• The General Mental Health Forum is now a Read Only Forum. As we had two large areas making it difficult for many to find, we decided to combine the Mental Health & the Recovery sections of the forum into Mental Health & Recovery as a whole. Physical Health still remains as it's own area within the entire Recovery area.

    If you are having struggles, need support in a particular area that you aren't finding a specific recovery area forum, you may find the General Struggles forum a great place to post. Any any that is related to emotions, self-esteem, insomnia, anger, relationship dynamics due to mental health and recovery and other issues that don't fit better in another forum would be examples of topics that might go there.

    If you have spiritual issues related to a mental health and recovery issue, please use the Recovery Related Spiritual Advice forum. This forum is designed to be like Christian Advice, only for recovery type of issues. Recovery being like a family in many ways, allows us to support one another together. May you be blessed today and each day.

    Kristen.NewCreation and FreeinChrist

Can anyone recognize this?

New Birth

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2019
584
199
41
Vicksburg
✟22,877.00
Country
United States
Faith
Oneness
Marital Status
Married
Thank you so much for this! But how can I “chose” if I should believe the “do what you promise”- part or the “you may not kill”-part? If I promise to kill myself how do I know what to chose?
the bible says to chose life.
 
Upvote 0

com7fy8

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2013
13,648
6,107
Massachusetts
✟583,317.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
Thank you so much for this! But how can I “chose” if I should believe the “do what you promise”- part or the “you may not kill”-part? If I promise to kill myself how do I know what to chose?
As I have offered, God already has said not to kill yourself. So, it is wise not to promise and do what God says not to do.

And, therefore, He would not approve of the wrong promise, in the first place. So, you do what He does want.

And please remember that God has all His good for us, instead, which He desires to share with us. So, He wants us to be thinking on these things. So, thinking of suicide is not what He wants. And so, may be we could say a promise to do what He does not want us to think about is not what He wants, since He did not want us to even start to think of it, in the first place.

But when we fail in our thinking, keep trusting God to have us thinking better . . . with Him . . . in sharing with Him; He does want us all to be this close with Him, and so sharing. So, I think this should be a more fascinating attention getter, don't you . . . think? :)

I just read somewhere that for a promise to be binding it need to have listeners or something like that. For it to be heard (for example by God) and you can’t hear thoughts?
somewhere

I understand that God knows when we are promising. And, by the way, He often will not accept it, because He has better promises to fulfill and He is not going to allow us to stop Him by doing what we can promise and get ourselves to do! He wants us to do what He can do in sharing with us, and this is better than what, even practically, we oftentimes might be thinking before we find out what we do with Him.

So, our attention needs to be to God's promises and all which the Bible says He is doing with His children.

Thank you for this. It just says so many different things in the Bible and of course I take more notice of the scary things..
With every confrontation in the Bible, often there also is a wonderful encouragement to all we can have with God instead of the wrong stuff which He confronts.

For example, it says we all have sinned and come short of God's glory. This confronts how we have sinned, but in the same scripture we can see the encouragement that God wants us to share with Him in His own glory!

Check the scriptures out > with each criticism of what is not good enough for us, God has encouragement to get into the blessing and loving which is pleasing to Him and good for us all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Micha
Upvote 0

God is good

Well-Known Member
Oct 4, 2016
844
984
27
Michigan
✟201,885.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
But how do I know if God wants me to keep my promise to Him or if he want’s me to live?
Just remember that God really loves you and He wouldn't want you to kill yourself. He knows you better than you know you and I believe it's ocd because I also have ocd and I struggle but I know that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour and He loves me and He also loves you. God bless you and Jesus is Lord. If you ever want to pm me you can anytime.
 
  • Optimistic
Reactions: com7fy8
Upvote 0

com7fy8

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2013
13,648
6,107
Massachusetts
✟583,317.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
But how do I know if God wants me to keep my promise to Him or if he want’s me to live?
"God is good" said what is good, just above this post. Thank you, and God bless you :)

Also, if God wants you to die, He can have you just die. He has chosen that we stay here for a while.

And, by the way, if we stay here, we need to get busier with loving any and all people the way Jesus wants. Jesus wants loving, not dying and killing ourselves!!!!

But we need to be strong in His kind of love, because things can be hard. Plus, as we adopt more and more people whom we love dearly, they are going to have problems and ones could die before we do; so we will need how God makes us ready for loving so we can stay strong and encouraged and helping others, right while hard and painful things do happen to us and all the ones we adopt and love dearly.

Have you read and fed on Philippians 1:21-26? Take time to look at this, please.

What I get from this is that Paul would have preferred to die so he could go to be with the Lord Jesus, but he understood how God wanted him to stay here for a while to help us. So--like this, we need to love others, by staying here and going through things so we can bless and help people.

Even Jesus who had all He had going for Him in Heaven was willing to come here on this earth, in order to reach us and save us and share His own good with us.

So, we should be like Jesus > willing to leave our own little heavens we have, here, in order to love others. But, instead, there are people who feel they have lost the selfish things they wanted and so treasure, and so they decide they don't want to be here. Instead, we all need to be about caring for others, not dumping them by killing ourselves or by isolating ourselves with only the people . . . and the pets . . . we use for what we want.
 
Upvote 0

Mari17

Well-Known Member
Jun 17, 2017
1,485
509
36
Newport
✟141,577.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
This sounds like an obsession about making unwanted vows/promises; quite common with OCD. You mentioned having scrupulosity; what mental tools/strategies do you use in dealing with other obsessions? Can you apply those in this case? The goal in dealing with OCD, of course, is not to figure out the answer to whatever question is bothering us in the moment (because that's pretty much impossible with OCD!) but to deal with the OCD itself. Do you have the resources you need to do that?
 
  • Useful
Reactions: Micha
Upvote 0

Micha

Active Member
Feb 11, 2019
33
13
34
Copenhagen
✟18,005.00
Country
Denmark
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
In Relationship
As I have offered, God already has said not to kill yourself. So, it is wise not to promise and do what God says not to do.

And, therefore, He would not approve of the wrong promise, in the first place. So, you do what He does want.

And please remember that God has all His good for us, instead, which He desires to share with us. So, He wants us to be thinking on these things. So, thinking of suicide is not what He wants. And so, may be we could say a promise to do what He does not want us to think about is not what He wants, since He did not want us to even start to think of it, in the first place.

But when we fail in our thinking, keep trusting God to have us thinking better . . . with Him . . . in sharing with Him; He does want us all to be this close with Him, and so sharing. So, I think this should be a more fascinating attention getter, don't you . . . think? :)

somewhere

I understand that God knows when we are promising. And, by the way, He often will not accept it, because He has better promises to fulfill and He is not going to allow us to stop Him by doing what we can promise and get ourselves to do! He wants us to do what He can do in sharing with us, and this is better than what, even practically, we oftentimes might be thinking before we find out what we do with Him.

So, our attention needs to be to God's promises and all which the Bible says He is doing with His children.

With every confrontation in the Bible, often there also is a wonderful encouragement to all we can have with God instead of the wrong stuff which He confronts.

For example, it says we all have sinned and come short of God's glory. This confronts how we have sinned, but in the same scripture we can see the encouragement that God wants us to share with Him in His own glory!

Check the scriptures out > with each criticism of what is not good enough for us, God has encouragement to get into the blessing and loving which is pleasing to Him and good for us all.

I thank you so very much for this! Thank you for taking the time! Bless you ❤️
 
  • Friendly
Reactions: com7fy8
Upvote 0

Micha

Active Member
Feb 11, 2019
33
13
34
Copenhagen
✟18,005.00
Country
Denmark
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
In Relationship
This sounds like an obsession about making unwanted vows/promises; quite common with OCD. You mentioned having scrupulosity; what mental tools/strategies do you use in dealing with other obsessions? Can you apply those in this case? The goal in dealing with OCD, of course, is not to figure out the answer to whatever question is bothering us in the moment (because that's pretty much impossible with OCD!) but to deal with the OCD itself. Do you have the resources you need to do that?

Hello Mari17. Thank you so much for answering me! How do you know it is common for ocd? Don’t misunderstand me - I believe you! But where did you get this information?
Now my ocd is not just about saying vows but also thinking them.
I go to metacognitive therapy and I learn that thoughts are just thoughts and she is teaching me that it is allowed to think all kinds of thoughts but this is very hard for me to practise because I believe you shouldn’t make promises to God. You see my dilemma?
 
Upvote 0

com7fy8

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2013
13,648
6,107
Massachusetts
✟583,317.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
I thank you so very much for this! Thank you for taking the time! Bless you ❤️
Well, I am very pleased to share with you, Micha
God bless you ❤️, t:):)

I go to metacognitive therapy and I learn that thoughts are just thoughts
It can depend on how committed you are to your thinking. We need to test each thing and trust God to have us thinking and praying and committing to what He desires.

So, a thought about suicide should not become a commitment. So, of course, I would say, God does not want any of us to keep a commitment to kill ourselves.

Remember how Jesus left Heaven itself in order to reach us and save us and share with us His own good in His own love.

So, we do well to desire to stay here and so love people.

"And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, and offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." (Ephesians 5:2)

But don't we fail in this? So, use our failure to help us feel for others, but have hope for all of us to do better >

"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)

This is written about high priests, Micha; so I see how God knows we all can give in to things which are unloving, because of our weakness. So, you might be wise not to think you are some special and only case of weakness. Plus, God's grace is almighty to change us so we do better in loving. He makes us more and more strong and maturely loving and caring against any and all evil.

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)

God is able. May God prove Himself in us, in this, more and more as we grow as His children :help: > > :wave::hug::pray::groupray::prayer::clap::ebil::amen::oldthumbsup:

and she is teaching me that it is allowed to think all kinds of thoughts but this is very hard for me to practise because I believe you shouldn’t make promises to God.
Be committed to where your attention belongs. Instead of committing to suicide, trust God who can change us to be devoted to all He pleases to share with us. Or else, we can have wrong thinking getting our attention elsewhere.

So, it is not only about how you are able to change yourself and have control. This is about how we with God discover how He proves Himself in us and our lives and how we become loving with any and all people. All His word says, He is able to prove Himself by having us discover how He has us living His word >

"'So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
. It shall not return to Me void,
. But it shall accomplish what I please,
. And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.'"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Isaiah 55:11)
 
  • Optimistic
Reactions: Micha
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

Micha

Active Member
Feb 11, 2019
33
13
34
Copenhagen
✟18,005.00
Country
Denmark
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
In Relationship
Well, I am very pleased to share with you, Micha
God bless you ❤️, t:):)

It can depend on how committed you are to your thinking. We need to test each thing and trust God to have us thinking and praying and committing to what He desires.

So, a thought about suicide should not become a commitment. So, of course, I would say, God does not want any of us to keep a commitment to kill ourselves.

Remember how Jesus left Heaven itself in order to reach us and save us and share with us His own good in His own love.

So, we do well to desire to stay here and so love people.

"And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, and offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." (Ephesians 5:2)

But don't we fail in this? So, use our failure to help us feel for others, but have hope for all of us to do better >

"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)

This is written about high priests, Micha; so I see how God knows we all can give in to things which are unloving, because of our weakness. So, you might be wise not to think you are some special and only case of weakness. Plus, God's grace is almighty to change us so we do better in loving. He makes us more and more strong and maturely loving and caring against any and all evil.

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)

God is able. May God prove Himself in us, in this, more and more as we grow as His children :help: > > :wave::hug::pray::groupray::prayer::clap::ebil::amen::oldthumbsup:

Be committed to where your attention belongs. Instead of committing to suicide, trust God who can change us to be devoted to all He pleases to share with us. Or else, we can have wrong thinking getting our attention elsewhere.

So, it is not only about how you are able to change yourself and have control. This is about how we with God discover how He proves Himself in us and our lives and how we become loving with any and all people. All His word says, He is able to prove Himself by having us discover how He has us living His word >

"'So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
. It shall not return to Me void,
. But it shall accomplish what I please,
. And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.'"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Isaiah 55:11)

Wow, thank you for this! So kind of you! I need to understand what you wrote: I’m not some special and only case of weakness. Thank you! ❤️
 
Upvote 0

JesusisKing77

Member
Jan 3, 2019
19
5
22
Texas
✟9,579.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
Hello.
I’m new on this site and I hope to get some inputs on something I’m struggling with.

I have scrupulosity (religious ocd) and I am in constant fear on making a promise to God that I’ll commit suicide. Of course the ocd it trying to find something I can promise God that I can’t keep..
Does this sound like ocd or normal religious fear?
Let me just confirm that I’m not suicidal it’s just the theme of the ocd.

I one read online that it says in the Bible that you must keep your promises to God and now it scares me.

Hope to hear from you :)
Most likely it isn’t you making these promises,plus God is forgiving if you don’t do what you promised and feel sorry,confess and He will forgive you:)however I know this is not your case,these toughts that make promises are not yours ,and God knows that,of course He doesn’t want you to commit suicide,He loves you,remember when you make one of these “promises”know it isn’t really you,for He knows your heart and true desires :)
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0

com7fy8

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2013
13,648
6,107
Massachusetts
✟583,317.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
Wow, thank you for this! So kind of you! I need to understand what you wrote: I’m not some special and only case of weakness. Thank you! ❤️
As you get to become more humble and gentle, you understand better than words can tell :)

In our problems, we can get isolated so we feel like we are the only ones who are suffering or whatever. But while we get fooled like this, we are in the company of all the others who feel like they are all alone and no one knows what they are going through. Yet, they all are going through the same thing, of supposing no one else is.

So, this is a blessing of Christianity > we discover we are not alone in our problems. We pray for one another. Even while we have our own things to go through and suffer, we care about others and pray for them, too. And in this caring prayer we gain strength in loving, so we become more strong against what would torment us.

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." (1 John 4:18)

Notice how it says the fearing person has not been "made" perfect in God's love. We can not self-help ourselves to love. If any of us is in this love with God's almighty immunity against fear, we are here because God has "made" each of us this way. No one has always been some super-genius super-spiritual person > we all have needed God's correction, His love's perfection; so we know God has proven Himself to us, in this. We know only God can do this, and He did with us; so we know there is hope for any other person, too.

And have you fed on what our Apostle Paul says about his "thorn in the flesh"?

2 Corinthians 12:4-15 >

There is a lot you can get out of this. One thing I get is that Paul is saying he himself needed to be corrected. So, that thorn was given to him, in order to expose his ego weaknesses, so he would be more prayerful to seek God's correction and seek God to keep Paul doing everything only in God's grace.

God's grace is almighty against any and all cruel feelings and emotions and drives, with light so we are not fooled by wrong thinking and wrong guiding tendencies in us, plus this almighty power of grace has us succeeding in doing whatsoever God really has us doing with Him.

So, whenever Paul got away from grace, he would be in his own weakness so that thorn devil could get the better of him. And so, he was begging the Lord three times to make the problem go away, but Jesus wasn't going to just make things comfortable for Paul. He told Paul that His grace is sufficient for handling any trouble, and for keeping Paul the right way while doing the right thing . . . the creative love thing . . . about any problem.

Then Paul discovered how he had "pleasure", even, while going through things in God's grace which is the living action of God's own love with Heavenly goodness and pleasantness. So, even in major trouble, Paul could simply stay with God and enjoy, even.

But this was in all-loving love, which had Paul caring about others, not only trying to get himself taken care of. Grace is all-loving; it is not just favor for only certain isolated people > you might read how Joseph was favored, and therefore many people were blessed through Joseph > Genesis 37-50; and Abraham's obedience would get "all the nations of the earth" "blessed" > Genesis 22:18.

And therefore, I think this means > this is why 2 Corinthians 12:15 after the scripture about Paul's thorn thing says Paul is able to unconditionally love even ones who love him "less" (in certain translations, not all). As Paul got real in grace, then, he was intimate with God, personally guided in God's own peace, plus also this grace made him so unconditionally loving of any and all people. So, in God's love he was caring about others, no matter what he was going through for Jesus.

So, you can see how, then, it is a very dirty trick for things to have you feeling and supposing you are on your own and no one cares about you. Jesus cares for us, and He has His people who know how to love us; so if ones do not know how to love you, you care about them and pray for them :) > knowing, of course, you have been able also to not love the way we need to love >

"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)

Thank you for sharing with us and encouraging us :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Micha
Upvote 0

Micha

Active Member
Feb 11, 2019
33
13
34
Copenhagen
✟18,005.00
Country
Denmark
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
In Relationship
As you get to become more humble and gentle, you understand better than words can tell :)

In our problems, we can get isolated so we feel like we are the only ones who are suffering or whatever. But while we get fooled like this, we are in the company of all the others who feel like they are all alone and no one knows what they are going through. Yet, they all are going through the same thing, of supposing no one else is.

So, this is a blessing of Christianity > we discover we are not alone in our problems. We pray for one another. Even while we have our own things to go through and suffer, we care about others and pray for them, too. And in this caring prayer we gain strength in loving, so we become more strong against what would torment us.

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." (1 John 4:18)

Notice how it says the fearing person has not been "made" perfect in God's love. We can not self-help ourselves to love. If any of us is in this love with God's almighty immunity against fear, we are here because God has "made" each of us this way. No one has always been some super-genius super-spiritual person > we all have needed God's correction, His love's perfection; so we know God has proven Himself to us, in this. We know only God can do this, and He did with us; so we know there is hope for any other person, too.

And have you fed on what our Apostle Paul says about his "thorn in the flesh"?

2 Corinthians 12:4-15 >

There is a lot you can get out of this. One thing I get is that Paul is saying he himself needed to be corrected. So, that thorn was given to him, in order to expose his ego weaknesses, so he would be more prayerful to seek God's correction and seek God to keep Paul doing everything only in God's grace.

God's grace is almighty against any and all cruel feelings and emotions and drives, with light so we are not fooled by wrong thinking and wrong guiding tendencies in us, plus this almighty power of grace has us succeeding in doing whatsoever God really has us doing with Him.

So, whenever Paul got away from grace, he would be in his own weakness so that thorn devil could get the better of him. And so, he was begging the Lord three times to make the problem go away, but Jesus wasn't going to just make things comfortable for Paul. He told Paul that His grace is sufficient for handling any trouble, and for keeping Paul the right way while doing the right thing . . . the creative love thing . . . about any problem.

Then Paul discovered how he had "pleasure", even, while going through things in God's grace which is the living action of God's own love with Heavenly goodness and pleasantness. So, even in major trouble, Paul could simply stay with God and enjoy, even.

But this was in all-loving love, which had Paul caring about others, not only trying to get himself taken care of. Grace is all-loving; it is not just favor for only certain isolated people > you might read how Joseph was favored, and therefore many people were blessed through Joseph > Genesis 37-50; and Abraham's obedience would get "all the nations of the earth" "blessed" > Genesis 22:18.

And therefore, I think this means > this is why 2 Corinthians 12:15 after the scripture about Paul's thorn thing says Paul is able to unconditionally love even ones who love him "less and less" (in certain translations, not all). As Paul got real in grace, then, he was intimate with God, personally guided in God's own peace, plus also this grace made him so unconditionally loving of any and all people. So, in God's love he was caring about others, no matter what he was going through for Jesus.

So, you can see how, then, it is a very dirty trick for things to have you feeling and supposing you are on your own and no one cares about you. Jesus cares for us, and He has His people who know how to love us; so if ones do not know how to love you, you care about them and pray for them :) > knowing, of course, you have been able also to not love the way we need to love >

"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)

Thank you for sharing with us and encouraging us :)

I thank you SO much for writing this! You are a very kind person! God bless ❤️
 
Upvote 0

NBB

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Apr 19, 2013
3,548
1,537
44
Uruguay
✟445,475.00
Country
Uruguay
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
I don't believe God takes in account your promises if you say them because of a mental illness, and God doesn't want to you to get hurt,

so 2 things: first, i'm pretty sure your ocd promises are worthless to God, except he does not want you to have ocd, and second, God is not expecting you to fullfill with them of course, because he does not want you to get hurt.

In my case the ocd was from the devil and i was cured by God, if you think about it, its very suspicious, but i am not saying all mental illneses are from the devil.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums