Jesus knows the quitter's prayer, Mark 9 verse 29

I did not intend to give up smoking on Monday.
I never really intend to give up smoking.
Because I don't believe I can.
And because I have two smoking voices that like a happily married couple bicker it out day by day.

"You must give up smoking."
"I will, after, this one, this packet then I will."
"Look how well you have done not smoking today."
"Just smoke today and don't smoke tomorrow."
"No smoking day."
"I have got to smoke today, but I won't smoke tomorrow." etc etc etc.

You might have similar voices. If you know them, they are already too big for their boots!
You may have a chocolate biscuit voice.
Or a going out on Friday night voice.

Like me you might have more voices than you like to admit to!

What ever the voice, I guess you will know it very well, maybe you know its manipulative workings, you may find it predictable...and yet you will still fall for it. You get sick of the voice, taking your 'real' voice, you are fed up with that voice deafening all other voices, you are tired of the voice winning and the attendant action; smoking, over eating, drinking makes you feel ashamed and like a failure.

Well, pretty much I am always at war with my voices, I will have a moderate success and then I will fall for one nasty, insidious little whisper, or one demanding yell and off I go again.

So, on Monday I was reading Mark, and came across Mark Chapter 9:14-29. And it blew my mind.

 "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."

  "O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me."

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

   Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"

 "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

 "If I can?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

 Immediately the boys father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.!"
 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit.

 "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."

The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"

He replied, "This kind can only come out by prayer."