By Teresa Lee
DON'T GIVE UP! It took three years, AFTER "the" heart attack for me to quit smoking cigarettes. It was frustrating, I cried, and cried out to the Lord many many times, HELP ME!! See I knew that the Lord had a plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11), I knew that he had swept me up in his arms during the heart attack, not to torture me, not to see me perish, but to SAVE me! I knew this, and this was what kept me going, I knew the Lord knew I could do this, I knew that the Lord knew I WOULD succeed. HE did not save me knowing that I would fail, HE saved me Knowing that, that which had a hold of me, I could, I would conquer because of HIM, and through HIM!
Many times I would go days, even weeks without smoking a cigarette, then BOOM! a stressful moment, a hurtful moment, a painful moment would come into my life and I would immediately run to the nearest store and buy cigarettes. BUT!! Each time this happened the Lord showed me my weaknesses, the areas in my life that I needed to ask HIM to come into, to change, to save me from, to Free me of.
I would get angry with myself, with the devil, and yes, sometimes God himself. The devil was working to destroy me, my soul, my Love for God, my Faith, he set out to destroy what the Lord had done inside of me, to steal the Truth that had taken root in my soul. I sensed the enemy laughing at me, at me weakness, and yes my doubts that I would ever be free of this bondage! I became angry at myself for my perceived weakness. I cried to the Lord many times, LORD!!! I'm not throwing what you did for me in your face, I truly am thankful that you saved me, that you held me in your arms, why! why, is this so hard to do!! I realized that my concentration was on my failures, rather than who God said I am, I AM MORE THAN A CONQUEROR!! GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN ME THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD!
These scriptures quickly became my WEAPONS OF WARFARE! I repeated them, OUT LOUD! See, I had become so caught up in letting HIM down, that the precious gift of salvation and forgiveness had taken a backseat in my heart (the letter of the law kills). Believe, Ask, and receive!! I need to stop here momentarily; the word tells us all we need to do is ask in HIS name and we will receive, BUT!! we need to understand, we will only receive what is HIS Will, not ours. The Lord will only give to us, that which is in HIS Will, for us, for the good of our souls! We know that the Lord want's us free of bondage, free of condemnation, free from death. DON'T GIVE UP!
The LORD is your SHEPARD, HE SHALL NOT FAIL!
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