Overcoming Intrusive ThoughtsSample

Understanding Intrusive Thoughts

When I was 12 years old, I contracted a horrible virus and became very, very ill. I was out of school for two weeks with vomiting, night sweats, and night terrors. I had trouble thinking clearly and became consumed by intrusive thoughts. Some of my most distressing thoughts were about God’s existence. “What if God isn’t real?” That’s the question that went through my mind over and over again.

As a young Christian, this terrified me. Each time the thought entered my mind, I was convinced that I had lost my Salvation and was doomed to Eternity in hell. To mitigate the fear, I would pray to God, confess my sins, and invite Jesus to be the Savior and Lord of my life again. I began doing this 20+ times a day. The struggle was real, and it was consuming me. It got so bad that I began to wish I had never been born.

Perhaps you can relate to the mental torture that I went through. The intrusive thoughts you deal with may be different. These thoughts come in all shapes and sizes: thoughts of harming ourselves or others, inappropriate sexual actions, blasphemy, embarrassing ourselves, doubts, etc. Such thoughts can lead to shame and self-consciousness, but you are not alone.

Research shows that 94% of people admit to having intrusive thoughts. That is a lot of people! So, if you experience these kinds of thoughts, it does not mean you are weird, broken, in sin, or even a bad Christian.

I often get messages on social media from people who think they cannot be forgiven for their intrusive thoughts—specifically, for their blasphemous intrusive thoughts. They fear they have committed the Unforgivable Sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. If this is a fear you have, I want you to know two things.

First, Christians cannot commit the Unforgivable Sin. When Jesus spoke of the Unforgivable Sin, He was speaking to non-Christians who were attributing His Work to Satan. Second, Jesus has already forgiven you of all past, present, and future sin (Colossians 2:13), and your Salvation is secure in Him (John 10:28). He is not going to go back on His Word.

At the end of the day, we don’t know where intrusive thoughts come from or why we have them, but there are ways to deal with them and overcome them. We will explore more about this in the next two days.

Thought of the Day: I am not alone in my struggle with intrusive thoughts. There are other Christians who struggle too, but more than that, there is a Savior who is with me and has Grace for me in all of my struggles.