OCD and Christianity
A patient of mine, a college student, became discouraged with his church. It seemed he couldn’t accomplish what they wanted, no matter how hard he tried. Raised in a very Christian family, he had suffered from obsessional fears since age 13. A picture of Jesus had hung on his bedroom wall, and one night while […]
“I just don’t understand why God allows OCD to happen,” the young woman said. “He’s supposed to be a God of love! Why do I need to have these terrible thoughts that I don’t want to have? This can’t be God; it has to be the devil. I try as hard as I can to […]
Recently, a young woman with OCD described to me her experiences in a deliverance ministry. Her pastor, after hearing a full account of her symptoms, had explained that in his opinion she suffered not from a medical problem, but rather from a spiritual one. “It’s not God’s will that you should be mentally disabled,” he had […]
OCDers spend a lot of time hoping. What they hope for is that their obsessional fears are not realized. Take the example (not uncommon) of a new and loving mother with the gut wrenching obsession that she is a pedophile and wants to molest her baby. She has an image in her mind of doing […]
Martin Luther, in his sermons and writings, often dwelled on the importance of fully recognizing God’s power over everything that happens, including over all the sufferings that befall us. For instance, in Luther’s commentary on the sixth Psalm, he begins with this statement: “In all trials and affliction man should first of all run to […]
Consider the OCDer who wouldn’t commit a sin for the world. Every day, she spends hours and hours attempting to make sure that she doesn’t. An unbidden thought enters her mind: She is “gay.” In her mind’s eye, she sees herself touching another woman. Terrified, at that moment she thinks that the most important thing […]
Suppose you have a thought that is heart-stopping blasphemous, maybe an image of yourself stabbing a loved one, an urge to desecrate a picture of Jesus, or an idea that you are a sexual pedophile. Shocks of anxiety surge through your whole body. You try to shove it out of your mind, but you can’t. […]
“Learn to say ‘Away with you devil, you compel me to care for myself, when God everywhere says -I care for you; depend upon me.” –Martin Luther Martin Luther gave this advice to a member of his congregation who suffered from what we would now call OCD. Luther knew firsthand about the agony of tormenting […]
Matthew 10:16: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” All those who suffer from OCD have the feeling at times that they are sheep among wolves. Obsessions circle around and come from every angle, attacking relentlessly. People with more severe cases of […]
One of the great mysteries of our faith is the division of responsibility between God and man for all that happens. We know that God controls everything, from the movement of the tiniest atom to the occurrence of all “chance” events. Nothing that happens is outside of his will. Yet, through our actions we also […]