What's Got a Hold On You?

I met a man while working for a lighting contractor. Our jobs would take us on the road for weeks at a time. During that period we became good friends and in our travels we shared our personal victories and struggles. Every day before breakfast he would fill his jaw with chewing tobacco. He told me how he wished he could quit using it. He said he was scared that he would get cancer and he had sores in his mouth. He confessed that he had tried to quit chewing tobacco many times but it seemed to have a hold on him that he just couldn’t break. During that same time I was in the process of writing this book. Sometimes, when I finished drafting a chapter or two I would bring the draft with me and I would let my friend read it. I would ask him for his input and we would talk about what I had written. When the lighting contract ran out, we were both laid off and went our separate ways but several months later I saw him again. We talked about old times and what we had been doing since we last saw each other. He could hardly contain himself as he told me that he no longer chewed tobacco. When I asked him how he did it. He smiled and said, “It was easy, I just did what you said in your book.” Further evidence that God wanted to use my book was revealed to me when I met a man who had a table set up at the entrance to a local store. He belonged to a ministry that worked with people who were alcohol and drug dependant. The ministry goal was to lead them to Jesus and to help free them from their strongholds. As I spoke to this man the Holy Spirit told me to give him my book. I took the books I had with me in my car and gave them all to him. About two years later at the same store, I saw him again. I asked him how he liked the book. He said that he loved it. His ministry had been using it for the last two years as a teaching tool. The ministry had great success using “What’s Got A Hold On You?”, and many people were breaking free from their addictions.