Scrupulosity and Religious OCD Help

I am no stranger to Scrupulosity and the feelings of guilt that come from the burdens that we are putting on ourselves. Luckily, our loving God gave us the "secret sauce" on how to overcome this anxiety by the renewal of our minds.

We can renew our minds by reading and hearing the word of God, and replacing our anxious thoughts (lies) with Biblical truths. (Disclaimer: I am not a Pastor or Theologian, just a new Christian with scrupulosity, trying to provide help to other suffering Christians. Please refer to your local pastor for any questions or doubts)

Click on the Scrupulosity symptom you are experiencing and fill your mind with some reassuring Biblical truths:

1. Viewing God as a harsh judge, rather than a loving Father.

2. Environmental OCD

3. Placing heavy burdens on ourselves

4. Salvation anxiety

1. Start viewing God as a loving Father, the way the Bible portrays Him

   
   

   1. Isaiah 40:11 " He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are young." A shepherd carries the tired lambs who cannot keep up. God carries you when your anxiety makes you too weary to walk.

      
      

   2. Psalm 103:13-14 "As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to thos who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." God knows our physiology, and understands how are brains are wired, and he treats our struggle with a father's gentle compassion, not anger.

      
      

   3. Psalm 131:2 "But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother." This imagery invites us to stop striving and simply rest in God's presence, letting our minds find peace like a child resting with its mother.

      
      

   4. Isaiah 42:3 "A bruised reed he will not break, and faintly bruning wick he will not quench." When our mental illness makes us feel like a bruised reed or a tiny flickering candle about to go out, Jesus treats us with absolute gentleness. He will never snap you or blow you out.

      
      

   5. Psalm 3:3 "But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head." Scrupulosity forces our head down in shame and endless self-examination. God's role is to gently lift our chin up, looking at us with affection, not disappointment.

      
      

   6. Psalm 94:19 "When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul." God expects our heart to have heavy cares and meets us there.

   
   

2. Environmental OCD

   If you are someone who spends your time researching if every single piece of plastic is recycleable, going to extremes to clean used pieces of aluminum foil, trying to pick up every single piece of trash whenever you are out in public, taking water conservation to the extreme of trying to recycle your bath water and then getting overwhelmed when you can't recycle certain things. You likely have Environmental OCD.

   
   

   1. Ecclesiastes 7:16 "Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise—why destroy yourself?" Wanting to care for nature is a good thing. But scrupulosity takes that good desire to extremes. God is saying: “Do not destroy your mental health trying to be a perfect savior.” If your effort to save water or pick up trash is destroying your peace and making you miserable, you have crossed into being "overrighteous." God values your sanity and well-being far more than He values a perfectly sorted recycling bin.

      
      

   2. Ecclesiastes 7:18 "It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes." Scrupulosity makes us take things to extremes. We need to remember our human limits and let God take care of the things that we cannot. If we are spending hours of our day stressing about potentially wasting a piece a plastic, we cannot do what God called us to do which is to love Him and love others.

      
      

   3. Matthew 9:13 "Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’" Your OCD wants you to perform endless "sacrifices"—turning around to check the trash, agonizing over water drops, treating every misplaced piece of plastic or ignored peice of trash on the groud like a sin. But God says He doesn't want those frantic rituals. He wants mercy. He wants you to show mercy to your own tired mind. God is pleased when you choose to show yourself kindness by walking away from a piece of litter, rather than torturing your soul to pick it up.

   
   

   1. Micah 6:8 "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God?" God's actual requirements are simple and relational, not a complex agonizing maze of rules.

   
   

3. Placing Heavy Burdens on Ourselves

   The thing about Scrupulosity is that WE place the burdens on ourselves, and think that it is God placing them on us. But there is so much evidence in scripture that we are meant to give all of our burdens to God so that we can live in peace and joy.

   
   

   1. Psalm 55:22 "Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you." We are called to give our burdens to God. He wants us to depend on Him for help. What does this look like? Saying a simple prayer, like "God, I really need you. These burdens are too heavy for me right now. I am putting this into your hands, because you can handle this so much better than I can. I am trusting in your grace and mercy."

      
      

   2. 1 Peter 5:7 "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you." God cares about us and doesn't want us to worry. He wants us to rely on Him and trust in Him.

      
      

   3. Matthew 11:28 "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Those of us with Scrupulosity are weary and carry heavy burdens, and Jesus wants to give us rest. We just have to be open to it.

      
      

   4. Matthew 11:29-30 "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus specifically says His burden is light. So when we are putting heavy burdens on ourselves, we can know that it is not coming from God. He is not the God of heavy burdens, but the God of light burdens.

      
      

   5. Philippians 4:6: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." I think God makes it pretty clear that He wants to take our anxieties from us. Right here He tells us, just pray with thanksgiving and make your requests to Him. The problem with our human brains is that we want instant gratification, but true faith is believing that God will take our anxieties even when we don't see the physical evidence of that. That is what it means to walk by faith, not by sight.

1. Salvation Anxiety

   Those of us with Scrupulosity can sometimes have intense fear over whether or not we are truly saved. But God didn't want our salvation to be a complicated list of things that we have to do perfectly in order to be saved. Think of the thief on the cross. Did he do anything other than have faith in Jesus? No. All he did was have faith that Jesus was who He said He was, and Jesus told him that He would see him in Paradise.

   
   

   1. Romans 8:1 "There is therfore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Our scrupulosity immediately asks "How do I know I am really in Christ Jesus?" You are in Him, because you have faith in Him. His grace works by faith.

      
      

   2. John 6:39 "And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all of those He has given me, but raise them up at the last day." You are in Jesus's hands, and he says that He will not lose ANY of us, but raise us up at the last day. That is a pretty big promise to make us that He is holding on to us, and will not allow any of us to be lost.

      
      

   3. Phillipians 1:6 "Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ." Since God has begun a good work in us, we can be confident knowing that he will continue working in us until the day of Jesus Christ.

      
      

   4. Hebrews 10:14 "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." We know sanctification is a process, and some of us get extremely stressed out when we make a mistake, or fall short of perfection, but God assures us that he has perfected us forever as we go through the process of sanctification.

      
      

   5. Matthew 11:25-27 "At that time Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

      ²⁷ 'All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. '" Our scrupulosity can drive us mad, questioning if we are really childlike or if we were really chosen. If you know Jesus, it is because he chose you. Our scrupulosity makes us dependent on Jesus. We need him as a Savior, as a Father, as a Healer. We are his children, and we love Him, even if our intrusive thoughts tell us otherwise.