Well done Elfie! Congratulations on getting free from that particular addiction - I know you already know this but you've once again tested and proved the truth of Psalm 20:7-8 and Philippians 4:13.
I'm glad the Ed Welch book on Addictions was helpful to you, I've used it in counseling people struggling with sinful addictions of all sorts and have found that it has always been of value both in convicting and directing. Ultimately though, you have to have become willing to implement the advice it gives for it to do any good, and I'm glad that happened to you.
Now that you've kicked the habit, if I can offer 2 brief pieces of advice:
1) Don't spend the rest of your life thinking of yourself as an addict to chain-smoking liable to fall back at any moment and constantly in need of being watchful in the way that some people continue to think of themselves as alcoholics for the rest of their lives. I say that not only because it encourages a mind-set of weakness where you almost expect to relapse daily, but also because it simply isn't true. That is who you were but not who you are, that was the old man, but you are a new creation. Paul after giving a long list of harmful vices in 1 Cor. 6:9-10 comments in verse 11 "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." (the Greek is in the past tense as well) That is who you were, but not who you now are in Christ. I have found this tremendously helpful in that we don't tend to do those things that are completely opposite to our nature nor are we even be tempted to do them. But if our core definition of ourselves includes a sinful predilection, then we will constantly find ourselves struggling with those desires that we think of as part of nature. Your body is no longer chemically a slave of that addiction, remember that your soul is free as well.
2) Now that you've freed up a lot of time and money by quitting smoking find something profitable and edifying to replace the time and money you wasted chain-smoking (especially because EATING tends to fill the void otherwise). I'm always struck by how Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:15 that the household of Stephanus (we'd say "the Stephens family) have addicted themselves (etaxan) to ministering to the needs of their brethren. Would that we all had such an ADDICTION!
Take care, and again, well done!
- SEAGOON
