DO YOU BELIEVE GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS
I believe it. I believe he also helps those who want to stop doing a "something that is hurting them in any way," but it takes prayer and belief in Jesus and who He is. Jesus is not a magician, when He works it is real, not a false thing and He doesn't answer a prayer immediately - you have to be serous enough about what it is you want done, know the consequences if it is or is not done. Since Jesus knows what's good for us, he waits to be sure we know or we don't care what they are, we just want it to stop. I've had my prayers answered in the past. But I thought I knew how they should be brought about so I told God what I wanted done and how to do it and believe me, he answered in a way that I will always think about whenever I think I need a prayer answered again.
I used to smoke cigarettes, from the time I was 13 or 14, when my best friend introduced them to me when we were at a California town where our father's worked for a produce company. She was a year younger than me, but was older looking and had matured quicker but we were the best of friends, neither of us had a lot of friends because of our families always moving around the country for work. Anyway, she stole cigarettes from her mom and dad depending on what they smoked at the time, and I think it was Pall Mall her step-mother smoked and Winston her dad smoked, where my dad smoked Lucky Strikes and mother smoked a menthol cigarette. Well, the first time I had one, I think it was a non filter one, the tobacco got in my mouth and when I inhaled the smoke I almost choked to death and coughed and coughed and gagged. Well, friend of mine said to try a filtered one, so I took a Winston and lit it and was careful about the size of my inhale in doing so and it still made me cough but not as much. Long story short I continued to smoke many years until I was in my 30's or 40's when I decided I needed to quit for good. I had tried quitting but they were addictive and I was an addict for them and just couldn't get myself to quit lighting up one after another. In fact, there were times when I had one in an ashtray, and lighting up another at the same time and even worse there came a time when I had one in my hand, one in my mouth and one in the ashtray because it was a habit, a strong habit that the process of taking a cigarette from a pack and lighting it was automatic and I was non-thinking, just doing. I knew I needed help. Everyone in my family, parents, brothers and sisters-in-law all smoked. I had to quit, I had to get help. I prayed.
I was not a church going person at the time, but I believed in God and Jesus an knew what Jesus had done for our salvation. I was lucky enough to be introduced to the Bible as a very small child, when my parents dropped me off when they went to work, and left me with an older couple, (old in my eyes), who read to me from the Bible, the stories that were there. So, I started praying every night, down on my knees beside my bed, telling God how I needed to quit smoking because my lungs hurt and it was hard to breathe sometimes. I never thought about going to the doctor for help with this addiction. I thought I could handle it myself with God's help. So month after month, night after night down on my knees telling God how I could quit with his help. Did you get that? I was telling God how to help me quit.
When I was pregnant with my sons, I couldn't smoke, hated the smell of cigarettes, and was nauseated by other's smoking around me and would actually leave the room or house to get away from it. So here I began to tell God, (God who knows all), that He could help me by causing my body to be sick just like when I was pregnant and I knew it would help me quit smoking, so I prayed and prayed and by golly, he did exactly that but a whole lot more than I bargained for. For about 3 or 4 weeks, I was not alive to what was going on around me; I had quit eating, quit cleaning, quit cooking, quit taking care of my sons, my husband, NO, I slept and slept and hurt and I was like in a drugged state and didn't care about anything but being oblivious to how I felt. When I woke up the only thing that went in my mouth was a candy bar and a soft drink, and then back to sleep. I didn't even clean myself up, didn't comb my hair or wash my face, just wanted to be left alone and I had pain in my chest, throat, head. I think it was about three weeks into it, when my husband demanded I get up because we were all going to the doctor and I found out then that they had all three been sick too and I hadn't known it. I went.
Our doctor diagnosed me with bronchial pneumonia and bronchitis, and they had a lighter case of it but we were all put on medication and things and me got better. But I didn't smoke any longer until about 5 years later, I thought, "I think I want a cigarette", and asked my brother-in-law who I was babysitting for his 5 kids, if he would give me one and he refused. I ended up buying a carton, then I took one, just one cigarette, and the realization of what I was doing hit me with a jolt and my lungs began to hurt even though I hadn't put the cigarette in my mouth yet. Obviously I threw it away and gave the carton of cigarettes away and I haven't smoked since, thank God for that. My motto to this day is, Be careful for what you wish for" or at least be careful how you wish for it and don't tell God how to do it for you.
Be Healthy and Be Happy and God Bless you all.
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