“Walking streets of gold, bumming a cigarette?” The thought actually occurred to me as I struggled with my next step that God laid in front of me. Would if I could have nicotine in heaven? Let me unpack this for you and give you a little background on my situation:
In high school, I became highly addicted to nicotine. For me, any form would do: cigarettes, chewing tobacco or snuff, I didn’t care. As long as I could get it in my system, it didn’t matter to me. Over an extended period of time I realized I had an addiction that I literally could not shake, no matter how hard I tried.
Don’t get me wrong: I have quit 1,000 times but always return in some form or fashion. Lately it has been Nicotine gum and lozenges, because those are “socially acceptable”. The bottom line is that I am an addict and God doesn’t want this in my life anymore. It has been my next step for months, and I have been ignoring it.
In Joshua 24:13 we see the people of Israel faced with a decision. “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Basically God is saying to the people of Israel “I am your Father, and I have brought you into the Promised Land. I have some amazing things in store for you. Your only requirement is this: make a choice! Either serve me or serve your idols, but you can’t have both!”
That is the exact same thing God hit me with this month with my next step: laying down nicotine forever. God was saying to me “I have some amazing things in store for you! You make the choice: you can either let me bless you beyond your wildest dreams or you can hang on to your idol of nicotine, but you can’t have both!”
Here is the issue: I LOVE NICOTINE! I like the way it makes me feel, I enjoy everything about it! The problem is not the nicotine, but the fact that I worship it. God has shown me that where He wants to take me, there is no room for idols or shrines set up to a false god. He’s been telling me for weeks that it’s time to throw that away. Although I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to miss out on what God has in store for me and my next step with Him.
The sobering thought that made me swear it off was this: What is Jesus walked up to me on the corner of Faith Ave & Eternity St. in heaven someday and said “I had the most awesome blessings in store for you and you could have had it all! Instead you chose that!” As he walks away, I am stuck there on the corner with my nicotine as my reward.
We don’t have to always like the next step God gives us, but if we obey Him it always works out for our good. At the end of Joshua 24:28 we see Joshua send the people away, “each to his own inheritance”.
What are you holding on to in place of your inheritance? Is it really worth the trade?
