up his mind to change. Some people have the idea that repentance just means being sorry – if they just admit they were wrong and say they are sorry, everything is forgiven.
But repentance is a decision to change. Why is this important?
A. Repentance Is Essential in Order to Develop Proper Attitudes.
We can never please God till we develop a proper state of mind. We can never quit addiction untill we develop a new way of thinking.
Proverbs 4:23 – Keep your heart diligently because out of it are the issues of life. People do wrong because they chose to do wrong. In order to start doing right, they must change their mind and decide to do right – repent.
The mind is where we decide what we will do. This is why our state of mind is so important.
Romans 6:17,18 – One who is a servant of sin needs to be made free from sin and become a servant of righteousness. To do this, he must obey God “from the heart.” You cannot obey from the heart until you have decided in your heart to obey. That decision to do right is repentance.
Joel 2:12,13 – Repentance must involve the heart – the inner man. We can never please God till we get our heart right. That happens in repentance. When people know what God wants but will not do it, they lack repentance. (They may also lack faith, love, etc., but one thing they definitely lack is repentance.)
If your past actions have hurt someone else you need to apologize and then make restitution (if restitution will not make things worse).
With addiction we need to change and develop the proper state of mind. Study why your addiction is wrong – at every level. We think if we get drunk on our couch in our house and no one knows or even cares that we did no wrong. A great Christian thinks he did a terrible wrong if he wastes even one day in self indulgence instead of helping people or preparing to help people. Pray “Father renew my mind and help me to understand why my addiction is wrong and give me the wisdom to know how to work to begin to change”.
2. Checklist for avoiding relapse: Even during times when you are succeeding, prayer urgently often each day to overcome addiction – to develop habits that you may very well need during seasons of difficult temptation.
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Thank you for reading day 7 of this program: get rid of smoking
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
