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I'm always reminding myself of God's grace & love based not on my own righteousness but that of Christ won through His Sacrifice on the Cross. I have to do this b/c my childhood & teen years as a Catholic neither adequately nor accurately taught me doctrines such as Atonement, grace, and adoption into God's family and into the Body of Christ. Having an overbearing and at times abusive parent did not help reinforce God's love for me or the fact that He is not sitting there waiting to zap me for stepping out of line. Rather, He corrects us, being a loving Father in heaven and a loving Husband. So, even if I'm feeling convicted for a legitimate sin, I immediately start declaring to myself God's truths, asking His strength to forsake my sin, and thanking Him for His forgiveness and love. ~C

I have SO MUCH to say on this topic. So much so that I wrote a book called "Waging War Against OCD - A Christian Approach to Victory." It's on Amazon. Regarding being prayed over - should we have that done? Yes, of course, as God calls us to pray for each other and even for the sick to be prayed over by the leaders of the church. However, I spend an entire chapter talking about this, and how we need to see OCD for what it is - a medical condition. It is no different than how we should view diabetes as a Christian. Should diabetics have people pray for them? Absolutely. After all, God can perform miracles for diabetics or for people struggling with all kinds of ailments. But in the times that he doesn't perform miracles, he has provided common grace - which are The benefits all humans have on earth....such as the beauty of nature, the enjoyment of food, and the amazing results of medication. Also, I am confident you will absolutely love Mark DeJesus. Just google "Mark DeJesus and OCD" you will find lots of youtube videos. He also has written multiple books. He really gets how to speak truth SPECIFICALLY TO CHRISTIANS WITH OCD, more than anyone else I've ever come across. I hope you find some of these resources encouraging. Know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE, MANY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST STRUGGLE WITH THIS.

I read a book once called “Can Christianity Cure OCD”, and it described how many key Christians in history suffered from OCD, including John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, and many others (including maybe Martin Luther, who certainly had a mental disorder which was probably OCD). Pilgrim’s Progress was second to the Bible only in its influence at the time. And Martin Luther was key at the beginning for the Protestants. And the other people featured in the book had made other big contributions to the human race. The point is that God has allowed some his choice, chosen saints to suffer from this. He does this for his own purposes. And this means that if you suffer from it, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong with you. It may actually mean that God thinks you are special. As you progress saving your a OCD journey, you will learn things. There is no rush here. It takes a long time. But over time, we learn things like believing God’s word instead of our feelings (because our feelings are always dark) and many other things. I encourage you to take some key Scripture verses and get them into your heart. Think on them and meditate on them and say them out loud. For example, my OCD always tells me that I am going to hell. So I focus on the verses that comfort me. When things get bad, I say them out loud. I am learning to commit to God’s word in an unwavering way instead of leaning on my fears and my feelings. Our journeys are a process that takes time. So don’t get discouraged. Instead, remember that this is an opportunity to LEARN. You can watch Mark DeJesus on YouTube, for example, Or go to other places where you can learn more how much God loves you, etc.

Now let’s talk about the thoughts. Part of the diagnosis of OCD is that we have unwanted, intrusive thoughts, running through our heads all the time. This is actually normal for OCD. This usually scares most people. And most people feel like the thoughts are unacceptable and that they have to fight them off (which is not true, but we will talk more about that). I used to have blasphemous sentences running through my head 24/7. It was my voice in the thoughts, but it felt like they were literally being pumped into my head from the outside. This really made me scared me at the time. However, I learned something REALLY IMPORTANT. I learned that it doesn’t matter if these thoughts go through our heads or not. Like I said, everyone with OCD has unwanted thoughts go through their heads, whether the thoughts are about God or about sexual or violent issues. The thing that you really need to understand is that these thoughts don’t have any power. This is because all the thoughts are meaningless. Therefore, you can let them run freely through your head, without trying to stop them or fight them off. When I learned that God did not care that these thoughts were going through my head, that was a big relief. I used to think that I had to put a “not” next to each blasphemous thought in order to negate it. But I learned to stop doing that and to just let the thoughts run freely. This is because God does not care whether the thoughts are there or not. The thoughts don’t mean anything at all. You need to stop worrying whether or not the thoughts are real or whether or not they reflect you. ERP therapy will help you with this. I will post something that I have posted a lot about how to deal with intrusive thoughts, and maybe it will help you. Please write back and tell me where you are and how you respond to your thoughts. I think this could be a HUGE step forward for you if you haven’t taken it yet.