Religeous OCD!

[frank1234]

Hello everybody;
I have a severe religous OCD, paticularly about false gulit issues(Which is sin and which is not sin), But also the way I am supposed to confess/repent. I have a hard time to just "confess" the paticular "sin", where I feel I have to go through the ritual of saying the words "I repent of ... and I ask that you would "forgive me of ...).I also feel the need of mentioning those sins by name, and If there is none, my mind would create a name for that paticular sin. I have also become so concious of pronouncing the words perfectly, or my mind would not accept the whole thing and I have to repeat the whole thing all over again. I know that It's the confession in the heart that's important to GOD(Living be the Spirit) and not the legalistic written code. But for some reason the fear behind "GOD's punishment" does not allow me to let go of this mentality. Any body can relate. I sure will appreciate your input. GOD bless you.

 

[marcb]

Hi Frank,

Fear definitely seems to run the show with ocd. It's as if your mind creates a situation in which your worst fear comes true, and the continues to run with those thoughts. Your fear is what many of us have. The fear that God will reject or punish us. With that being the central theme of our thoughts, we tremble and pray while trying so hard to either pull off the "perfect prayer" or "not think about ______" That kind of pressure raises the anxiety and oops, we fall short of what we wanted. But the truth is, God loves us and doesn't want to punish us over anything, especially things that are beyond our control. God is faithful and perfect. We are not, but He gave us Christ and His Spirit to patch our sins and infirmities. We are covered. We just don't always feel it. In fact, we often feel the opposite. That's when we hold onto the slightest thread of hope and faith....faith that God will never leave us and that He has saved us.

Thank you for writing, Frank. Responding to posts is the best therapy I have. I am praying for you. May you find that God's grace has saved you just as you are.

Marc

 

[polishmanmike]

I went through exact same thing, I felt like when I said "I am sorry Lord" or "forgive me" I didnt mean it and I had to do it over, and over, and over again....it took me hours to confess a sin, more importantly I would stay away from sin just so i wouldnt have to confess it but on the other hand in my mind I made a quick antidote for some sexual sin that if I would watch pornography then would come an hour of confessing...and thats how this cycle started

STOP please the reason why you come to seek help here is the same reason why I seeked help in my mentor, because we know that it isnt right, the thoughts, they OCD confessions, everything

first lets look at the principle of confessing, we confess sin which is darkness, God is light and we should walk in the Light, when u have sin darkness you must bring it into light, you must expose it there is no religious "ways" to confess sin to the Lord better yet look at what the word confess means
1) to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent

you are agreeing witht he Lord that what u did is sin, u call sin what God calls sin, you come to Him and u expose it, yes you can ask for forgivness yes you can say that you are sorry but not because something tells you that it is the way to do it otherwise God wont accpet it. The question comes Did I mean what I just confessed? well if you didnt care or didnt mean to get right with God would you even come Him in the first place? Confession is supposed to be awesome like lifting a burden of of ur heart, a stone of of ur chest

BUT we also cannot jump ito the conclusion that we are forgiven because we confessed....NO we are fogiven because ot he cross and what God did on it, Christ streched out His hands for you, thats why you are forgiven, if you try to confess EVERYTHING wrong and evil that you do thats good but is it because that u think that you are forgiven because of it? no you are just comming to God in agreement and shedding light on it and asking God to wash you in the Blood of Christ
look
Psa 19:12 Who can discern his errors? Clear thou me from hidden faults.
Psa 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me: Then shall I be upright, And I shall be clear from great transgression.
Psa 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in thy sight, O Jehovah, my rock, and my redeemer.

even king David is praying to God that He would clear him from hidden faults...you see!?

When you confess, you must repent and try your best not to do it again, you must change the way u think about that sin and you must just not do it (ask God for hlp, lay it at His feet, and dont give your body permission or oportunity to do it again) and ask the Lord to wash you in His Blood, ask the Lord that He would forgive you of your hidden sins! The Blood washes our slate clean!

and when you pray say whatever you want to say to the Lord, look He is God, He made you, He knows what u r gonna pray before you are even gonna do it so there is no sense in trying to prenaounce eveyrything right, its like God wont get what Im saying? lol u know if u think about it, God tells u to let our words be few because before you pray He already knows what you need and also check this one out, when the OCD tell u that u have to pray again and again to be heard

Mat 6:7 And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

And look God already took His Just punishment on the Calvary for the sins that you have commited if you say that I must confess or else God must punish me for my sins is like saying that Christs Blood is not enough......but worry not, God has you in His care,

LOOK

2Co 11:3 However, I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by its tricks, so your minds may somehow be lured away from sincere and pure devotion to Christ.


look, Jesus is yours and you are His....nothing else, u mess up u tell Him that you are sorry and u submitt urself to His rule and repent of the sin, He is your Lord, you r King not your torturer, he doesnt want you to suffer while you are confessing! Remember keep it simple! and if you are abiding in Him remember that the Lamentations 3: 23 His mercies renew every morning.... so dont even look back, you are washed and bough by the Blood, but strive to press towards the mark, look to Him!

you can see what Lord did to my life in the topic in the main board called: check this out...OCD gone
and also God is putting on my heart to post another topic about His Kingdom called: God's Kingdom and His reign over you, and your OCD

something like that

God bless and please PM me ANYTIME!!!
in Christ

Mike

 

[polishmanmike]

also remember that Jesus told us that His burden is LIGHT and His yoke EASY.........I will let you examine intensity, weight, and easiness of your burden, Lord is good and His Word too, yes?

 

[SkyCloud]

I've repeated the same thing in prayers over and over. I can't even begin to tell you all that has happened in my life.

What Would Jesus Do?

He said everything once. If He said something more than once, it was because He MEANT to do it, for emphasis or whatever. He had his reasons.

One time I felt that God told me to say things once. If it didn't come out right, that's okay because He saw that I made the effort and did it.

Read Psalm 46.