Obsessive Thoughts Eliminated?
Myth 3 – I Can’t Stop Thinking About It
We can’t count how many times friends have complained that they are dominated by obsessive thoughts about a particular incident, person, or thing which has gained a stronghold in their life. It keeps them awake at night. It pops into their minds at work. It haunts them while they drive. It dominates their conversations with others.
Obsessive thinking is not an easy problem to overcome. In fact, it is spiritual warfare! It takes a battle plan to overcome obsessive thoughts which dominate our lives. God’s Word tells us,
K. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”… (Romans 12:2 ESV).
Obsessive Thoughts
Lots of problems cause us to have obsessive thoughts. It can be the death of a child or the loss of a spouse due to a grieving process. It can be from the cruel rejection of a family member, a partner’s infidelity, a bankruptcy, and other tragic losses.
Obsessive thoughts can keep us up night after night. It can awaken us in fear or terror when we finally do fall asleep. Furthermore, obsessive thoughts can go on year after year. Memories and reminders of a painful incident hit us repeatedly day after day.
There are ways to overcome obsessive thoughts, however, although grieving emotions should be handled differently. But, it isn’t necessarily through the usual channels of therapy or through talking to others that help us, contrary to what many therapists say.
Beat Back Obsessive Thoughts
Overcoming obsessive thoughts come through replacing persistent, painful thoughts with godly thoughts. We can do this through listening to godly counsel. In other words, we can over-ride our minds with a continuous stream of auditory feedback.
Over-Ride your own Loud Thoughts
Our minds are so determined to get their own way that we must begin to over-ride our thought patterns with someone else’s speech. We were clued into this by a scripture which tells us,
L. …“faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17 ESV).
Our Tape Wars
Rather than allow your mind to fall into obsessive thinking over and over again, we want you to take the following steps. See if it doesn’t help you and let us know how you’re doing:
1. Purchase a CD/Tape player.
2. Order tapes from those persons who address your specific problems.
3. Begin to listen to tapes throughout the day and night. Play them 24/7 if you must. Sometimes we keep MP3 Scripture-tapes playing softly throughout the night. This way our minds have no opportunity to wander. If we should wake-up at 3 A.M., our softly-playing Scripture tapes prevent us from obsessing before we are even aware of it.
Listen to tapes while you take a shower. Listen to tapes in your car. Listen to tapes while you do routine chores. The Greek New Testament tells us to “continually” renew our minds. Therefore, we must replace man’s thoughts with God’s thoughts. Replace lies with truths.
Every day, every minute, again and again, over and over,
M. “bring every thought captive to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
Tape Heroes
When circumstances overwhelm you with sleepless nights, worrisome days, and gut-wrenching emotional pain, let God speak to you through gifted Christian speakers. These are theologians and speakers who have years of experience and training working with the problems of their church members and trauma victims.
Recommended Speakers for Tape Collections:
1. Joyce Meyer 1(800) WORD. Available from:www.joycemeyer.org
Joyce Meyer offers tapes for relationship issues (abusive relatives, for example). With just a high school education, this talented lady is one of God’s alternatives to psychiatry. She overcame child-abuse and incredible odds herself, and used God’s Word to find remedies for herself. She draws audiences worldwide in gatherings of 50,000 persons or more at a time. This is because her teaching is effective. It works.
Please do not make the mistake of dismissing this woman because her grammar is imperfect or her mannerisms are coarse or she doesn’t have a college degree. This little lady has a Masters Degree in Troubles. The Word tells us,
N. “God comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:3-7).
Joyce Meyer’s MA in Troubles gives her the credentials to help you in your troubles. She offers powerful, biblical coping-techniques for interpersonal problems such as alcoholism, drug-addiction, forgiveness, resentment, bitterness, childhood abuse, loneliness, marital infidelity, death, and grief.
If you suffer from severe emotional problems, try her “Emotional Healing Kit,” for example. This package consists of five of some of her most effective tape-sets, and one book. You can also purchase these tape-sets separately.
Our favorites are:
Managing Your Emotions
Bitterness, Resentment, and Unforiveness
Burnt But Not Bitter
Pressing in and Pressing On
God is Your Vindicator
Where the Mind Goes, the Man Follows
Has Anyone Seen My Mind
Knowing Who You Are in Christ
(ed. While we disagree with Meyer’s charismatic and prosperity teachings, her tapes on helping Christians to cope with interpersonal problems are invaluable).
2. John MacArthur 1(800) 55GRACE. Available from: www.gty.org.
John MacArthur is one of the finest theologians of the 21st century. Whenever we have a question about theology we consult Dr. MacArthur. He also offers a complete library of tapes about many subjects.
1. Are you worried about money?
Listen to tapes on Luke 12 or “Worry-Free Living”
“Whose Money is it Anyway?”
“Unmasking the Prosperity Gospel”
2. Do you want MacArthur’s opinion about Psychology?
Refer to “Our Sufficiency in Christ”
3. Do you need to know about persecution?
Listen to “How to Handle Persecution”
4. Do you want biblical information about spiritual warfare?
“The Believer’s Armor” is a wonderful set.
Delivered to Satan
How to Meet the Enemy
Spiritual Warfare: Fighting to Win
3. R.C. Sproul 1(800) 435-4343. Available from: www.ligonier.org.
R.C. Sproul offers wonderful tapes about God’s sovereignty and providence. However, our favorite is his classic about suffering:
“If God is Good, Why Do I Suffer?”
This is a tape you will want on hand for a severe loss due to cancer, the loss of a child, or any other extremely traumatic event.
4. Chuck Missler 1(800) 546-8731. Available from:www.khouse.org.
For science and technology buffs, Missler is unsurpassed. He is also our favorite Bible teacher alongside John MacArthur.
To gain perspective on your problems from a cosmic viewpoint, Chuck Missler Ph.D., is your “science man.”
Once multi-millionaires, Chuck and Nancy Missler began to experience horrifying losses which robbed them of their homes, car, insurance, a successful business, all of their money, close friends, and worst of all, the death of a son. Within a decade they recovered their losses and went on to become among the most beloved Bible teachers of our time. (They know they will see their son, Chip, in Heaven). They offer you treasures to help you cope with losses and disappointment. Their Bible studies are first-class.
Chuck Missler is gifted at teaching ordinary folk about the sciences of physics, astronomy, biology and cloning, about incredible structures within Holy Scriptures, and an all-around command of basic Bible studies. Some of our favorite tapes and tape-sets are:
– The Creator Series
– Cosmic Codes
– Beyond Time & Space
– Beyond Coincidence
– Beyond Perception
– In the Beginning was Information
– Faith In The Night Seasons: (Nancy Missler)
Summary
To summarize, we love this Scripture which tells us to devote our entire lives and families to God.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9 ESV).
If we follow Deuteronomy 6:5-9, then we have begun to renew our minds.
3rd. Assignment – part 3
1. Memorize verses K-N below.
2. Review verses A-J
Something to Remember:
How do we begin to overcome obsessive thoughts?
– By renewing our minds (Ro. 12:2)
– Listening to godly tapes over-rides our thoughts
Memory Verses
K. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Ro. 12:2).
L. …“faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Ro. 10:17).
M. …“bring every thought captive to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
N. “God comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:3-7).
1. Take several weeks, or perhaps a few months, to memorize and to meditate on the Scripture memory verses we have given to you.
2. Meanwhile, order some of our recommended tapes from these gifted men and women.
3. Purchase a tape/CD player (or several) to keep around your house. Purchase earphones if playing tapes bothers others in your household.
If you contact us, we will pray for you as you begin to take these positive steps to overcome your problems. With the Lord’s help, you can overcome.
Review:
– The Lord wants to conform you into the image of His Son (Ro. 8:29).
– We are in a School of Suffering training to reign with our Lord (2 Tim. 2:12).
– God wants you to forget the past and to press on (Phil. 3:13-14).
– The Bible tells you to think about God and about lovely things (Phil. 4:8).
– He instructs you to quit worrying and to pray about everything (Phil. 4:6-7).
– He tells you to continually renew your mind (Romans 12:2).
– He reminds you that faith comes from hearing the Word (Ro. 10:17).
– The Lord commands you to bring all thoughts captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).
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References:
Adams, Jay. 1986. The Biblical view of self-esteem, self-love, self-image. Eugene, OR: Harvest House.
Almy, Gary. 1994. Addicted to recovery. Eugene, OR: Harvest House.
Benware, Paul. 2002. The believer’s payday. Chattanooga, TN: AMG.
Ganz, Richard. 1993. PsychoBabble: The failure of modern psychology and the Biblical alternative. Wheaton, ILL: Crossway Books.
Owen, Jim. 1993. Christian psychology’s war on God’s Word. Santa Barbara, CA: EastGate Publishers.
Tyler, David and Kurt Grady. 2006. Deceptive diagnosis: When sin is called sickness. Bemidji, MN: Focus Publishing.