“Personal Compulsions”

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

     I suffer from a disorder known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in which I have to do a behavior or ritual (such as touching an object a certain number of times) to avoid something bad happening.  My personal fear is that if I don't do the ritual, I will subconsciously sell my soul to the devil and be condemned to hell.  My question is about if it is possible to sell your soul or lose it because of a possible thought or action, or is this concept just a contrivance of literature and cinema?  Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Driven

Dear Driven,

Take comfort – your eternal destiny isn’t dictated by how many times you perform a ritual of your own making.  Saying that you will go to hell for these rituals isn’t true any more than saying, “I’ll go to heaven by performing these rituals.”  We aren’t the final judge of our eternal home – Christ is (2 Tim 4:1).  We don’t get to dictate the terms of our relationship with God; God sets the standards for our salvation, and He put those rules in the Bible (2 Pet 1:3, Rom 10:17).  If you have done what Christ teaches you must do to be saved, you will go to heaven.  If you don’t, you won’t.  What personal rituals and traditions we perform have no bearing on the subject.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a real issue, and we know that it isn’t as simple as just being given an answer, and then the problem goes away.  So as you struggle with your fears, try and take comfort in the truth that God doesn’t use the same standards as we do (Isa 55:8-9).

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