Christian Living

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The Promise Of “ALL THINGS”
© 2008

by


“You have to stop smoking,” the doctor told 22 year old Alana McKinley. “It is not healthy for you to smoke two packs a day. Your blood pressure is through the roof and your cholesterol on the bad side is too high. You’re askin’ for one heck of a heart attack or a stroke young lady! I’m terribly afraid for you right now! Just because you’re 22 doesn’t mean you can’t have one or the other or both. Help me here Alana! Please!!”

Alana was sulky.

Smoking was one of the great pleasures of her young life, not only the enjoyment of it but the sophistication it seemed to portray when she went out with her circle of friends. How could she give up one of her finest joys? Besides that smoking kept her weight down, stopped her from eating so much and is a way of dealing with her nervous energy. Everybody including other women said she was absolutely beautiful. “If I stopped smoking, will I lose my attractiveness and gain that ugly weight!”

That night Alana could not sleep thinking about what the doctor had discussed with her that morning. Unable to sleep, she sat up in bed reading her Bible. Then she got out of bed to get her purse and a cigarette. “I simply can’t quit smoking right now,” she muttered to herself.

Alana was about to light her cigarette when a Bible verse she had just read came to her: “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”

Yes, as a Christian Alana firmly believed that—but certainly it was a promise meant for something much more important, not for merely giving up smoking.

Or was it? “All things,” whispered Alana not once but twice.

The cigarette was crushed in a nearby ashtray and the remaining pack tossed in her trashcan.

Alana did quit smoking—and as she did, she gained in health and more importantly in her faith. “I had a great deal of help,” she said, “once I realized that I couldn’t conquer my addiction over the months but when I felt the need to smoke, I’ve turned back to that Bible verse rather than to a pack of cigarettes. It was hard I will admit and I had to call on the Lord for strength but I did it! I really did it!”

Is there something you believe you cannot do by yourself? Today why not claim the promise of “ALL THINGS IN CHRIST”? You will see and know a difference!

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