I started smoking when I was 9 years old and smoked for many years. I liked it! So when I decided to stop, it was really difficult for me.
Every time I tried to quit, I’d last a few hours and then I’d be running around, digging cigarette butts out of the trash or looking for cigarettes in my coat pockets—anywhere I could think to look for them.
I didn’t have success until I got a revelation: I was burying myself in defeat with negative confessions.
I had to stop talking myself out of my victory.
Thankfully, I finally realized that I was causing myself to fail through the negative things I was saying about myself. For a long time I would say, “I just know I could never quit smoking. And if I did, I’d probably gain a lot of weight.”
But God was able to get through to me eventually and help me see that if I didn’t change the way I was talking, I wouldn’t change. Then, He began to put a desire in my heart to start speaking what I wanted, not what I had.
I started saying things like, “I can’t stand to smoke! These things stink and they’re expensive. I don’t smoke anymore!”
