GO-SIN-NO-MORE

NO MORE "SMOKING"

I started smoking when I was a sophomore in college. When my brother was taking me back to college from Christmas break, we stopped in Little Rock, and that's where I bought my first pack of cigarettes. I really can�t recall why I decided to start smoking. It seemed like a spur of the moment thing.

I started out trying to smoke "Kool" cigarettes. I didn�t even know how to inhale. The Kool cigarettes were too strong for me. They made me "high." Someone told me to buy a milder cigarette so I started buying "Salem" cigarettes. They were okay. At first I would just smoke when I thought about it. I didn't understand how people could get up out of bed in the morning and start smoking. As time went on, and I started smoking more and more, I came to understand it first hand. My brothers smoked at home, and they would always go outside, but not me. I would just smoke right there in the house. As time went on, and I finished college and started teaching school, I started smoking more. As sin began to take a greater hold on my life, I smoked more and more. Before long, I understood how people could get out of bed and grab a cigarette first thing in the morning.

I liked smoking. I liked it so much at first that I stopped smoking short cigarettes. I had to have 100's. Those short cigarettes just weren't long enough. Smoking cigarettes lead me to do other things. I remember I would go to the club as a way to meet guys. I would pull out a cigarette and then pretend that I couldn't find a light. Someone would almost always offer a light. It was usually a man, and the conversation would begin.

As time went on, I realized that I needed to stop smoking, but I could not shake the habit. After working two or three years, I decided I didn't want to smoke any longer, but it was too late for me to try to stop. I would smoke all of my cigarettes and then I would say I'm not going to buy any more. I remember going to the store for groceries. The devil started telling me at the checkout counter to buy some cigarettes. I thought to myself, "No, I'm not going to buy any cigarettes." The checker continued checking my groceries, and the devil continued talking inside of my head. He would say, "You better buy some cigarettes, you are going to want one tonight." I said to myself, "I'm not going to buy any cigarettes because I'm going to quit smoking." The devil said with authority, �You better get you some cigarettes because you know you are going to want one tonight. Don't go home without your cigarettes!� I knew I was going to want a cigarette so I bought some cigarettes before I left the store. I just didn't have the power not to get those cigarettes. The devil was talking to me as if he was another person talking.
I remember one night I didn't have cigarettes. I couldn't even find enough cigarette butts in the ash tray to smoke. I didn't have a ride at the moment so I walked at night about 11:00 p.m. or so to buy cigarettes. The next week there was a lady killed right on the street where I had walked to get some cigarettes. God just protected me.
When I got saved from my sins, I was still smoking cigarettes. I decided I didn't want to smoke any more. I told the Lord that when I finished that pack I was going to be through smoking. God blessed me, and he took the taste for a cigarette out of my mouth. I no longer wanted a cigarette. You know how your mouth kind of feels when it wants a smoke, especially after meals. It's like you just got to have one then. I never had that feeling again! Praise the Lord!
I remember smoking a cigarette after I had quit. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Is this worth going to hell over?" I haven't smoked another cigarette to this day (over 20 years).
When I would go to the grocery store the devil would try to tempt me to buy some cigarettes. I would laugh at him the way he used to laugh at me. It was no temptation at all to me because God had taken the very taste for a cigarette out of my mouth. I had heard people talking about God taking the taste out of your mouth for things before I got saved, and to be honest, I really didn�t believe that it could happen. But I'm a living witness that it does happen! I thank and praise God for what he did for me. I thank God for deliverance!
When I firmly decided that I wasn't going to smoke, and really meant it, God just worked on my behalf. There was not a fight or struggle for me to stop. The taste for a cigarette was just gone. When I meant business, God worked.

by Sister Fannie

Church of God of Forrest City, Arkansas