ERP & Christian

Hi, I deal with this so much as well. And I sympathize with you. Checkout Mark DeJesus on podcasts. Great help to me on things you’re talking about. Also, I get the feelings of anxiety surrounding my faith in Christ and with my walk with Christ as well. Don’t engage with your compulsion to try to “make it right or alleviate the anxiety” starve it as best you can…because engaging with your obsession only makes you have more intense compulsions. Remember this above anything else, because I know how you feel exactly: those feelings, those thoughts, are not who you are or who God is. God is all knowing and all powerful and knows you have those intrusive thoughts and wavering feelings, yet that does not change His love for you one single bit. You haven’t blasphemed Him and your mind/emotions will never change how God loves you and cherishes you. Starve your thoughts by not engaging with them, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Doubt your doubts. God Loves you, you are his creation, and nothing you ever purposely or unintentionally do/say/think will ever change that.

Let’s say for a minute that you are offending God. Sit in that… you are offending God. Now… who paid the penalty of death for you?

Think about it this way: if God wanted you to suffer with OCD, he wouldn't have shown you erp. So, I'm sure it'll be fine 🙂

Hi everyone - I recently wrote a book about having OCD as a Christian - and also share some things God has taught me through the years that you may find helpful. You can see more at WagingWarAgainstOCD.com I had it reviewed by a Christian psychiatrist and psychologist (both who have published books on the subject) prior to publishing to make sure nothing was harmful or unwise. I hope you find some of it helpful!

Sit with the anxiety. If you think/ feel you're offending God say maybe, maybe not and just sit with the uncertainty. But keep doing the ERP.

I love this quote from Hannah Whitall Smith - she was speaking from a spiritual perspective - but it applies to OCD just as well: "It seems hardly worthwhile to say that temptation is not sin, and yet much distress arises from not understanding this fact. The very suggestion of wrong seems to bring pollution with it; and the poor tempted soul begins to feel as if it must be very bad indeed, and very far off from God, to have had such thoughts and suggestions. It is as though a burglar should break into a man’s house to steal, and, when the master of the house begins to resist him and to drive him out, should turn round and accuse the owner of being himself the thief. It is the enemy’s grand ruse for entrapping us. He comes and whispers suggestions of evil to us, – doubts, blasphemies, jealousies, envyings, and pride, and then turns round and says, “Oh, how wicked you must be to think of such things! It is very plain that you are not trusting the Lord; for if you had been, it would have been impossible for these things to have entered your heart.” This reasoning sounds so very plausible that we often accept it as true, and so come under condemnation, and are filled with discouragement."

Fellow sister in Christ here! What are your erp exercises and what reasons do you feel they give God to be offended by you doing them?

I keep getting blasphemous thoughts about hs. That if I do anything, like eat or anything it’s blasphemous. So I’ve been trying to ignore the thoughts but I feel anxious.