Sometimes the greatest battle we face is the one in our own minds. If you deal with intrusive thoughts—unwanted and involuntary thoughts, urges, or images—you know this all too well. In this 3-day Devotional, we will look at how we can take a faith-based approach towards overcoming intrusive thoughts.
Plan provided by Ben Bennett and Resolution Movement.
Day 1
Scriptures: Psalms 94:19, Psalms 34:4
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.
Day 2
Scriptures: Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 8:12-13, Psalms 46:1-3
Don’t Fear Your Thoughts
If I told you to not think about a pink elephant right now, what would you do? Immediately start thinking about a pink elephant! Now, what if I told you that something bad would happen to you every time you thought about a pink elephant? A component of fear would be added to the equation and that would make not thinking about the pink elephant even harder! This is how our intrusive thoughts work. The more we try not to think of them, or the more we fear them, the more we will struggle to not think of them.
So, how do we learn to not fear our intrusive thoughts and not obsess about not thinking about them? First, we can start to see our intrusive thoughts as insignificant and meaningless. They are like a cup that can’t hold water or a piece of duct tape that is not sticky. We don’t have to obsess and ruminate about them. We don’t have to let them make us feel like bad Christians. They’re just thoughts, so when they come, let them go.
Second, instead of feeling bad about yourself, condemning yourself, or telling yourself you’re a bad person because of the intrusive thoughts, remind yourself that there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). You are a loved child of God (1 John 3:1). Your intrusive thoughts do not define you, so you can unhitch your identity from them. Your Identity is in Christ—remember that!
Third, remind yourself that you have ultimate control of your mind. You have the power to let intrusive thoughts go. You don’t have to ruminate over them. You don’t have to live in fear of them. You can notice them, see them as meaningless, and move on and think about what you want to think about. You can choose to change the channel in your mind.
Thought of the Day: When intrusive thoughts come into my mind today, I will let them go and turn my mind toward the Truth of my Identity in Christ.
Day 3
Scriptures: Romans 12:2, Philippians 4:8, 2 Corinthians 10:5
Three Steps to Freedom
Have you ever had to memorize a speech? You probably thought about the speech and spent a lot of mental energy trying to memorize it. What happened after the speech was over? If you’re like most people, you delivered the speech and then shifted your mental focus elsewhere. The speech that you ran through your mind over and over again started to fade into the back of your memory. That’s kind of how our intrusive thoughts work. The less we focus on them, and the less meaning we give them, the less they will come to our minds.
Yesterday, we looked at some practical things we can do to deal with our intrusive thoughts. Today, we will talk about more steps we can take towards overcoming our unwanted thoughts. When an intrusive thought comes to your mind you can:
1. Notice the thought and choose to not give it any significance. This is something we touched on yesterday when we talked about taking the fear out of having intrusive thoughts. When the thoughts come, we can acknowledge them, and then we can let them go.
2. Choose to not engage with the thought. We don’t have to give in to a compulsive thought to stop the fear we feel. In fact, when we engage with the thought, we tell our brains that the thought is a real threat. This can heighten our nervous system’s fight-or-flight response, and encourage this cycle to repeat itself. So, when the thought comes, do not engage.
3. Redirect your thoughts to the present and choose to focus on a healthy thought. Take a control of the moment in your mind and start a new train of thought. You have that power.
Neuroscience gives us a look into the way God designed our brains. Repeated thoughts and behaviors create pathways in our minds, and these pathways make the things even more repeatable. This can work for us or against us. When we engage our intrusive thoughts and try to fight them, we can get caught in a cycle. But if we begin to repeat the three-step process above, we can create a new pattern in our brain that allows us to recognize, dismiss, and move on from intrusive thoughts faster and faster over time.
I’ve seen God use this three-step process to change and renew my mind. He has helped me overcome intrusive thoughts, and now unwanted thoughts take a back seat in my life and they no longer plague me. I pray He does the same for you!
Thought of the Day: Victory over intrusive thoughts is possible. I will take the tools given to me through this Devotional and, by God’s Grace, I will see intrusive thoughts lose their grip on my mind and my life.