Ah. One of the first tough challenges of my own new birth; the "toddler months", perhaps? I was a 1-2ppd smoker and had been fighting the battle with everything known to man - and failing - when He converted me. The urge to smoke did not magically disappear, but the conviction didn't take long to set in. I fought/battled it and spent many tears in earnest prayer. It would hit my assurance hard, that even after 2-3 days without a cigarette I would then make the effort to drive into town and buy another pack. Passages like 2 Peter 2:20-22, while perhaps not specific to smoking still pierced me hard - particularly after reading admonishments in Scripture about making your calling and election sure, the parable of the soils, he who overcomes, he who perseveres, all that sat on me and hung over every cigarette. Paul's conflicts in Romans 7 were taking on real meaning there. Was this one fleshly matter so strong as to be my undoing? Was I a bad soil hearer? Was I deceived? Was I still enslaved by the flesh? Big battles for a baby in the faith with no examples for discipleship around to help with or deal with this. It is physical and psychological bondage, and it is lousy stewardship of the money He graciously provides the means to earn.

But God is faithful and He will grow/keep/tend/lead His own. The conviction drove me to spend one Sunday afternoon preparing scriptures (the church I attend does not administrate itself biblically) regarding going to the church elders, and asking them to pray for you, and confessing these things to them...and when I could stand it no more, that afternoon I returned to the church, tossed a remaining half a pack of cigarettes and every lighter I could find onto the table in the church social hall and begged for prayer.

That was July 6, 2008. I haven't had a cigarette since and I've barely had any urges to have one. I haven't even had any real withdrawals. His grace is truly sufficient, His power is perfect in our weakness; but we must - as David did, as we all must do - we must be broken and contrite and empty; and He will enable and equip us to do His will, and He will give us the desire to do His will and it seems it is always something that requires us to recognize our own weakness and thus to lean on Him. He is faithful and holy and good.

I know you said this wasn't about smoking per se, but smoking is a flesh thing, and you could take any deeply ingrained sinful pattern or addiction or identity of the human life and insert it into that story in place of smoking and you still come out with the flesh battle, the bondage/stewardship issue, the importance of contrition, and the sufficiency of Christ. At the end you still come out with the Gospel lived out. Or at least I hope you do.

 

Excellent comment, simply excellent.

You nailed my point exactly.

 

I have often thought that smoking is a terrible example of stewardship for a Christian. First of all, the financial resources are overwhelmingly wasted on the habit. It's also poor stewardship of a healthy body. It is a conscious decision to do something that satisfy our desire that is at the same time bad for our health and every one else around us.

I know that it is hard to quit; but to say we can't really limits God.

 

Kim, I agree: smoking is a fine example of poor stewardship. Yet in North America we commonly live at the fringe of our income. We buy the biggest house our income will afford, drive as many cars as our income allows, and whatever is left over we spend on making our lives more pleasant. Every week we buy the best quality food our income will sustain, and even go eat at restaurants, order fast food, eat junk food - all at premium mind you, because we have enough income to do so. We go see movies, or rent movies - we have cable television - how many phones does one family need?? We have the fastest internet connection our area will sustain; we put the finest fuels in our multitude of cars, which we sell as soon as they are old, etc. etc.

Frankly, we could live in smaller houses, with less food, without all the frills, with fewer cars, phones, and toys, far fewer luxuries - how much more money would we have each month for the Lord's work if it wasn't going into our big houses, our big cars, our big entertainment expenses? Yet few of us regard these things as being on par with smoking.

Given the magnitude of the utterly lousy stewardship of 99% of even conservative evangelical Christianity, very few of us can actually stand on high ground when it comes to "good" stewardship. We point at the smoker and say, "sin" and tie the sin to poor stewardship, when we practice the very same poor stewardship in spades each and every day.

Not that I would argue the case, as some do, that since we are just as guilty, that makes smoking "okay" - God forbid! Rather, we should see smoking as just one symptom of the exact same problem most of us are entangled in also.

What do we do then? Do we turn a blind eye to smoking just because we are mired in the same kind of sin? I don't think so. I think we call it what it is - something that we want to do for our own pleasure/ease, and deal with it by not pretending it is okay. Eventually, if we do not quench or grieve the Holy Spirit, we will desire to be free from it more than we desire it - and the thing will be done. That goes for the big house, the movie rentals, the junk food, the coffee, all of it.

Canaan wasn't taken in a day, nor was it taken "solo" - we need one another, and it is a big struggle even to name sin for what it is - lest we be obliged to deal with it a'right.

Thanks for the comment.