Deliverance From Addiction

19 years ago today the Lord, literally, delivered me from cigarettes! And I am still just as amazed now as I was then about how He went about it!

It was April 11, 1992 and I was smoking four packs of cigarettes a day (I had been smoking since I was 15, and I was 31 at that point)!!! I had tried to quit smoking many times, but couldn't. Even though we weren't doing a very good job of it, John and I had committed our lives to the Lord, and were serious about getting our lives, and our household, in line with His Word. Needless to say, we're still working on it!

On the evening of April 11, 1992 I was sitting in a chair in the corner of our bedroom reading my Bible. I heard a voice just as clear as day say, "Throw away your cigarettes and lighters away and wait 24 hours."

I immediately picked up all my cigarettes...I had an open pack, an open carton, and an unopened carton...and all my lighters and went carrying them through the house. John was in the livingroom and, when he saw me, he said, "What are you doing?"

Anyone who know my husband knows that he HATES cigarettes (he always has), and he hated me smoking them, and he was very skeptical. He knew how many timed I had tried to quit smoking...and how often I had failed at it. He knew how awful my lungs were. Not only did I smoke like a chimney, but I had chemically burned the lining out of my lungs a few years earlier when I mixed sulfuric acid and Clorox in an attempt to unclog the toilet. I ended up in the hospital. After that I could hardly breathe most of the time...I couldn't even blow a balloon up for my children to play with!

Anyway, I threw the cigarettes away, and I waited. That 24-hour period was one of the longest...most awful times of my life, and I never thought I'd make it through it...yet, somehow, I knew that, if I did, the Lord had something very special waiting for me on the other side. I knew that He was going to do something very special for me!

Well, sure enough, the next night...the evening of the 12th...I was sitting there reading my Bible again. All of a sudden I had the most horrendous pain in my stomach. I looked up at the clock, and it was 11:00 p.m. I jumped up and hit the bathroom. I was there until 4:00 a.m. My stomach hurt so bad! It wrenched in pain, and I kept passing this black, tarry-like substance. When it was over, I KNEW that the Lord Jesus had, literally, cleaned me out, and, to this day, I've not been able to stand the thought of smoking another cigarette. I can't even stand the smell of one! It's been 19 years and I still stand in awe! Praise be to the Lord above!