This testimony is from my friend Rose (real name), who attended a small group I led a few years ago. She asked me, at one point during our small group, what I thought about her cigarette smoking. I told her that it was not what was between her fingers that was the problem, but what was in her heart. At that moment God graciously did something in her heart. Over the next few months God changed Rose.

This is her story in her own words…

I did NOT want to quit smoking, I REALLY liked to smoke and felt that my smoking wouldn’t change my lifespan since God already knows the day we will be born and the day we will die. I did not think he was up there deducting time off my life for each cigarette I smoked. I DID believe that my quality of life could be improved if I quit smoking, but that wasn’t the selling point for me.

What made me ask Rick about quitting was that he kept saying that the gospel was the answer to everything and I just couldn’t figure out how Jesus dying for my sins and defeating death was an answer to someone trying to give up an addiction/idol.

Therefore, I asked him to explain this to me and he did. I do not have his exact words or sketches that he drew for me, but I will tell you the things that struck a chord with me and those things that I have realized since I decided to TRUST Christ with one of the little things in my life. Also, the most important thing for me to remember is that I didn’t quit smoking, I just decided to live in faith and God did the rest.

Let me start with the gospel:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that who so ever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” If I truly believe that, then I should have a response to that daily and that would be my faith expressing itself in my life. Then I have to think of my faith and what that looks like in my life. I go to church, read the Bible, pray, attend care group, fellowship with believers, and on and on and on…

This is all me doing things and living in my little Christian box, but where am I growing? I am growing in knowledge and truth, but where are the evidences of my faith being manifested in my life? I would have to say that if we REALLY are to grow in faith, we need to step out of our boxes, that is where we see the evidence of faith, grace, mercy, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and being manifested in our lives.

Remember that God always goes before us and sometimes he takes us places outside our daily boxes, because He loves us. This may be the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, moving to a new state, a troubled teen, facing the fact that we have an idol, etc… As far as idols go, it may be that doctor telling you that your sugar is high, the feeling of being run down all the time, a cough that won’t go away, or just the fact that you have to spend money on new clothes, but your old clothes are perfectly fine, they just don’t fit anymore.

This is the place that puts feet on our stagnant faith (the routine/the box) as God places us outside our neat little boxes and asks us? “Am I still God when you are out here? Do I still love you when you’re out here? Do you still trust in me and the gospel when you’re out here?” At this point we have to preach the gospel to ourselves and trust in him again, even though it isn’t in our control, and keep walking towards the cross and following him as he goes before us. Each time He takes us outside our box and we trust in Him fully, our box gets bigger (our faith increases) and our praises should grow and our testimony for Him will grow. All the glory belongs to Him!!!

Now, realizing that I had been growing in knowledge and truth for many years by receiving the gospel made me realize that God was equipping me for this growing/stepping out of the box and I was immediately amazed by His kindness. At that point, I had not even decided to give it to Christ, but I had to examine my motives for giving it to Him. I would have to REALLY physically, emotionally, and spiritually trust Him daily and walk VERY closely with Him. I would have to put all my weight on Him. Our trust in Him has to be exactly that, our trust in HIM!

Crying Like an Infant and Talking with God

For me, especially the giving it over to Him was the hardest part as I sat on my knees, face on the ground in my bathroom for over two hours crying like an infant and talking with God. My conversation was kind of like this:

I know that you are who you say you are and because of that, I know I can trust you. I know you will take this from me and I won’t have to worry about it, but I have to be the one to give it to you and this is the part that I am struggling with the most. I have to choose between trusting in you or trusting in my idol. To trust in you means I must relinquish my idol to you today by trusting in you and then, I have to choose to trust in you daily to sustain me

As you can see, as I was having this conversation with God, it became apparent that by giving God this idol, I was “through Him” living out the gospel. Therefore, the gospel is the answer to everything. POINT MADE!!!!

Lastly, once I put the burden of my idol on Him (all the weight on him) my burden of trusting Him daily was light. BAM!! There you go, the gospel once again!!

Since that first day, I have realized that Christ freed me from a false god. What was I thinking??? I would get stressed, bored, anxious, etc. and go bow to my idol (smoke a cigarette) and then feel okay as if something was accomplished. No, the only true life sustaining accomplishment is what was accomplished for me on the cross!

I hope this helps you! I will pray for His accomplishment through you!!

Thank you for asking me about this, it has helped me to take another look at my box and ask myself if my box is growing or stagnant?

Read My Other Cigarette Stories

1. Cigarettes & Jesus
2. You Can Smoke Everywhere

   Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

   Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

   Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

   Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Okay. We’re in South Park Mall in Charlotte, NC and there was this lady smoking a cigarette at a kiosk. It was sort of odd to see her smoking a cigarette in a public place. There was a conversation that I couldn’t resist. I was intrigued. So I went over to see what she was selling.

Needless to say I was surprised to learn about electronic cigarettes. Yep, that is what she was smoking. I wondered, “What will they come up with next?”

• It looked like a cigarette. (from a distance)
• It smelled like a cigarette.
• It felt like a cigarette. (kinda)
• It tasted like a cigarette. (kinda)
• And smoke came out of your mouth (though it was only air, not real cigarette smoke).

The end of the cigarette glowed which gave the impression that it was real. The texture of the electronic cig was rough plastic.

You have to replace the filters every few days, but it comes with a charger. One cigarette, a charger and replacement cartridges is all you need.

The idea is that you would get a small nicotene fix, but not like a real cigarette and eventually you’ll be able to kick the habit.

And, yes, they had fake cigars and pipes as well.

I couldn’t resist. I smoked the cigarette and the cigar. They had fake Cuban cigars! It was sort of humorous, but I think there might be something to it if folks who are addicted to such things would like to kick the habit.

Here is the link to the Smoking Everywhere website.

Another oddity to this is that you can smoke anywhere, so they say, because it is not a real cigarette. That, in itself, made it a temptation to buy.

I love America!

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

I play very little golf. But when I do some of my friends enjoy playing with me. They tell me that I make their game look good. My other friends, however, hate playing with me because they say I spend more time in the water and woods than on the fairway. I think they have “impatience” issues.

My take on a good game of golf is twofold:

Come home with more balls than you lose.
The more strokes you take, the cheaper it is per stroke.

There is another aspect of golf that has always intrigued me. It is the golfer’s fantasy. A person struggling with a golfer’s fantasy is a person who believes it will get better on the next hole. They may slice it on the first hole, but believe they can straighten it out on the second hole. They may shank it on the second hole, but they believe they can get it right on the third, ad nausea. 

After the eighteenth hole and a very bad round, they believe tomorrow will be better. It is the golfer’s fantasy that keeps them coming back. I do believe I have Golfer’s Fantasy Disorder. 

This is probably not a bad thing, unless you apply it to life.

1. I’m struggling with my job, so I’m going to get another one.
2. I’m not satisfied in my marriage, so I want out.
3. I don’t like the house I live in, so I go into deep debt to have something different.

Lack of contentment on the golf course is one thing, but discontentment in life should not be resolved by thinking the grass is greener on the other side. It rarely is.

Let’s examine our heart issues before we make such radical changes.

For extended reading on this I recommend Paul Tripp’s book A Quest For More.

Also read my post called The Greatest Game Ever Played.