S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

The word addiction has two basic meanings. The first definition, and the one most of us are familiar with is "to cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming subs...

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July 01 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

James Kraft Supporter 74 year old retired pipeline worker

I, too, am a smoker. I have smoked since I was 18 and am now 74. I never was convicted of it until the church I was attending said it was a great sin. In fact, they use the same verse Paul did in going to a prostitute or sexual sin. So I took it to the Lord and asked Him to remove it from me. I said Lord, "There is no way I can do this."

The Lord, however, knew my heart and that I only wanted to make myself righteous. His answer was NO. He said, "My strength is made perfect in weakness, my grace is sufficient for you." 

I said, "But Lord, what about my Chirstian testimony?" He said the Pharisees called Him a drunkard and a glutton when He ate and drank with sinners, and they would look down their noses at me, too. 

Then the Lord said something I will never forget. He said, "Now are you ready to trust in my righteousness and not your own?" I said, "Yes Lord. My righteousness is nothing before you but filthy rags." Then He said, "Without me you can do nothing."

Paul said, "Therefore I will gladly be reproached and be weak in myself that I may know the power of Christ and the richness of His grace."

Jesus came to show us we are weak. We are sinners and need a savior. We all have weaknesses. If you say you have no sin, you are a liar, and do not the truth. We are all naked before God. There is nothing He does not know about us. 

The Lord does not heal every disease, and He doesn't keep us from ever sinning in the flesh again. We need to trust Him anyway.

The Lord has been very gracious to me in that I do not have any of the symptoms that most smokers have. I do not smoke much, however, and never have. 

So, if gluttons and gossips want to look down their spiritual noses and sell righteousness at me, I will gladly bear the cross and remember that I only have His righteousness.

August 13 2015 • 6 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Laurentia LaSasso Supporter

I have never struggled with addiction myself but I have struggled alongside of someone who did. They are free now and strong in Christ and have brought others to Jesus. So I believe a Christian should view addiction with understanding and compassion while sharing a firm belief that Christ can help the addict overcome. Most addicts see themselves as worthless thinking that is how the rest of the world sees them...and many probably do. 

Many addicts wish they had the key to unlock them from their personal hell, but Satan uses their addiction to steal their hope, telling them there is no such chance of ever breaking free. Share the key to 'Hope' with someone with an addiction. Share Jesus with them. Tell them their addiction is not who they are. They are a child of God just as you are. God loves the sinner but not the sin. All sin is the same in God's eyes. So the addict can come to Christ and receive 'hope' and view their addiction alongside you. Separating themselves from it through strength and belief in Christ. Once they see how much they matter to God as one of His children, they can look up and find freedom from the chains of addiction. 

There is a poem titled SCARS. It describes an addict who is approached by Jesus. The addict tells Jesus he is not worthy of saving for his body is full of scars. He shows his arms to Christ revealing scars from his addiction and Jesus shows him His scars and says He has them too. Ending the poem saying..."I took these scars for you."

February 07 2014 • 4 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Ruth Ibekwe Supporter

Hello Everyone. 
Ok...first off, I believe that we are not called by God because we are perfect. If we say that we have the power to do all things right then we are saying we have no need for the Holy Spirit. We all have things we struggle with, a sort of "thorn in our flesh." Paul asked Jesus to take his away but Jesus said His grace is sufficient. 

I came to understand that God doesn't call the QUALIFIED rather, He qualifies the CALLED. But we should remember that by strength shall no man prevail, so we need to hand over our struggles with sin to Him (Casting our burdens on Him because He cares for us). The bible says that where sin abounds, GRACE aboundeth much more.

That does not mean we want to continue in the sin, it simply means we understand that we need the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome the constant battle of sin. 

Remember: We are not righteous by our works, (not of your works, lest any man should boast). But we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
God bless and help us all.

January 08 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Rebecca Swanson Supporter

First I want to say smoking is not a sin. You cannot lose your salvation because you smoke. It is very harmful to your health and could shorten your life. I smoked for 20 years before I finally quit. I had a church member tell me once that God will not be able to use me if I continued smoking. I felt like I was sinning too. God said to me, " My grace is sufficient for you, and my strength is made perfect in your weakness." Perfect love he has for us. I think sometimes we are harder on ourselves than God. I prayed to Him for help. He helped me quit with his love and understanding. He is so patient with us. To those of you still smoking, God loves you and you are still in his will. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will free you when your ready. God bless you. :)

January 08 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Karen Potts Supporter

I have been a smoker for half my life. I've tried everything on the market to quit, but nothing worked. Then, I tearfully turned it over to God, asking Him to take this addiction away from me, praying that His strength would see me through. Guess what happened. Nothing. The desire to quit started to consume me. Why didn't God remove this addiction from me? I read online testimonies of other Christians saying how God's spirit simply took their addiction to cigarettes away from them and they haven't smoked in x-amount of years since. Why wouldn't God do that for me? This quest took over my life. Every waking moment was spent in online searches on how God could help me - I spent my prayer time with God begging Him to help me. Still nothing happened. 

It got to the point where it dominated everything I did. I decided to "just quit" and told God to take over. I spent more time reading my Bible, more time in prayer and filling in the rest of the time with constructive activities. It lasted 2.5 days - at which point, I was a foaming-at-the-mouth lunatic. So, I lit up again and begged God to forgive me (yet again) and not to spit me out of His mouth - that this wouldn't cause me to lose my salvation. During this time, God did reveal something important to me. He showed me how I lack in the fruits of the Spirit (one of which is self control) and especially, love for others. Then the proverbial bulb lit up over my head. There seems to be other areas of my life that God is more concerned about than my smoking - at least for the moment. I have left my addiction to cigarettes at God's feet. I still spend my time repenting of my smoking, but rejoicing knowing that He has this in control. 

I'm a huge fan of Charles Spurgeon and read a story about him where some Christian group of people wrote him a scathing letter about his smoking. Three pages of finger-wagging accusations at him of being a poor role model. His response to them was one paragraph which said (and I paraphrase here) "if one cannot feel close to God because they smoke, then they should quit". God will help me defeat this once and for all, and putting all of my trust in Him to take this from me is what gives me comfort.

May 30 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Scripture Guide Supporter Evangelist Remolded by the Potter to share the Living Gospel

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24

A man may do some service to two masters, but he can devote himself to the service of no more than one. God requires the whole heart, and will not share it with the world. When two masters oppose each other, no man can serve both. He who holds to the world and loves it, must despise God; he who loves God, must give up the friendship of the world.

January 07 2016 • 7 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report