Fear controlling faith

[Ryosuke]

hey guys , this is not my first post here my first one was about the unpardonable sin that scared me a lot . Since I was a kid I was extremely afraid of the concept of Hell and punishment forever , my mom used to tell me I would not sleep when I heard about it or death in general because I would be scared. I'm still scared when people preach about hell more than about the love of God and I even find it irritating to me when people preach fear and not love. I myself sometimes have a lot of questions about the concept of Hell in general , but it faded away with time when I turned to Christ. However, my fear came back after my OCD started manifesting on the unpardonable sin , a lot of doubts and fear and guilt stick with me its been a while now and I'm extremely afraid that God would punish me for thoughts or things i might have said by accident or while not paying attention for ever in Hell . No matter how much reassurance i get that God knows my heart and loves me and will of course forgive me if i don't want them and since I'm concerned but there is always in the back of my mind this what if and what if and I'm never certain of Heaven and this specific type of uncertainty is too much for me knowing that i might be suffering forever. This affected me and my life quite a lot since it forced me to avoid triggers , my prayers became lesser since I'm more focused on doubts and anxiety than God and its robbing the peace that Christ gave me when i turned to him and this is increasing the doubts and fears so advice would be highly appreciated guys thank you

 

[Sabertooth]

Are you receiving treatment for the OCD?

 

[Jeshu]

Let Jesus turn your thinking about and rather than doubt your faith and belittle yourself and turn God into a terrible dragon, praise Him for deliverance each time a fear of your salvation comes up, praise Him for Jesus Christ. Who thought of everything and makes sure that no one is going to miss out only those who love wickedness.

i used to be like you - always fearing, always doubting it brought me so much grief! Then i went to Jesus and He put taught me to believe in His love instead. To really have faith that the bible is true when it says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. When you believe the bible then you can really know you are saved.

Now each time doubt comes to test me i praise Jesus for saving me from it. For having faith in His love has brought me the ability to even survive my worst depressive bouts. His love is so good and He made me so strong. Honestly bring your fear of God to God and let Him cast it out of you with His perfect love. That is how Jesus had me do it. i cast all my fears on Him and He took them away exposing them as lies from the enemy.

My OCD tendencies work for good now, honest struggler it can be done. Bring Him all your inner fears and let His loving truth calm your fearful heart and teach you to be strong against enemy attacking you through illness.

Peace

 

[Ceallaigh]

You're not alone in this. I can't think of better advise than jeshu who posted above me gave. Pray a lot about it. God knows and understands your struggles. I don't think I have OCD, but I know I have brain chemistry issues and fear has been a problem for me for a long time. I don't have it all the time, but it creeps up on me now and then.

 

[Tolworth John]

there is always in the back of my mind this what if and what if and I'm never certain of Heaven and this specific type of uncertainty is too much for me knowing that i might be suffering forever

Sometimes we have to follow the reasoning to wherever it leads.
Do you believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, that he as the Son of God is equal to God?

Do you believe that Jesus' holiness and righteousness is able to pay for All the sin of All the world's population, past present and future?
If you do then he has dealt with All your sins.
May I suggest that when you think of past sins or of forgotten sins, that you praise and thank God for his forgiveness of those sins.

Think of your computer, when you deletes omething it has gone, especially if you reformat the hard drive.

In God's terminology your sins have been rubbed out, removed from his record book, they no longer exist.

You might find the online article,. 25 tips for successfully treating ocd.

 

[kvolm]

I'm sorry that you are struggling with this. It seems there are 2 components to deal with: the brain chemistry/OCD and then the theological/spiritual. Are you working with a medical and/or mental health professional for your OCD? Do you have a spiritual community to help you with learning and understanding theology and Scriptural application?

 

[flowergirl67]

hey guys , this is not my first post here my first one was about the unpardonable sin that scared me a lot . Since I was a kid I was extremely afraid of the concept of Hell and punishment forever , my mom used to tell me I would not sleep when I heard about it or death in general because I would be scared. I'm still scared when people preach about hell more than about the love of God and I even find it irritating to me when people preach fear and not love. I myself sometimes have a lot of questions about the concept of Hell in general , but it faded away with time when I turned to Christ. However, my fear came back after my OCD started manifesting on the unpardonable sin , a lot of doubts and fear and guilt stick with me its been a while now and I'm extremely afraid that God would punish me for thoughts or things i might have said by accident or while not paying attention for ever in Hell . No matter how much reassurance i get that God knows my heart and loves me and will of course forgive me if i don't want them and since I'm concerned but there is always in the back of my mind this what if and what if and I'm never certain of Heaven and this specific type of uncertainty is too much for me knowing that i might be suffering forever. This affected me and my life quite a lot since it forced me to avoid triggers , my prayers became lesser since I'm more focused on doubts and anxiety than God and its robbing the peace that Christ gave me when i turned to him and this is increasing the doubts and fears so advice would be highly appreciated guys thank you

I went through the same exact thing last year and God helped me and calmed my fears. There is hope for you! What I can tell you is that fear is not from God, 2 Timothy 1:7. The devil uses fear to keep us in condemnation, but the bible says that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1. When I went through this situation, I also realized that the devil attacks those who are close to God and have a relationship with him. So in all honesty, the devil sees your future as a christian and wants you to give up so that you will not inherit the blessings that God has for you. Finally, the bible says that Jesus accepts everyone who comes to him, John 6:37 and 1 John 1:9. Keep trusting and depending on God to help you, he will. Also check out Kathleen Kaczmarek on youtube. She has videos about this topic that help alot. Jesus loves you and will never leave or forsake you!

 

[Ryosuke]

Are you receiving treatment for the OCD?

no i cant afford it at the moment with the situation in my country

 

[Ryosuke]

Let Jesus turn your thinking about and rather than doubt your faith and belittle yourself and turn God into a terrible dragon, praise Him for deliverance each time a fear of your salvation comes up, praise Him for Jesus Christ. Who thought of everything and makes sure that no one is going to miss out only those who love wickedness.

i used to be like you - always fearing, always doubting it brought me so much grief! Then i went to Jesus and He put taught me to believe in His love instead. To really have faith that the bible is true when it says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. When you believe the bible then you can really know you are saved.

Now each time doubt comes to test me i praise Jesus for saving me from it. For having faith in His love has brought me the ability to even survive my worst depressive bouts. His love is so good and He made me so strong. Honestly bring your fear of God to God and let Him cast it out of you with His perfect love. That is how Jesus had me do it. i cast all my fears on Him and He took them away exposing them as lies from the enemy.

My OCD tendencies work for good now, honest struggler it can be done. Bring Him all your inner fears and let His loving truth calm your fearful heart and teach you to be strong against enemy attacking you through illness.

Peace

thank you for your encouraging words thats what im working on at the moment lately !

 

[Ryosuke]

Sometimes we have to follow the reasoning to wherever it leads.
Do you believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, that he as the Son of God is equal to God?

Do you believe that Jesus' holiness and righteousness is able to pay for All the sin of All the world's population, past present and future?
If you do then he has dealt with All your sins.
May I suggest that when you think of past sins or of forgotten sins, that you praise and thank God for his forgiveness of those sins.

Think of your computer, when you deletes omething it has gone, especially if you reformat the hard drive.

In God's terminology your sins have been rubbed out, removed from his record book, they no longer exist.

You might find the online article,. 25 tips for successfully treating ocd.

thank you , i will be looking for resources for self therapy since i cant afford therapy

 

[Ryosuke]

I'm sorry that you are struggling with this. It seems there are 2 components to deal with: the brain chemistry/OCD and then the theological/spiritual. Are you working with a medical and/or mental health professional for your OCD? Do you have a spiritual community to help you with learning and understanding theology and Scriptural application?

i cant afford therapy at the moment with the situation in my country , i used to talk to spiritual advisors about the issue but they never knew it was an underlying medical condition , I'm also scared to talk to them by fear of being judged to condemnation but they were very understanding most of the time especially to my family i only told them the general details of my ocd

 

[Ryosuke]

I went through the same exact thing last year and God helped me and calmed my fears. There is hope for you! What I can tell you is that fear is not from God, 2 Timothy 1:7. The devil uses fear to keep us in condemnation, but the bible says that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1. When I went through this situation, I also realized that the devil attacks those who are close to God and have a relationship with him. So in all honesty, the devil sees your future as a christian and wants you to give up so that you will not inherit the blessings that God has for you. Finally, the bible says that Jesus accepts everyone who comes to him, John 6:37 and 1 John 1:9. Keep trusting and depending on God to help you, he will. Also check out Kathleen Kaczmarek on youtube. She has videos about this topic that help alot. Jesus loves you and will never leave or forsake you!

thank you for such kind words

 

[Mari17]

hey guys , this is not my first post here my first one was about the unpardonable sin that scared me a lot . Since I was a kid I was extremely afraid of the concept of Hell and punishment forever , my mom used to tell me I would not sleep when I heard about it or death in general because I would be scared. I'm still scared when people preach about hell more than about the love of God and I even find it irritating to me when people preach fear and not love. I myself sometimes have a lot of questions about the concept of Hell in general , but it faded away with time when I turned to Christ. However, my fear came back after my OCD started manifesting on the unpardonable sin , a lot of doubts and fear and guilt stick with me its been a while now and I'm extremely afraid that God would punish me for thoughts or things i might have said by accident or while not paying attention for ever in Hell . No matter how much reassurance i get that God knows my heart and loves me and will of course forgive me if i don't want them and since I'm concerned but there is always in the back of my mind this what if and what if and I'm never certain of Heaven and this specific type of uncertainty is too much for me knowing that i might be suffering forever. This affected me and my life quite a lot since it forced me to avoid triggers , my prayers became lesser since I'm more focused on doubts and anxiety than God and its robbing the peace that Christ gave me when i turned to him and this is increasing the doubts and fears so advice would be highly appreciated guys thank you

I'd say this is probably a common fear among Christians with OCD. OCD always tries to get us to hyper-focus on confusing and scary concepts, and to spend all our time consumed by them. So...the goal is to get back to a more "normal" perspective, in which hell is not the main, obsessive focus.

I guess my first question is...what are you doing to treat this fear as OCD?

 

[kvolm]

I'm sorry that you aren't able to receive the medical care at this time. That is very challenging for you I'm sure. Do you have any strategies that you use to refocus your spiraling thoughts? Repeating phrases (scriptures or prayers), journaling, visualization?

 

[Ryosuke]

I'm sorry that you aren't able to receive the medical care at this time. That is very challenging for you I'm sure. Do you have any strategies that you use to refocus your spiraling thoughts? Repeating phrases (scriptures or prayers), journaling, visualization?

i use a journal and listen to songs and prayers at time of extreme anxieties but for the long run i wouldnt really say i have a good strategy to win over OCD

 

[Ryosuke]

I'd say this is probably a common fear among Christians with OCD. OCD always tries to get us to hyper-focus on confusing and scary concepts, and to spend all our time consumed by them. So...the goal is to get back to a more "normal" perspective, in which hell is not the main, obsessive focus.

I guess my first question is...what are you doing to treat this fear as OCD?

i joined the facebook group you recomended , knowing that im not alone in this has helped alot honestly , even helping others with ocd is self helping me at times , but medically there isnt much i can do to be honest

 

[kvolm]

i use a journal and listen to songs and prayers at time of extreme anxieties but for the long run i wouldnt really say i have a good strategy to win over OCD

Glad to hear that you have a few things that are useful for you. Maybe instead of just using these at times of extreme anxiety, would it be helpful to try to use these every day as a preventative activity? Obviously the best long term strategy is one that includes self-care and professional care working together, so when that becomes available to you again, that will help. Do you have someone that is a prayer partner that can be praying for you for all of this? If not, try to think of someone that you could ask to be praying for you regularly!

 

[Ryosuke]

Glad to hear that you have a few things that are useful for you. Maybe instead of just using these at times of extreme anxiety, would it be helpful to try to use these every day as a preventative activity? Obviously the best long term strategy is one that includes self-care and professional care working together, so when that becomes available to you again, that will help. Do you have someone that is a prayer partner that can be praying for you for all of this? If not, try to think of someone that you could ask to be praying for you regularly!

yeah you are right i gota admit i only do them in time of extreme anxiety and not on a daily basis

 

[Mari17]

i joined the facebook group you recomended , knowing that im not alone in this has helped alot honestly , even helping others with ocd is self helping me at times , but medically there isnt much i can do to be honest

It's hard to not have professional help, but really there is so much you can learn to do to treat the OCD on your own. Self treatment has worked for me, although I'm sure it's probably easier and faster to have a professional guiding you. I believe there's a lot of good information in the Files section of the Facebook group, and of course I'm always happy to recommend more resources or tips if needed!

 

[Ryosuke]

It's hard to not have professional help, but really there is so much you can learn to do to treat the OCD on your own. Self treatment has worked for me, although I'm sure it's probably easier and faster to have a professional guiding you. I believe there's a lot of good information in the Files section of the Facebook group, and of course I'm always happy to recommend more resources or tips if needed!

thank you