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How can I tell whether a thought was intentional or not?

Novis

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I know that God won’t hold thoughts against you if they came without you intending to think them, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. At the very least I can suppose that a thought is probably intrusive if I recoil from it immediately after. What ways do you personally use to determine if a thought is intentional or intrusive if it’s not immediately obvious?
 
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Jeshu

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I know that God won’t hold thoughts against you if they came without you intending to think them, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. At the very least I can suppose that a thought is probably intrusive if I recoil from it immediately after. What ways do you personally use to determine if a thought is intentional or intrusive if it’s not immediately obvious?

It is best to learn to watch your thoughts with God's truth and keep the ungodly ones at bay staying in His graceful love.

Thoughts can sin but deed is much worse. When thoughts lead to sinful deeds then we have ban them in our thought domain.

'Stone them' - throw God's truth at it - is the best way to get rid of them. Honestly true.

Peace.
 
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St_Worm2

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Hello @Novis, I don't worry about whether a thought is intentional or not, because ~any~ thought that stands in opposition to the word of God and/or what we know of God, His character, His promises to us, etc., or a thought that we know is meant as a temptation to sin, needs to be taken "captive" immediately (rather than pondered) and given over to Him to deal with .. 2 Corinthians 10:5.

If you do not take such a thought "captive" quickly enough however, and you either believe or know that you have allowed it to go too far and become sinful (in thought, word, or deed), then you need to ask Him to forgive you and He will, just like He promises us that He will .. e.g. 1 John 1:9-2:2. Then, knowing that He has done just as He promised (IOW, ~knowing~ that you are truly and completely forgiven), get up and get back to walking with Him/growing in Christ and in Christlikeness again.

Our old man/old self/old nature, with the help of our common enemy, would have us believe that what God says to us isn't true, at least for us, even if we believe that it is true for all other Christians (which is why we are admonished to put off the "old man/old self/old nature", and to put on the "new" .. Ephesians 4:22-24 .. and to renew our minds daily in His word, as well .. e.g. Psalm 1:1-3; Romans 12:2).

So, choose to believe God (instead your feelings and/or Satan), knowing that He has forgiven you, and knowing that He is pleased with you when you do so :) He has certainly demonstrated/proven to us that He can be trusted, yes .. e.g. John 3:16; Romans 5:8-10, so always make a conscious choice to trust Him*, His word and His promises in the moment, NOT your feelings and NOT Satan.

God bless you!

--David
p.s. - the One who sanctifies us Christians is the very same One who saved us from the get-go. He has loved all of us who are or who will be His own, from everlasting, and He will continue to do so, to everlasting .. cf Jeremiah 31:3.

He also knew everything about us, our past and our future (all the good and all the bad) when He saved us ... but He still chose to save us anyway :amen: So, nothing you do will ever be a surprise to Him :oldthumbsup:

Finally, here is an interesting verse to consider about sin, temptation and God. Take note that while God allows us to make a free will choice to sin, He never allows us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear (such that a temptation is too much for us to handle). And He provides us with ways of escape from each of our temptations (so that we can choose to not sin whenever we are tempted), so be sure to look for those as soon as the wrong kind of thought enters your mind.

1 Corinthians 10
13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it :)
*(Making the choice to trust God and His word, IN SPITE of what our feelings and Satan's lies are telling us in the moment, is very hard to do at first, but it becomes easier and easier to do with practice, and it eventually becomes a habit. Knowing/trusting what God has to say to us is also the principle way that we obey this command, "resist the devil", and the way that we receive the promise from God that comes along with it as well, "and he will flee from you" .. James 4:7)
.
 
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Tolworth John

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know that God won’t hold thoughts against you if they came without you intending to think them, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference

There is one simple test, did you intend to think that thought.
Intrusive thoughts are just that, intrusive, not part of your current train of thought.

QUOTE="St_Worm2, post: 75211166, member: 511"]f you do not take such a thought "captive" quickly enough however, and you either believe or know that you have allowed it to go too far and become sinful[/QUOTE]

May I suggest that you research intrusive thoughts and the effect they have on suffers.
Basically they are not real thoughts and attempts to suppress them, argue or dialogue with them only makes them worse.
So say take captive of something that is not real is not going to help and in fact may well make things worse.
Have a read of 25 tips for successful treating OCD, it deals with intrusive thoughts.
 
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Mari17

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I know that God won’t hold thoughts against you if they came without you intending to think them, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. At the very least I can suppose that a thought is probably intrusive if I recoil from it immediately after. What ways do you personally use to determine if a thought is intentional or intrusive if it’s not immediately obvious?
This is a tricky question, because OCD can sometimes make us feel like we want the thought. For example, we might decide that if we "recoil" at a thought, it's intrusive. So since we feel distressed at our thoughts, we conclude that they must be intrusive. Ah! Relief! Then OCD pulls a dirty little trick on us: "Well, what if the thoughts don't bother you?" Suddenly, we're in the pit of despair again, hyper-analyzing every thought and how we feel about it. The new fear arises that perhaps we don't feel ENOUGH distress/anxiety about the thoughts, and therefore maybe they're not intrusive.

The simple answer to your question is that yes, thoughts we don't want can often be labelled as intrusive. But OCD is very sneaky in the way it operates, and can sometimes make us second-guess our feelings and motivations. I'd say the rule of thumb for most obsessions can be applied here: If it 'feels' like OCD or an intrusive thought, it probably is. If you're worried about whether or not it is OCD, it probably is.

I realize that's not the clear, cut-and-dry answer that we OCDers love. But, in the end, the key to experiencing some victory over OCD is to learn to live with uncertainty, with NOT knowing for sure.

Are you getting any help for your OCD?
 
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Novis

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Are you getting any help for your OCD?

I’m taking Fluoxetine. I was in therapy for a few weeks but, if I’m being honest with myself, I wasn’t prepared to give them all the information they needed.

EDIT: in fact, I didn’t really here either, give me some time to prepare and I’ll explain what’s going on.
 
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Mari17

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I’m taking Fluoxetine. I was in therapy for a few weeks but, if I’m being honest with myself, I wasn’t prepared to give them all the information they needed.

EDIT: in fact, I didn’t really here either, give me some time to prepare and I’ll explain what’s going on.
OK! :) Feel free to pm if you wish to, as well!
 
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Novis

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OK! :) Feel free to pm if you wish to, as well!

I don’t have clearance for PMs yet.

As for the explanation: I do some writing, not enough to go full time with it, but I enjoy it. But the current thing that coming up are thoughts saying that some of my characters are members of the Trinity, or will become them if I do or don’t do some act. E.g. I can be something like “so-and-so is the Holy Spirit” or so on.” What I get worried about is that, once I have that sort of thought, I’ll have to write them like that Person of the Trinity or anything I have that character do in the story would be an accusation that the Person of the Trinity in question would do that too. As you can probably imagine, it’s especially troubling when I have those thoughts about the bad guys.

So I don’t really know how to see this situation. I don’t even know whether God would apply or enforce those statements even if I asked him to. I guess just I wanted to find some way to find out which of my characters were bound by those thoughts or not.
 
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Tytoman

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I need help please! I was watching a video about repeating sins and I was looking at the comments and saw someone wrote and I was reading in my head. “In Jesus’s name I..” I don’t want to type down The negative thing this person said about spirit. But my mind and thoughts were slipping acting on its ow. I paced the floor in my room repeating I accept Holy Spirit. The r word jumped in my head and I fought the r word. Moments later my OCD made me say I accept the Holy Spirit. Then this time inappropriate pictures slipped in my thinking process. The whole month of July has been a train wreck! I found out about willful sin. I had morning panic attacks. I don’t know what I am suppose to do or what to say! I have a inappropriate content and m addiction since middle school. I don’t know where to turn with all this worries and questions in my head fearing I have said something I don’t mean to say. And you know the worst feeling I have right now. I stopped watching inappropriate content and m for three weeks and relapsed back yesterday and today. Three weeks ago I felt like was telling me I should repent and confess that night I found out about willful sin. Now I feel like I blew my chance. I feel so broken!
 
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Mari17

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I don’t have clearance for PMs yet.

As for the explanation: I do some writing, not enough to go full time with it, but I enjoy it. But the current thing that coming up are thoughts saying that some of my characters are members of the Trinity, or will become them if I do or don’t do some act. E.g. I can be something like “so-and-so is the Holy Spirit” or so on.” What I get worried about is that, once I have that sort of thought, I’ll have to write them like that Person of the Trinity or anything I have that character do in the story would be an accusation that the Person of the Trinity in question would do that too. As you can probably imagine, it’s especially troubling when I have those thoughts about the bad guys.

So I don’t really know how to see this situation. I don’t even know whether God would apply or enforce those statements even if I asked him to. I guess just I wanted to find some way to find out which of my characters were bound by those thoughts or not.
I've had obsessions related to writing before, too. OCD often targets the things that mean the most to us. Basically, the key to getting out from under the control of OCD is to practice NOT doing what it's telling us to do. In your case, that would mean not re-writing your characters. It's very hard, when we have OCD, to refuse to do our compulsions (the things our OCD tells us we must do in order to escape the anxiety it's giving us), but it is effective in helping us to get out of the OCD cycle. Does that make sense?
 
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Novis

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I've had obsessions related to writing before, too. OCD often targets the things that mean the most to us. Basically, the key to getting out from under the control of OCD is to practice NOT doing what it's telling us to do. In your case, that would mean not re-writing your characters. It's very hard, when we have OCD, to refuse to do our compulsions (the things our OCD tells us we must do in order to escape the anxiety it's giving us), but it is effective in helping us to get out of the OCD cycle. Does that make sense?

Sorry for the delay. This is what I plan to do, I have a project that I told God in prayer (but did not promise, don’t want to open that can of worms) that I’ll continue to the end to despite any thought.
 
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Mari17

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Sorry for the delay. This is what I plan to do, I have a project that I told God in prayer (but did not promise, don’t want to open that can of worms) that I’ll continue to the end to despite any thought.
That sounds like a good plan! :)
 
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