Overthinking about pictures

[EtainSkirata]

Hello everyone,
I hope you're all having a good Good Friday. I'm writing this because on my way home from work today, I had a sudden thought that troubled me greatly: what if something in my house is... well, demonic? At first I was fixated on a book I own (a light hearted detective story called Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu; at one point in the book they go see a fortune teller though. I never actually finished the book.)
So I thought okay, I'll throw the book away.
And then I thought, "what about all the memes and funny quotes I have saved on my phone and computer? What if someone's profile photo is something demonic?" (You know how some memes come from Twitter or Tumblr and the person's profile pic is in the corner?) Because I know I've seen it before and thought "eh, it's just a meme," and saved it.
So now I've got the urge to go through my photos on my computer, my laptop, my hard drive, my phone, and the online storage I back my stuff up to automatically. As you can see, this would be an arduous process... And, to make it more fun, I'm very anxious, trying not to freak out over this.
I think I'm over reacting, and I really don't need to do anything. But I'm also SCARED right now. Please help.

 

[faroukfarouk]

We need to focus on the promises of Scripture, especially on the Lord Jesus and His work at the Cross, and keep 'looking unto Jesus' (Hebrews 12.2).

 

[Sabertooth]

what if something in my house is... well, demonic?

1. Breathe.
2. If you made an unintentional spiritual mistake, God is not mad at you. He may be trying to correct you. Just let Him lead.
3. If you made an intentional spiritual mistake, the Holy Spirit will be there to convict so that you can repent, but not to condemn you.
4. Unless God has given you an area to search, just listen to Him whenever He puts His finger on something.

Even people without OCD, discover errors in their lives when God turns on a lightswitch in their lives. That is not a sign of God's rejection of you. It is a sign of His continued devotion to you growing in Him.

 

[EtainSkirata]

1. Breathe.
2. If you made an unintentional spiritual mistake, God is not mad at you. He may be trying to correct you. Just let Him lead.
3. If you made an intentional spiritual mistake, the Holy Spirit will be there to convict so that you can repent, but not to condemn you.
4. Unless God has given you an area to search, just listen to Him whenever He puts His finger on something.

Even people without OCD, discover errors in their lives when God turns on a lightswitch in their lives. That is not a sign of God's rejection of you. It is a sign of His continued devotion to you growing in Him.

Right, but this feels like another bout of OCD, especially the part about going through my files looking for something... except it's also a serious issue, I think. I'm scared that by not doing anything, and there IS a tiny bad picture of someone's profile photo saved somewhere, that I'm letting evil into my house and life. But I also don't want to give OCD control, because then I could very easily spiral into worrying about countless other things I don't need to worry about.
But I don't know if THIS is something I need to be concerned about to this extent....

 

[Sabertooth]

I'm scared that by not doing anything, and there IS a tiny bad picture of someone's profile photo saved somewhere, that I'm letting evil into my house and life. But I also don't want to give OCD control,...

Do not move out of panic.

Ask God to fine-tune you about what needs your attention.

Pray with people, in real life, who are familiar with deliverance.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a [level-headedness]." 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

 

[EtainSkirata]

Do not move out of panic.

Ask God to fine-tune you about what needs your attention.

Pray with people, in real life, who are familiar with deliverance.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a [level-headedness]." 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

I know I don't make the best decisions when I act in a panic; even just now I was thinking "okay, I'll delete all the memes." And then I thought "I also have to go through my Reddit account, in case I saved a post from someone with a bad photo; and I also have to go through my photos from my trip to Canada, in case someone on the street in my pictures has a bad shirt on..." All this from randomly remembering that I have a book that mentioned a fortune teller.
I had a similar problem a few months ago, where I randomly remembered that I took a selfie with a friend on Halloween, of us in our costumes (she'd gone and drawn a pentagram on her forehead as part of her costume). And a few weeks later I remembered this and freaked out to the point of tears. I talked with my mom, and I think the consensus was that it was just a picture and I was over reacting, but also that I was right to delete it. (Ps: that person and I are no longer friends, but for a different reason.)
So, yeah. I can feel this spiraling already, and I haven't even done anything except think about it...

 

[Richard T]

I agree with the poster that made the distinguishment from retaining an intentional image, versus one that was unknowingly saved. I assume you are not saving known evil images or promoting any such evil. Thus, you are covered by the blood of Jesus, which is more than enough to ward off any spirit. Jesus even gives you authority over evil, so not only should you not worry about a demonic problem, you can cast out anything that may try to influence you.

Consider Paul listening to the woman possessed by a spirit of divination. He did not get freaked out about it. It was several days according to Acts 16:18 before he finally cast it out. I think too that Paul's teaching on eating meat sacrificed to idols could be applied to your situation. First, he tells us that idols are nothing. If you believe in God then there is no will to worship other things, and even if someone else does, it should not effect you. Paul even goes further saying that even if you eat meat sacrificed to idols, it means nothing, unless it hurts someone else who has a weak conscience.

I would set it in my mind today, that you are going to concentrate less on the fear of the devil and more on the love and power of Jesus. You are an overcomer.


1 Corinthians 8:4-9 (KJV)
4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
8 But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.
9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.

 

[EtainSkirata]

I agree with the poster that made the distinguishment from retaining an intentional image, versus one that was unknowingly saved. I assume you are not saving known evil images or promoting any such evil. Thus, you are covered by the blood of Jesus, which is more than enough to ward off any spirit. Jesus even gives you authority over evil, so not only should you not worry about a demonic problem, you can cast out anything that may try to influence you.

Thank you, friend. My main problem is the pictures of funny quotes or what have you that I have saved somewhere, but who knows where exactly, that I saw something bad in the corner or background, but chose to save it anyeay because the meme or quote itself was funny. I started to go though my hard drive last nig, but got overwhelmed and nearly started to cry because there's so much stuff on there and it's not organized very well.
I posted this question on the Christianity section of Reddit as well, and the general consensus was to just stop worrying about it. Which I did last night, I stopped digging through my hard drive and instead turned on some praise music and cleaned my room.
But this morning, I still feel anxious, especially about the ones that I knew were bad but thought nothing of at the time...

 

[Richard T]

God overlooks those small discretions. Just ask forgiveness and remove them when it is reasonable. If you are not looking at them as idols or to create evil, they should not effect you. Cast down the lie that they can do anything to you, as surely God's love is stronger and this scripture would apply, even before you erase them. Submit to God, Resist the devil, and he will flee. Hope you can enjoy your weekend. Fretting is not glorifying to God, he prefers you to rejoice in His love, goodness and forgiveness.

 

[Sabertooth]

...there's so much stuff on there and it's not organized very well.

Maybe you can use this time of isolation to re-organize your photos and toss out the questionable ones along the way...?

 

[EtainSkirata]

God overlooks those small discretions. Just ask forgiveness and remove them when it is reasonable. If you are not looking at them as idols or to create evil, they should not effect you. Cast down the lie that they can do anything to you, as surely God's love is stronger and this scripture would apply, even before you erase them. Submit to God, Resist the devil, and he will flee. Hope you can enjoy your weekend. Fretting is not glorifying to God, he prefers you to rejoice in His love, goodness and forgiveness.

Thank you. Had I not had the random thought about my book, I wouldn't even be thinking about all of this, and I'd still have confidence that that I didn't need to fear this issue (because it wouldn't even be on my radar). I hesitate to do anything out of fear, because then I end up spiraling down a rabbit hole, and I'll end up deleting everything in frustration. Perhaps once I'm calmer, I can go into it with an attitude of tidying up, versus panicky throwing things out...

 

[EtainSkirata]

Maybe you can use this time of isolation to re-organize your photos and toss out the questionable ones along the way...?

That's a good idea, but I'm hesitant to do it right now because I'm still afraid. I don't want to act out of fear, because I don't make the best decisions when I do that...

 

[Hopeful37]

That's a good idea, but I'm hesitant to do it right now because I'm still afraid. I don't want to act out of fear, because I don't make the best decisions when I do that...

I won't suggest u make an exercise out of It if u don't want too but if it does happen to come in your direction when doing general stuff, toss them out as u go along but don't fear it. It doesn't have any power over u.

 

[EtainSkirata]

I won't suggest u make an exercise out of It if u don't want too but if it does happen to come in your direction when doing general stuff, toss them out as u go along but don't fear it. It doesn't have any power over u.

So... I ended up spending the last few hours digging through my hard drive, my online storage, etc... deleting anything that might even be remotely questionable (but not pausing to really look, and as such, I'm positive I deleted a bunch of things that were actually fine).
And, guess what, I'm still anxious. I still worry that I missed something, or made a bad judgement call on a file, or something didn't get deleted due to a software glitch.
I feel like it would be a good idea, at this point, to just throw in the towel and stop doing this checking...
I just want to know that if I stop checking, I'll be okay. That if there is still something there (because I definitely feel like there is but I don't know where to look), it'll be okay...

 

[Hopeful37]

I just want to know that if I stop checking, I'll be okay. That if there is still something there (because I definitely feel like there is but I don't know where to look), it'll be okay...[/QUOTE]

It will be ok.

 

[Sabertooth]

I just want to know that if I stop checking, I'll be okay.

Yes, you will be okay.

Instead of throwing them into the trash willy-nilly, why don't you create a "Quarantine" folder and review it when you feel better? (If you haven't emptied your Recycle Bin, you can recover those and place them in the Quarantine folder, too.)

 

[EtainSkirata]

Yes, you will be okay.

Instead of throwing them into the trash willy-nilly, why don't you create a "Quarantine" folder and review it when you feel better? (If you haven't emptied your Recycle Bin, you can recover those and place them in the Quarantine folder, too.)

This is a good idea. It's all in the recycle bin (I thought if I delete something off the external hard drive it goes away forever, but it's still in the bin), so maybe later on I can restore everything to a folder and take a better look.

 

[Mari17]

So... I ended up spending the last few hours digging through my hard drive, my online storage, etc... deleting anything that might even be remotely questionable (but not pausing to really look, and as such, I'm positive I deleted a bunch of things that were actually fine).
And, guess what, I'm still anxious. I still worry that I missed something, or made a bad judgement call on a file, or something didn't get deleted due to a software glitch.
I feel like it would be a good idea, at this point, to just throw in the towel and stop doing this checking...
I just want to know that if I stop checking, I'll be okay. That if there is still something there (because I definitely feel like there is but I don't know where to look), it'll be okay...

Definitely sounds like OCD! With OCD, we over-react. With OCD, we experience a trigger (e.g. remembering the book) and thinking THAT is the problem, when really the problem is our over-anxious minds causing us to over-react. With OCD, we feel a sense of oppression and fear, and feel like we have to do unreasonable things.

What we do in response to the anxiety, to alleviate it, is called a compulsion. (In your case, getting rid of everything "evil.") And you're right, doing your compulsions will never satisfy OCD, because its primary goal is to keep you doubting and second-guessing. It will never be satisfied, no matter how much you do for it.

Which is why the solution is exactly what you've stated - WAIT to make any decisions until the OCD fear has faded and you can think clearly and rationally. Of course, OCD doesn't want you to wait, because it's telling you that this is an issue that you must solve RIGHT NOW OR ELSE! But of course, that is an urgency and exaggerated distorted created by the OCD, not by a logical view of the matter.

It sounds like your "common sense" knows these answers already. But of course, with OCD, it's so hard to put these strategies (ignoring the obsession and refusing to do compulsions) into practice. But it does work to weaken the power of the OCD!