gettingthroughocd

I wanted to share something with you that God shared with me last week and brought back to my attention today. We are in control of the ocd. Did you hear me? The ocd is not in control of you, but you have control of it. What I mean by that and this is what I believe God showed me is that we can choose. We can choose to allow the ocd to rule or we can choose to control the ocd by standing up to it. It really is that simple. God reminded me of what He said to me during a prayer time this morning. Basically, He said you control it by either giving in to it or fighting it. When you choose to fight it, you are controlling it. You choose how much power you give it over you.
Now, I don’t know about you, but that says a great deal.
I want you to think about something. When you are around certain people and the ocd might embarrass you, do you reign it in and not do what you would normally do if no one is looking? If you do, and I know that we all have, then you can control it. I didn’t say did you control it and not feel any anxiety, but did you control it.
The anxiety will eventually go away the more you face the fear and expose yourself to it. Think of it another way. My fears about pills you probably wouldn’t even give a second thought. You don’t fear that and you would think that can’t harm you. You might even think, that’s silly. And, the things that you fear, I would probably not give a second thought and I would think there is no way that is going to harm you. Now, take that a step further. What if you started thinking that about your own fear. There is no way this is going to harm me. In my case, I have to think there is no way walking by a person with a prescription bottle of pills is going to harm me or cause me any problem. It is not going to jump out of the bottle and jump on me. It is not going to get on me in any way. The only way this bottle of pills is going to harm me is if I went up and took a pill out of the bottle and swallowed it and I happened to have an allergic reaction to it. So, since there’s no way I’m going to do that nor would any other normal person, then it is not going to harm me. I also think about all the times throughout my life, with the exception of the last two years, when this never bothered me and I walked by people with pills all the time and thought nothing of it. How often was I exposed to this and nothing happened? My whole life and nothing happened. The only time something happened to me was when I was prescribed a pill that I had a reaction to because I took it. So, how many times in your life have you been exposed to something that you are afraid of now and it never harmed you? In fact, you are still being exposed to it and nothing is happening to you except that you are feeling fear and anxiety about it and allowing that fear and anxiety to run rampant. I’m not just saying you are doing this. I have too.
But, we really are in control. Sometimes we might be very successful in using that control and other times we might not. God is not mad at you when you fail. He is saying you can do this. You can do this. Get up and fight again.
So, I hope what you take from this is knowing that you do have some control here and the ocd is not in control of you. You have hope. You can conquer this. Don’t beat yourself up if you fail at times, but throw a party when you do exercise your control. You are being courageous every time you fight despite what you may feel inside. In fact, I would argue that you are one of the most courageous people on the planet because you are choosing to face your fears instead of running from them – something most people with or without ocd never do. God loves you and is working with you in this fight. How can you lose?
Getting through ocd.

“You can walk on water.” That is what I got from God a couple of weeks ago and I have wanted to share it here with you ever since. But, I got sidetracked and came under spiritual attack. You see sometimes when I gain ground and get something big to share with you that God is showing me, the enemy comes against me to try and stop me from getting the message out. So, I do want to ask you to keep me in your prayers as I try to follow what God leads me to share. I know I have God’s protection and He is stronger than anything the enemy lashes out, but the enemy does try to attack and bring me down at times.
I was on my way to Atlanta to get the rest of my stuff when God shared an image with me in my heart. He gave me a word to hold onto and I knew it was a word not just for me, but for everyone who is in this fight of ocd and fear.
I had an image in my heart of me standing on the beach with Jesus and looking out across the ocean. I felt the still small voice in my heart say, “all this can be yours.”
I thought what does that mean. I don’t understand. That is just ocean as far as the eye can see, vast amounts of ocean. What do you mean? I didn’t get an answer so I just let it go and didn’t think much more about it that day.
The next day, as I traveled to my last counseling appointment, I heard God’s whisper in my heart say, “You can walk on water. Do you want to?”
And, suddenly, it made sense to me – the ocean, walking on water. It all made sense. What God is saying, if we choose to believe it, is that we can walk on water through this fight. There is nothing we cannot do if we choose to believe it. What will you choose? Do you want to walk on water because you already have it in you.
After that I was so excited and I came home bursting with anticipation and longing to let you all know. The moment I arrived home, the attacks began from the enemy. A loved one said things completely out of character to me that made me doubt myself even though I knew it was the voice of the enemy speaking through that person. The next day, I developed a problem with my eye on my cornea that if left untreated could have led to an ulcer and blindness in that eye. I had to go to the doctor and was prescribed medication for my eye. As you know medication is my weakness and so I was nervous but I took it anyway and have done so now for five days. Today, I go back to the doctor to make sure it is working. In the midst of taking that medication, my husband and my mother chose that time to pick fights with me. I kept pushing through. I prayed for God’s help and continued exposing myself to the things that scared me the most and guess what I started winning again in this last area.
I have chosen to believe God in this area that I can walk on water. He has already healed me miraculously in almost every area of the ocd, but I had felt content I guess to battle the final layer and not really confront it as I had the other areas. You see I had already been told by my counselor that she had never seen anyone battle back from where I was before without the aid of medication. That is a testament to our God. But, God never intended for me to be 98 percent whole. He intended for me to be 100 percent whole. And, so I march on because I know the final remnants will fall. You see God told me I could walk on water and I am choosing to believe Him! Will you?
Getting through ocd.

Celebration time! I just heard from Madeline on her tremendous progress forward in her fight against ocd! I am just so thrilled for her that I wanted to remind everyone that every victory is something to be celebrated and don’t forget to do that for yourself. My counselor once told me when I was describing how I had conquered something huge as if it were an everyday thing, that I needed to stop glossing over it and really listen to myself and celebrate the victories. I wanted to remind all of you of the same thing. When I heard from Madeline today I thought about how we tend to forget the celebration when we’ve been in the fight for a while and the progress that has already been made! I think of Laura and how far she’s come and about others who have written to tell me they have come through and come so far in this fight. I am humbled when people thank me and I don’t always know what to say when people credit the blog and my struggle with giving them hope again! It makes my day and all I can tell you is we serve a big God!
I have said this before and I will say it again. I have not advertised this blog in any manner. Those of you who’ve come here or found it is because of God. I have only mentioned this blog to one group of fellow ocd sufferers and that is a group God led me to in the early stages. So, no matter how you ended up here it is a God thing for sure.
I am humbled that my struggle has mattered and I’m humbled if God can take any of that and use it to help others heal. I will serve him all the days of my life because it is a miracle that I am here in one piece today. Many of you have probably felt the same way. There is hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel and yes, you can be completely set free. So celebrate. Celebrate your God. Celebrate all of your progress – big and small. Don’t beat yourself up if you see setbacks. The enemy tries to fight your progress, but your enemy (ocd) has already been defeated. It is not bigger than your God. We need to remember that and remember we don’t fight alone. We fight with the God of the universe and nothing, nothing, nothing can stand against Him. Celebrate and please share your victories on here in this blog. It helps us all and I want to celebrate with you!
Getting through ocd.

Sometimes in order to get free, you have to go in the furnace. That is what I heard Joyce Meyer say today – that often we are set free from our bondage in the fiery furnace. So, if you feel the heat turned up in your life, and if you are struggling with ocd, you have felt the heat – then here’s good news – You may be in the furnace now, but you are coming out free.
If you have prayed for God to set you free from ocd, you don’t have to wonder or worry if He heard you or if He will answer that prayer. He will. But, you can’t just sit around and wait for a miracle if you haven’t seen a miracle happen for your freedom. You have to do all that you know to do through prayer and doing what God is telling you to do, and then having done all to stand.
If you want to know how strong you are, this fight is not for the faint hearted. If you are in this trial, then you already know that you are a strong person, stronger I would argue than most because of what you have already endured. Now, stop worrying if you are strong enough for the fight and get up and fight.
God has given you all that you need to win because you have Him. Nothing can stand against you and nothing can come against you that is stronger than your God.
So face the fear that is battling you. Face it with your knees knocking and your hands shaking, but face it because you stand facing it with God and the minute you step out, He steps out and so does all of Heaven. Your enemy can’t stand in the face of that. David didn’t run from the battlefield when he faced Goliath. He ran quickly to the battlefield and He was successful because he went with God. He also didn’t fight with the same weapons that everyone else fought with. He used a slingshot and slayed a giant. Find how you fight best and step out with God. One sling of the rock and the giant goes down…the giant of ocd goes down.
Getting through ocd.