I was a smoker for fifteen years and smoking over 20 cigs a day, every day. If ever I happened to run out, I would desperately raid the ashtrays for nubs and carefully roll up making sure I didn't waste any of that 'precious' second-hand, charred tobacco.

I would light up first thing in the morning and I would go to bed with one at night, but even though I craved them and part of me was satisfied when I was smoking one, I often found the taste truly repulsive especially if I'd been smoking more than usual yet I couldn't put it out, and I would be lighting up again within a short while. I always had to have one if I was with someone and they were smoking, and even seeing someone taking a puff on the tv would make me reach for the packet and lighter. I think it's safe to say that I was well and truly addicted.

I tried many times to stop and many different products but the longest I managed was 6 months. Even so during that whole time, I still had the urge to smoke and couldn't take my eyes off people when they smoked in front of me. I still wanted what they had; A CIGARETTE! Aaagh! And like so many others that quit for a short while, I was back on them again.

I've always kept active and when I was doing certain exercises; mainly when bending sideways and alternately sliding my ams down by my sides, I would hear and feel a rumbling kind of bubbling on my chest and it didn't feel good. It was on my mind a lot. I wanted to quit so bad but I just couldn't manage it. Still, it was on my mind, and I was determined to find a solution.

Then one night I said to my husband "look, we have to do something about this addiction". To say that addictions bother me is an understatement of the year. I don't want to be at the mercy of anything through weakness in my physical body not least when it's so detrimental. I want to have control of my body and not have some substance controlling my body, and in turn my body having control over me. No thank you.

So I got face to face with my husband, looked him in the eyes and I prayed. We both asked Jesus to give us the strength to quit, thanked Him for His loving help and then declared out loud with joy in our hearts that it was done. It was taken care of, and we truly believed it because Jesus tells us that whatever we ask for in His name we shall receive, and his word is good. If we ask for the things that line our lives up with God, we will always get them. He will always give us what we need if only we would ask. Most of the time we only ask for what we want and not for what we need, but the Lord knows best that most of the time what we're wanting is probably the last thing we really need.

From that very moment, I knew I had quit for good, I had no desire at all to ever touch another cigarette and seeing anyone else smoking would never effect me again. There is nothing special about me, I didn't 'earn' this favour from God by any good deed, it's just that He's filled with love and grace and He desires to help all His children when they come to Him seeking help for the right reasons and for the greater good.

If you are struggling with tobacco addiction as I was, your cure, your salvation, your Saviour, is just a decision away. Make that decision today and be free from those expensive, smelly, cancer causing sticks of slavery. Don't be a slave to the tobacco anymore but instead be a son or daughter of God and ask your heavenly Father for His help.