- Sep 11, 2010
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The meditation exercises your therapist asked you to try is excellent advice for those who live with OCD. Trying to clear the mind of fugue and intrusive thoughts that can be self-destructive is a method of medicine and healing. Most of the people in this thread do not have OCD, do not know what you are personally going through, and assume far too much in their rebukes against meditation. Some even insist, evidently, on refusing to listen to you, assuming that any kind of "meditation" is something that God disapproves of, despite all that you have said about the reason and limits you want to put on meditation precisely because you are concerned about it from a spiritual perspective. Perhaps they believe that you should experience your OCD in all its naked fury and monopolization of your mind during the worst of it?
So what is better? What would the Lord approve of more? Giving into the intrusion of these obsessive thoughts, allowing them to fill your mind no matter the serious and deleterious effects on your life -- all in an effort to avoid anything that may possibly appear to be associated with "Eastern medicine" in some way? Or make an effort to clear your mind (and life) of this unwanted condition that seems like it could become a major stumbling block in your daily walk with Christ? In your ability to function in good health and wellbeing? Even your ability to share the Peace of Christ with others?
If your motivation is informed by your walk with Christ and your desire to be healed, who can gainsay this with any intellectual honesty? Only God can know the innermost heart of any person. You have heard both sides of this matter: 1) meditation is a path to evil or, at the least, something that you must be careful with in case a demonic force chooses to move in where there is an "empty mind," and 2) the sort of mental exercise your therapist is recommending is not the same thing and it is okay to do as medicine. I would agree with a third argument: 3) you are saved in Christ, and therefore you are protected by Him. Those of little -- or fearful -- faith may assume that even a believer can be "possessed" by demons as if Christ Himself is subject to being banished from you as you try to clear your thoughts and anxiety! Nonsense.
So what is better? What would the Lord approve of more? Giving into the intrusion of these obsessive thoughts, allowing them to fill your mind no matter the serious and deleterious effects on your life -- all in an effort to avoid anything that may possibly appear to be associated with "Eastern medicine" in some way? Or make an effort to clear your mind (and life) of this unwanted condition that seems like it could become a major stumbling block in your daily walk with Christ? In your ability to function in good health and wellbeing? Even your ability to share the Peace of Christ with others?
If your motivation is informed by your walk with Christ and your desire to be healed, who can gainsay this with any intellectual honesty? Only God can know the innermost heart of any person. You have heard both sides of this matter: 1) meditation is a path to evil or, at the least, something that you must be careful with in case a demonic force chooses to move in where there is an "empty mind," and 2) the sort of mental exercise your therapist is recommending is not the same thing and it is okay to do as medicine. I would agree with a third argument: 3) you are saved in Christ, and therefore you are protected by Him. Those of little -- or fearful -- faith may assume that even a believer can be "possessed" by demons as if Christ Himself is subject to being banished from you as you try to clear your thoughts and anxiety! Nonsense.
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
"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. 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.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
~ Romans 8:18-28
Unless you doubt the love and power of Christ, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. God is in complete control and cannot be "surprised" by anything. It is already finished."We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
"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. 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.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
~ Romans 8:18-28
"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory."
~ Ephesians 1:13–14
"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
~ Philippians 1:6
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one."
~ John 10:27-30
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
~ John 6:37-40
"Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."
~ Hebrews 7:25
"Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
~ Romans 8:33-38
your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory."
~ Ephesians 1:13–14
"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
~ Philippians 1:6
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one."
~ John 10:27-30
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
~ John 6:37-40
"Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."
~ Hebrews 7:25
"Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
~ Romans 8:33-38
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