ADDICTION OVERCOME

‘I used to pick up cigarette ends off the street’ 

I started smoking – in secret – a few menthol cigarettes that I’d steal from my stepmother’s packet when I was about 10 years old.

As a teenager, I even used to smoke in the toilets at my school.

Later, when I was about 15, if I didn’t have any money to buy cigarettes, I’d pick up cigarette ends off the street to salvage the remaining tobacco and roll my own cigarettes. I smoked all sorts of tobacco: blond, menthol, dark, cigars, rolling tobacco… until I became addicted to dark tobacco.

When I was about 25, I got to know some friends, former drug addicts, who occasionally took heroin but regularly smoked hashish. That’s how I was introduced to it. Thank God, I didn’t get into hard drugs and stuck to hashish. However, I wasn’t as addicted to it as I was to tobacco. It was cigarettes that really had the strongest hold over me.

When I was around 30, I tried several times — unsuccessfully — to give up smoking: nicotine patches, acupuncture, self-hypnosis… Whenever I managed to cut down, I’d get into such a foul mood that my colleagues eventually asked me to start smoking again.

The price of cigarettes was constantly rising, and this was putting a heavy strain on my budget. But I had become completely addicted. Whenever I found myself without cigarettes on a Sunday evening, at the weekend or on a public holiday, I would travel several kilometres to find a tobacconist’s that was open.

It was at the age of 39 that I was set free from this addiction — and from cannabis — by Jesus Christ (Luke 4:18; Galatians 5:1).

I use the word ‘delivered’ quite rightly: I made no effort whatsoever to be set free once and for all, and it had no effect on my mood. One day, when I longed with all my heart to be baptised, I knew that continuing to smoke was incompatible with the commitment I wanted to make to God. After praying, I simply threw my lighter, my cigarettes, my joint and everything else into the bin (Ephesians 2:8–9). From that day onwards, I never felt the need to smoke again.

Today, at nearly 64, I have no lasting effects. What Jesus did for me, He can do for you too… and much more besides.

Mireille

DELIVERED FROM SLAVERY: This book didn't leave me alone!

This book didn't leave me alone!    

"When I read these words, I wept, for all my life I had struggled.

From my earliest childhood, my life was marked by disappointment. Unloved by my parents, I wanted to find love in the world. I sought happiness in music and drugs. I was employed in a local authority office, and outwardly everything was in order. But inside me was the hell of heroin addiction.

One day, I was arrested and imprisoned in Munich. The doctors thought I wouldn't survive. I was full of drugs and had bad jaundice. But God saved me from death. After a dreadful week, I survived the physical detox, but went on with my life as before. Until I found a Bible. I put it in the back of my cell, determined not to read it.

Strangely enough, that book in my cupboard wouldn't leave me alone. Finally, I picked it up, opened it, and what I read shocked me. It says that God is the Lord, the King. He is the Lord, strong and mighty, mighty in battle. And it says that this Lord is my helper; I shall not be afraid psalm 25, psalm 118.

When I read these words, I cried, because all my life I had struggled to find attention and love.Then I prayed: “God, if you really want to fight for me, then I want to come to you”; That was in August 1986. Since then, I've come to know God better, and He has delivered me. I'm grateful to Him from the bottom of my heart.

Sylvia (from Bonne semence 2025)

FROM OCCULTISM TO LIGHT: My testimony of faith

"Today I can live, delivered from the occult thanks to Jesus Christ".

My paternal grandmother taught me, from the age of ten, not to say my prayers in the evening, but to predict the future from playing cards, to do fortune-telling.

I can say today that this is a diabolical trap, an abomination before God. You become the instrument of evil powers, all the while believing you're having fun... You are bound and become a slave. 

The occult was present in our family without us being aware of it, as if a spider's web was slowly being woven around us. But one day, when I had joined a group of astrologers, I came across a book that invited me to say 'astrological prayers'. That's when I realised what I was getting into. How could anyone pray to the stars? I decided to leave the group.

One evening, I opened my Bible and read for the first time in the Gospel according to John, the text where Jesus says : "I am the way and the truth and the life", John 14:6. It sent shivers down my spine and brought tears to my eyes. What was going on? 

I had gone to an evangelical assembly for the first time to attend a conference. The Lord had prepared my heart. While I was steeped in lies, the biblical message was clear. The following Sunday, thirsting for the truth, I spent the afternoon asking the pastor questions. I realised that everything I was hearing was the only truth.

To see the light, human beings often need to fall into a big hole. Then, when they look up at God, they realise that they have made a mistake and that they can experience divine grace. That's what happened to me. 

Three months later, I was converted and laid before the Lord my burden of sins that I could no longer bear. I felt suffocated, until the day the Lord Jesus forgave me. I had a deep regret in my heart. Making us aware of our sins is a grace from God, and only His grace can save us.

The way I look at the world, at people, at my life, has totally changed. The Lord Jesus has opened my eyes. He is my Shepherd and I shall not want, as it says in Psalm 23:1. 

Since then, God has tested my faith in many areas. Confrontations with occultism have been frequent, so I have testified openly about my Christian faith, the danger of occultism and the victory of Jesus Christ. I talk about all this to help people understand the power of the forces of darkness and their hold over mankind.

But what an experience to discover God's omnipotence when He delivers us! 

I was lost, miserable, and really a slave to all these things! Today I can live, delivered from the occult thanks to Jesus Christ my Saviour, whom I also recognise as my Lord.

Céline L. (source: Bonne semence 2025)