Good Habits result from Resisting Temptation

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1 Corinthians 10:13   The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Matthew 26:41  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

James 1:12   Blessed is the man who endures temptation: for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Do you have any temptations you wrestle with on a fairly frequent basis?  For years I had a battle with cigarettes.  I was an ICU nurse, cared for many, MANY people who suffered and fought with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), lung cancer and they would be omitted then almost cut in two to remove a lung which had a malignancy/cancerous tumor. They would be intubated (a breathing tube inserted into the mouth going all the way to the top of the lungs, and a machine would force oxygenated air into the lungs. These folks could rest fairly easy if not disturbed. Of course, they were always sedated, but each shift would lighten the sedation for a few minutes and have the person follow certain commands–squeezing hands, nodding of shaking the head, to ensure that nothing unseen had happened such as suffering a stroke or something. 

But as the sedation lessened, the awareness of this huge discomfort in the throat increased, and the person would cough, gag, struggle to remove this vital equipment, and be held down forceably until we could get re-sedated.It was not a pleasant experience and yet it was necessary to make sure we could arouse them so that when the injury/illness/or secretions lessened, we could get them well enough to have the tube removed. 

My point in relating this to you, is that during much of the years I worked as an ICU nurse and witnessed the results of damage done by tobacco, I was smoking.  To me now, several years away from those murderous, yet alluring sticks (talk about your money going up in smoke?!), I wonder how I could ever have been caught in the web of cigarette smoking for YEARS.  I saw the damage day in and day out.  I matched Scarlett O’Hara for saying, “Fiddle dee-dee.  I’ll worry about this tomorrow!”

I FINALLY picked a date, actually dedicated to Jesus as it was Christmas Day, and chose that as my end date.  (Actually it had to be December 24, just before bed, then I went up, did the nightly routine, and vowed I was doing this for Him. I won’t say one of my first thoughts Christmas morning wasn’t about cigarettes, but I firmly reminded Satan to leave me alone, and myself that I had the Holy Spirit and this was doable.  I did have nicotine patches which I wore for a month, slowly reducing the nicotine.  One of the worst symptoms of giving up nicotine is fierce anxiety and grumpiness, so I felt it was a necessary precaution to save anyone around me from danger I might hand out!! 

So although I offered it as a gift of sacrifice since these nasty things were such a draw for me, Christ made it easy for me to give them up.  And I have not had an inclination for one since.

I am so thankful I turned this temptation to Him…me and “mybellaviews” are healed from that vice.