Prayer for a friend: Intrusive thoughts

I've got a friend who is struggling with a form of OCD that causes a lot of problems spiritually. Intrusive and blasphemous thoughts as he tries to pray, read the bible, or anything of that nature. I have these as well, so I know his struggle. They are causing him quite a bit of distress, so if a few of you on here wouldn't mind praying for him, we would appreciate it. Thank you.

Praying for you both. Hang in there.

Psalm 18:28

thanks you two, and nice verse crmvet, i will pass it along i haven't read that one before.

Hi,I'm not near the adept person that others are that I read,and I would consider their advice first,its just that I was remembering something that I figured out when I read your request.I used to have a problem with what I was thinking to the point where it really was a crummy way to suffer.My mind kept racing around from one problem to anouther problem to where I felt like I was out of control against my own will.So I decided to track my brain.I figured that the brain is a mostly logical organ and therefore should be more predictable,and my idea was to track my thoughts,and see where they where going,to,(like in patterns).So what I figured was I would get a piece of paper,and when one subject came up,I would write it down in a box on the piece of paper,and when each new subject came up,I would draw anouther box for it and put it in there (like tic,tac,toe,only bigger).Then when the same subject came up again I would give it a mark (like when you count four marks and the fith one is a forward slash through the others).Ifigured that way I could track my brain's thinking,(or lack thereof) and watch where it was going.When it hit the same subject,I would be able to point it out to myself,(to my brain or mind),and say "nope,that one's already been done",and see where my thoughts would go from there.I figured that if I pointed it out to myself that I couldn't get away with thinking diumb or useless thoughts right in front of myself anymore.The brain is logical,and when you can look right down and see the subject as its hitting on it,it will take anouther course and free itself from repetitous thinking.That might get you off of the suject of blasphemy,poor thinking,depressing thoughts,its not natural for you to have cruel thoughts that you don't like.The other thing is you might consider praying to the Lord that you want any trespassers kicked out,telling Him that you want any of them around to suffer the same harassment on a lower plane then you,besides anything else they deserve to get.Make it personal.Good luck.

I'm going through the same thing right now. We'll all pull through together by the Grace of God.

Hi Donavin. All great advice. I have never considered writing mine down, and it isn't something I suggested to my friend. It seems to make logical sense though. Basically tricking your brain into a new process. The suffering from it is more than you can bear sometimes, so I know what my buddy is going through as well.

While I didn't have such a technical way of going about solving my issues, your last bit of advice about asking for sins to be forgiven was part of my process and also part of my recommendation to anyone who is suffering from unwanted obsessive thoughts such as these. While I didn't track the root of mine on paper, I did come to the conclusion that many of mine came from unaddressed sins and what I was exposing my eyes to. From occult oriented video games, to movies, tv, and music. I through them all out for quite some time and spent long stretches of time fasting, praying, and reading my bible. My advice to my buddy was to do that, and also to expose any sins that might be in control of him so that they can be dealt with and repented of.

It was a long process for me, years even, but eventually it became more of a nuisance that could easily be rejected rather than a distressing, anxiety provoking, unavoidable, overtaking of my mind. Thanks for your input and prayers

Amen lil sis. We will overcome His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Jesus I pray for forthangel`s friend, heal him in Jesus name!

How do you get through having these thoughts? I've only been having them for about a month, but they're really affecting me.

Praying for your friend and you too in Jesus's name.
Tell him to praise God giving the thoughts to His care in Jesus every time they happen.
For it is not the thoughts that are the problem, but what we do with them.

It does work, for I battled such myself .
Scripture says, resist the devil, and he will flee.

God bless
pickles

passionforguitar, What was most effective for me was long stretches of fasting, not only from food, but entirely giving up worldly things for a long duration - a month or longer, but 3 months is even better. Some of these things included tv, music, video games, friends who are bad influences, internet, etc etc. Mine were severe enough to cause massive anxiety and depression, and it was a struggle to deal with them. Fasting seemed to be the pivotal function in the process of getting rid of them.

Next is prayer. It's vital to pray along with fasting. Devoting large amounts of the day to this during the break from everything is important. If yours is like mine was, it's difficult to pray while these thoughts are blaspheming. That is where the advice
pickles gave comes into play - resistance. You have to resist them, ignore them, push past them, and continue to pray as best you can. They will become less and less and you will become more and more focused on God as you pray. The longer you can pray in one sitting, the better. The more you can practice proper prayer (using the example of Matthew 6 and Jesus' in the garden), the more natural your prayers will become and the more connected you feel to God. You will end up knowing you are having true fellowship with Him.

Sometimes during these prayer times, you will run out of things to say. It's a good time to just be quiet and listen, and the more often you do this, the more things that will come to mind (i.e. people who need prayer, people you have forgotten about, godly requests will come to mind, etc.).

The next thing to do during these breaks from things is read your bible. This keeps you focused on the goal of the fast, which is getting closer to God. This IS the goal of all of this. Eliminating the intrusive thoughts will come naturally. You need to read your bible as much as possible during this time. Make it's words a part of your vocabulary to the point you are speaking biblically in conversations with people and not even realizing you are quoting scripture. This will also reinforce your prayers, as they will be focused on the things of God, not the things of the flesh. This cuts the feet out from under the intrusive thoughts and they lose their power and become rare and mere annoyances when they do show up and very easy to ignore at this point.

This is a time of repentance and crucifying of the flesh in order to seek first the kingdom of God. These are the key elements from my own experience in eliminating obsessive or intrusive thoughts. Hope this helps.

I suffer from those thoughts alot pray for me too