I’ve been thinking about becoming a Christian. I’m not trying to force myself to believe in god. But after I read people’s experiences on becoming a Christian. Their lives improved a lot. I just wanted a peaceful life. Can anyone share your experience of being an atheist, then becoming a Christian?
Nope, it didn’t help me in my life at all—it made things worse in some ways. No religion or spiritual belief helped and the existence of god or an afterlife also doesn’t make any sense.
I have religious ocd and God will improve your life in all areas. Woth ocd, family, your life etc...
I don’t think religion will improve your OCD. Their are people who have religious OCD.
@Anonymous I’m not trying to improve my ocd through religion. I just want a more peaceful life. So I wanted people to share their experiences.
True, religion won't improve OCD, and there are religious themes. But many Christians with OCD will tell you that God has helped them in some way with their OCD, i.e. God being the one that gives them peace and motivation
Here are my thoughts (I am a Christian, but I will try to keep in mind both viewpoints while responding). Being plain with you, Christianity will not necessarily make your life more peaceful. It could even make it worse through persecution. The Bible talks in a parable about scattered seeds where some grew strong but others did not; simplified, I've heard that that verse is often used to explain that the reason why you believe is important and can make you a strong believer, or if you believe for the wrong reasons persecution may diminish your faith. So peacefulness isn't the best reason to become a Christian, there are better reasons to. The reason why Christianity can be so uplifting is because of the belief that Jesus died for your sins because He loves you, and because of that you can not only go to heaven but are also able to be reconciled with God. What do you believe? Is Christianity true? Then of course you should follow the truth! Nobody's going to force you to believe it, of course. Are you unsure, but think it might be the right thing? Then look into it, take some time to think about it, but don't put it off because this is important. Try reading one, or a few, or all, of the first four books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). If you would like, I could show you a YouTube video that might help paint a clearer picture of what I'm trying to say here. Or if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Also, perhaps talk to a pastor. There are different denominations of Christianity, with different beliefs, some small differences and some large, so that's something to keep in mind. (I personally don't "follow" any specific denomination, I just claim to be a "Bible believing follower of Jesus".) If you can't get a hold of a pastor through phone call or email, or if you would rather, you could attend a church service and seek to speak with the pastor after service
Personally, what motivates me religiously is the search for truth. I think the truth is very important. Jesus says He is the truth.
I think it’s a person to person thing. I’ll share a small bit of my own experience. I was raised Christian and reconverted at the age of 23 and was actually personally happier but I know from experience that others had the opposite experience. I converted to a non-Abraham of religion about a year ago after dabbling in atheistic paganism for a year before that. I’m happy with my spiritual path but it is my path and I don’t believe I have found the one true path or anything so I can’t say I recommend anyone else do the same. If you want to see how it goes, and it’s just curiosity and not OCD driven I think it’s worth a try. My conversion had no effect on my OCD in either direction but it did give me some scaffolding to start rebuilding my life with. I’m not entirely sure if this is what you weee looking for or not but hopefully it’s in the ballpark. I hope you find what it is you are looking for, friend.
There are great books about Christianity and OCD. It can be helpful!
@Anonymous The OCD Healing Journey by Mark DeJesus was instrumental in my recovery! He also had free videos on YouTube
i think finding Jesus will help you tremendously in all aspects of life. even tho i suffer from religious OCD, i still know that Jesus loves me no matter what i might think/have a weird thought about Him. God is my foundation for all of my decisions, morals, and while it can be difficult to do His will instead of what i want to do, i know that doing His will will always have the best outcome. Jesus has saved me when i was suicidal and depressed. He has always been there for me, through the good and the bad. i really hope you believe and become baptized in the name of the Father and pf the Son and of the Holy Spirit 🩷 God is calling you☺️
I was confirmed in the Catholic Church 5 months ago and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.
Welcome home! 🙏
I know that in my experience-I was Christian for a few years and then stepped away for many years. When I was actively in the church-my life was happier, I felt lighter and had a positive community of people to interact with. That decision is ultimately up to you though. If you want to make that decision for your life-it’s yours alone don’t let me or anyone else sway you ❤️
As a Christian myself, I do recommend Jesus. Has always been there for me & even in hard times you know you are not alone & someone will provide for you! Jesus is not a religion, it’s more like an intimate relationship. He knows what you’ve done & still wants to have a relationship with you! He loved you so much, he died for you, so that you can spend time with him in the afterlife! God loves you & I do too! 🤍
I'm pagan and minus my ocd I think my morals and goals help to keep my life peaceful. It takes work and has taken hard decisions but no life is perfect. I think if your beliefs are aligned with Christianity that's great jump in but as it was said it won't just make it easier that takes work. If you don't follow their belief 🤷🏻♂️ study some anyways. It's always great to learn about someone else's beliefs.
Choosing to believe in God and to have a personal relationship with God is definitely a personal choice. For me, I am a Christian. I still started struggling with OCD regardless of my faith, and the OCD even started messing with my faith! BUT for me, my faith in God and knowing Jesus HAS helped my life in many ways, OCD recovery included. I found this book called The OCD Healing Journey by Mark DeJesus, and it has been such a huge part of my recovery! Mark is a Pastor who also struggled with OCD and now helps others. He also has tons of OCD videos for free on YouTube. The book is reconnecting me to the love of God in Christ, and for me it’s making all the difference.
I’m so frustrated. I’m an atheist through and through, I believe in science all the way but I am still traumatized by the horrible things my mom showed me from the Bible as child. I’m frustrated because my mom died and now that I live alone I’m just always scared of the creaks and crackles that my home makes as the seasons change. It aggravates me because I’ll ruminate over and over that “it’s not a demon/ghost it’s just the wood furniture expanding/contracting” this that and everything in between to explain things and I’m simply tired of it. When I was putting down my self adhesive floor stickers to make me feel happy about my apartment I was stuck thinking about the demons my mom showed me in the Bible and had no choice but to continue what I was doing. The area I was working on when thinking these things, it’s either settling peeling, something, either way there is sound coming from that spot and it’s stressing me out. I can’t enjoy anything because I’m both annoyed at the topic and slightly scared because even as an atheist I’m a human being and we fear what we don’t understand. Is there anything people with spiritual ocd do to ease their nerves from the athiest perspective?
I have to say im struggling with my faith right now. I watch alot of Mark Dejesus videos but i find myself questioning everything. First i was questioning for a while now if theres free will and God doesnt interfere with our choices then what is the reason of praying, asking him things. If someone wants to kill me God wont come down and stop him, then what is the reason of me praying for protection? Other is the thing we say that "If God is with us who can be against us? What can man do to me?" Well the same they did to Jesus. Many people get tortured by others,r@pd,theres alot of things in this world, i dealt with this before, I know theres no answer for us cause we arent God, but still this statement that "what man can do to me" fails there cause i can still be afraid everyday that people will attack me and my family. And this is what i realized this time. Sadly im not much in a christian community, if i am im with people who has these basic answers but its okay we arent perfect, but my friends are unbelievers and we talked many times about faith and why i believe and what they told me just stick with me and now i feel like i understand. The thing is that whenever you have a problem like i said before someone is attacking you, you have an illness or any problem, even if you are christian or not you will have to do something alone. You have to face it, you have to act, and if you dont know what to do nobody will come down from the sky to lead you somewhere. And the problem is that lets take two people one who is a believer other is not, they had a problem both decided to so something about it, the non believer goes through it and he id happy about himself, the believer says "without God i couldnt do it" well the non believer did it without God. I see alot of times that things that christians say they couldnt reach without God, non believers do it without Him. And no i dont think every non believer should suffer cause they dont believe... but then the question is in my head, whats the point? Cause my non believer friends say they can see that this is just a perspective too, how you view things, and now i see it that it might be true... What if i just choose that i see it like this? Now i dont think that i will become an atheist soon, all my life i believed theres something there, even when i said no i was just fooling myself cause the next day i felt different. But im struggling with these questions cause i hear it everytime in christian communities to "trust in God, pray to Him, ask and you will get it" but its not true, theres free will and God doesnt change someones mind and many thing in this world is controlled by people. And call me crazy but i think science is so advanced right now that people can influence weather and make storms and tornadoes if they want to destroy a city. So yeah for me theres a God but i dont see the truth in what can man do to me and he will protect you just pray and ask him... My friends say im just believing cause i need to think something is there to protect me, or to give everything a meaning and maybe theyre right cause i cant explain why do i believe, i just do, but for people who are deeply hurted my a religion or they have problems and they can get through it without believing God, idk what to say them, why to believe... The basic "cause eitherway you will burn in hell" is not going to turn anyone to a christian... I hope some can take this and answer it kindly not attacking me cause i struggle with my faith or "im not a true christian" if someone says that i will ignore it. Thanks for your time.
I didnt wanted to post about this but it makes me really sad right now. This post will be about Christianity so if you believe in something else dont read it cause i will mention things that might trigger you. Im struggling with my faith right now and i feel like christianity might be the same like other religions and beliefs. I wont come with the "if theres a God prove it, i want Him to show up" thats ignorant, but i think about some things that keeps me stuck. Before christianity i was really desperate to find the meaning of life so i read about spirituality. Alot of people believe in that and live a peaceful life, cause that thinking makes you have positive behaviours cause they found a meaning. We say other religions are false things but then we say ours is true cause "we feel like its true". So its all about how you feel. Back then i just couldnt relate to spirituality and i found people who were liars and strange people, but we know christians can be that too, so i left spirituality cause it didnt made me feel good. But maybe if i wouldve stayed there and learn more, it generates the same feeling as i have now towards God and now i would say thats the truth cause i feel at peace and that im loved. Many spiritual people feel that, without christian beliefs. Non believers too realized a long time ago that self love is so important. So the problem is that i can never explain why do i believe, i always say "cause i feel that its real" well, if i would be so desperate to pray to a cat God and make myself believe everything I have is from that cat i would feel like its true. So my faith is about how i feel... which can be easily manipulated. And many times people said to me "its just a view, it makes you happy cause youre afraid that life doesnt bavw a meaning" and now i kinda feel like it can be true. Many will say faith is relational, but i can make that relation to anything, as is said if i think theres a big cat somewhere who loves me it can become relational... and then where all this ends it sounds like well God is with us but he doesnt do anything to intervene, you might now feel Him, we dont have any evidence, in the end of the day you just have to trust theres someone who will give you something after this horrible life. And that sounds like you want to give meaning to life. Maybe i didnt got the answers from the best christians, but it sounds to me like you jjst have to trust theres someone out there, and that belief will make you happier... But its the same with every other religion tho... Native americans believed in many Gods and it gave them meaning and a happy peacefull life. But we say thats false... why? Isnt our belief the same? I hope i get some loving anwers, cause im not trying to ruin anyones belief, im just struggling with my faith.
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