- Date posted
- 1y ago
Religious OCD Pt 2
Have any of you gotten intrusive thoughts while reading the Bible, or a Church? Have any of you even gotten to the point where you avoided the Bible and/or Church?
Have any of you gotten intrusive thoughts while reading the Bible, or a Church? Have any of you even gotten to the point where you avoided the Bible and/or Church?
Yes but I realized god knows our hearts, which is completely seperate from our thoughts, and he understands our struggles with the crazy brain. Your thoughts do not define you!
Hi Anthony.....yes, yes, yes.....my late grandfather was a theologian and I asked him about verses probably over 1,000 times over the years. At one point I read through the entire New Testament and wrote down every verse I thought might mean I will be damned to hell, or might be. Then I sat down with him and went through each one. He once told me the Bible is like a rose and all I did was try to find thorns on it instead of looking at the beauty of the rose. I eventually want to write a book that goes through some of more common verses and explain how they trigger the Christian OCDer, and why those triggers are ill-founded. Christ came to bring us freedom, including freedom from fear. The Bible is supposed to being us joy, not condemnation and the weight of responsibility....even when we are doing work for God, His yoke is easy and His burden is light....which is the exact opposite of what OCD tries to make our experience all about. I hope this helps!
@Waging War Against OCD Yeah that’s the thing I know that our God is not a punishing God and the Bible is a beautiful book, but OCD makes it seem so hard. It makes it seem like every divine thought is from God and that every body sensation is the Holy Spirit
@anthonycaronna - I think I understand - and I think the grace of God will help here....I can't remember if I've discussed this part of my book with you....but basically, I think what God wants us to learn is how much favor He has towards us INDEPENDENT of any level of obedience of getting things "right" that we can do or perform. So once we get even a little bit of that truth from our head down to our heart....really, only a little of it.....then we start to see how interpreting if something is from God or not is not as important as we think it is. Without a good grasp of grace, we place soooo much responsibility on ourselves to get everything right (like interpret His voice correctly, interpret our thoughts as from Him or not, etc). In college I was terrified I would make a wrong decision and eat at a cafeteria that God didn't want me too, thus potentially derailing His plan for my life, or someone elses. But that is an incorrect view of reality. I was never in charge that much. I wish back then that I could have seen I have a loving Father who watches my steps and helps when I make mistakes.....in short, understanding and experiencing grace takes our focus off of feeling responsible to do, think, act exactly right to make sure we don't anger God - to focusing on How much He loves and likes us....and when we do that we focus on Him and His goodness instead of the to do list we think we need to get exactly right. Does this line of thinking help?
@Waging War Against OCD Yes it does, thank you for this
Yes!!
Yes!
Is anyone else here a Christian dealing with ocd? I could use some support because I've been having a hard time growing close to God ever since my ocd started getting bad. I deal with a lot of religious intrusive thoughts such as being unforgivable, or being cursed or possessed. What's some advice?
I don't really know if it's OCD, but lately I've been thinking a lot and in a very obsessive way that every single one of my actions, words or even thoughts will affect on how God will make decisions about my life. For example, if I lie to someone or yell at them out of anger, God will make happen something bad to me as a "punishment". I know it might seem silly, but it really really freaks me out sometimes... Does anyone feel the same? And if so, do you do something in particular to feel better? Thanks for your understanding❤️
Hello everyone. I was just wanting to post on here regarding a situation that I have been dealing with for a few months now. I have been taking my walk with Christ seriously for about a year now and ever since I started I’ve noticed a bunch of intrusive thoughts and it’s caused me much distress. It all started back in June of 2024. I missed a church service because my wife and I were taking care of our daughter and I went to a Best But store and upgraded my old Apple Watch to a new one. I felt like doing so I committed idolatry because I went and bought that instead of going to church. I felt immense guilt for doing so and the next day I cancelled my order. I thought that maybe I was over thinking the entire thing so I went ahead and placed a new order and got the watch. For two weeks after getting the watch, I ruminated about whether I should keep it or not. It didn’t feel right with me and was overwhelmed with guilt for having it and it was debilitated with anxiety and stress. Eventually I decided I would just give it back so I went to go return it on the last day I could do so only to find out I could not. I thought that was a sign from God that I could keep it. I felt the most relief after that that I had experienced in quite awhile but then the next day after I started have thoughts again thinking that I didn’t try hard enough to return it and that I’m some how putting it before God. Well eventually I came to terms that there was nothing I could do about it and I was able to stop worrying about it being an idol. Well my mind jumped from that to another thing in my life and this one has been harder to get over. I have been on hair loss medication for 7 years and I had a thought one day telling me that “if I’m a true follower of Christ, then I shouldn’t take the medicine because I’m placing too much importance on my looks” I again felt immense anxiety and dread and tried fighting these thoughts away but could not help but think” what if it is and this is conviction of the Holy spirit”? I would constantly look up online any answers I could find to help relieve my anxiety but I can’t. I pray to God all the time for his will to be done in this situation and sometimes I feel better but then it all comes back. It’s hard for me to read the Bible because there’s so much about idolatry I always feel like it’s God talking to me like it’s a sign or if I’m just taking it that way? I asked God to show give me an answer about this situation and a day later a YouTuber I follow posted a video about removing idols from our lives. I felt that was God speaking to me or wasn’t sure maybe it was a coincidence? I just feel so cornered and out under so much pressure on what to do. Of course I would like to keep taking my medicine because it has helped me but then I have thoughts that tell me it is an idol because I am not able to give it up. I cut back taking the medicine a lot more often over the last months but I don’t know if this is God telling me to do so or my own mind. Like if I want to keep my hair I believe God allows healing through medication and it’s a gift. But these thoughts are telling me that I rely on taking it and it’s an idol and that unless I give it up completely I’m not following God’s will and it’s an idol. It’s caused immense doubt because then I read Romans 14 and it says anything you do with doubt is sin because it’s not of faith. I feel like I’m being attacked and cornered because I’m forced to stop taking something that has helped me. Now I have thoughts telling me to stop wearing my retainers every night because I got Invisalign a few years back to fix my teeth and that unless I stop taking my medication and wearing my retainers I’m not authentically following God. I don’t know what to do at this point. I don’t want to go against God and I don’t want to commit idolatry. I know God is all loving so I doubt this is all coming from him. I have to take/wear these things daily for them to work and the ocd will twist that in saying they are idols because of that and I just feel so cornered and defeated. I try to find things constantly online to see if anyone else has similar issues but I can’t. I know this is a long post but just trying to get some clarity on the matter. What should I do to help my situation?
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