Sid's Recovery

"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." (Mark 9:23)

God had delivered Mike from most of his chemical addictions, but his addiction to nicotine was stronger than ever. It was especially hard in the small town in which he lived. Safeway was the only grocery store and because of the way the store was arranged, he had to walk right by the cigarettes in order to get to the groceries.

He had tried the "5-day plan", patches and every other method of quitting that he had heard of. He quit smoking many times, only to pick them up again at a weak moment. Mike was about to give up when, as he was reading in his Bible, a story caught his attention. It was the story of blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52).

As Jesus was leaving Jericho one day, with the typical large crowd of noisy people surrounding Him, blind Bart happened to be sitting beside that same road begging. When he asked a passer-by what all the commotion was about, he was told that it was Jesus of Nazareth.

That was all Bart needed to know. You see, Bart had heard of the love of Jesus, and knew he could trust Him. He believed that Jesus could bring healing to him. So, he immediately began to cry out, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!" Many told him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!" Finally Jesus heard Bart's pleas for help, came to him, and healed his vision.

This was exactly what Mike needed to know. Hope began to well up in his heart. Since Jesus healed Bart of his blindness, then surely He would heal Mike of his nicotine addiction. It was then that he purposed in his heart, that whenever he was tempted, he would cry out, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!" Seriously, he really did do this -- verbally, out loud! He told me, "People look at you funny when you do that in Safeway... but you don't smoke cigarettes. No, you don't smoke cigarettes."

After Mike began to trust in God enough to surrender himself to Jesus in his weakness, he never smoked another cigarette -- for the rest of his life.

It may not be nicotine, but we all have negative behaviors that easily beset us. Friends, it matters not what your weakness is. Jesus is willing, able, and longing to deliver you too. You can trust Him. Even if you turn away from Him, He will never leave you, nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

"And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." (Mark 10:52)

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." (Step 3)