OCD & Trust

SCRIPTURE:  And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:21-22 NLT

THOUGHT: People with OCD must do the same thing the same way every time, or they often can’t do it. Unwelcome rituals mark their lives. Mayo Clinic says, “You may try to ignore or stop your obsessions, but that only increases your distress and anxiety. Ultimately, you feel driven to perform compulsive acts to try to ease your stress. Despite efforts to ignore or get rid of bothersome thoughts or urges, they keep coming back. This leads to more ritualistic behavior….”

My point today is that a ritual is different from a symbolic act or a tradition. Rituals, in fact, are often traditions that have lost their meaning and become a framework for something else, a substitute. I’ve seen rituals in churches that meet that definition – and I’ve witnessed it in personal lives. Symbolic acts that are full of meaning but have become empty routine. Nobody knows why it’s done that way, it’s just habit.

If prayer, certain songs, the reading of Scripture, confession, communion and baptism have become ritualistic to even the tiniest degree, we begin attending to our steps rather than trusting or listening for God.

The writer of Hebrews promises that, to God, once is enough for the cleansing that comes from salvation and baptism. Jesus, the great High Priest who rules over God’s house, comes from outside of our systems of worship, we don’t conjure him up with our words or actions. He breaks through to give our souls what they most need – ushering us into the presence of God because our hearts are sincere and fully trust him, not because we practice some ritual.

PRAYER: Oh God, help us experience the joy of approaching your throne with confidence, sans ritual, sans perfection, just as we are.