Long, stupid, involved OCD worry (need to vent)

[Daplumba]

I so appreciate your post as it describes my struggle. It is debilitating. I drive the people around me nuts. I'm just finding out that I have this OCD. Never could put a name to it. The conscience thing is my big deal as well. Holds me back from enjoying what God intended for us to enjoy. Overly concerned, anticipating loss of control of my life, panicking, anxiety, etc. etc... I fear fear will come back. I fear thoughts will come back. I make up in my mind what I fear God would say against what I desire. I play a tape as though was saying what I fear to myself. I have learned a few things though. "Will a Father give his child a snake?" Imagine a father who has a child with the symptoms you have. His child is young and is struggling with these thoughts. The father does not have the same problem but sees his child suffering because of the child's weakness/ illness. This father would never hold his child's obsessions to him or her. He would have compassion and pity on his child and seek to communicate to the child his true desires for him or her which would definitely not be being so hard on his or herself. He would be in tears seeing the pain his child is going through. This is our loving heavenly Father who before the foundations of the earth planned to send His only begotten Son to die in our place. He poured out His wrath on Him for us. God loves us more than we can imagine. His love frees us from self analysis. We who have this OCD will always have it but we can find reprieve in the love of God in Christ. No matter what we practice to overcome this thing we will obsess about it but it should be God's love that we obsess about, not what we should make a vow about. You are free from the Law, why subject yourself to more? Rest in the finished work of Christ. Rejoice, don't think about your works. Be planted by the river. Be tapped into the Vine. Eat from the Tree of Life. Your works will come naturally as "fruit" from a tree.

 

[AFriendIndeed]

Just make a vow to make no more vows unless they are your wedding vows. Living with these roommates is not a sin. If you can show me in the Bible where it is, then I'll recant.

 

[gracealone]

I've spoken to a lot of people with OCD who struggle with making unwanted vows. This stems from them having the knowledge that they are not to make vows to God they won't keep. So the OCD will generate some intrusive vow like statements which creates a ton of anxiety and makes them feel as though if they don't keep it they'll be sinning or condemned. Vowing to not make any more vows will only cause them to feel even worse when their brain generates yet another unwanted/intrusive vow like statement. This would be just the same as saying... don't think of pink elephants. The harder you try not to think of them the more you'll think of them. The harder the person with this kind of OCD tries not to make some kind of vow, the more the brain will generate those kind of vow like statements. So, just like any other unwanted or intrusive OCD thought the vows should be ignored and treated as invalid and insignificant. That doesn't mean they won't be blabbing away in the brain but the less you attend to them the better off you are. And, over time they will become less frequent and lose the ability to create so much anxiety. Treat them as significant and they will feel very significant. That's my two cents on it for what it's worth. Mitzi

Just make a vow to make no more vows unless they are your wedding vows. Living with these roommates is not a sin. If you can show me in the Bible where it is, then I'll recant.

 

[Cola Seven]

Romans 8:26-27 - [26]In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. [27]And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.

Does this apply to vows that we personally make to God in our own head, just as much as it applies to other things that we pray for?

Does this mean that the Holy Spirit will void some of our vows the moment we say them to God?

 

[Cola Seven]

The Bible gives examples of where following through on your own oath to God is a sin:

Judges 11:29-40 -- Jephthah offered his daughter as a burnt sacrifice (Which means that she was killed and slaughtered for this sacrifice like an animal, if you interpret this story literally.).

1 Samuel 14:24-48 -- Saul promised under oath to have his his son Jonathan killed.

1 Samuel 25:1-39 -- David promised under oath to have every male in Nabal's household killed.

Matthew 14:1-12 -- Herod promised under oath to have John the Baptist killed.

Acts 23:12-35 -- More than forty Hebrews promised under oath to not eat anything until they killed Paul.


Since these pop-up vows prevent us from living a productive life, and God wants us to live a productive life, maybe it's a sin to follow through on our vows. I'm not saying this to offend anyone. If it's a sin to follow through on our vows, then we don't need to follow them. Then it's NOT a sin to NOT follow through on our vows.