Is everything a spiritual matter?

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NuclearReceptor

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Our thoughts, actions, fears, worries, stress, etc: do they all have spiritual significance, or can we overthink/overanalyze things?

There are moments when I think: Is God displeased? Have I offended him? Is He angry with me? Is He punishing me? Is an evil spirit tormenting me? Am I not praying enough? Have I said enough Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s? Am I slacking? Did I not love my neighbors? Oh my gosh, God must be angry at me…and the cycle continues.

Can thoughts just come from our own (defective) minds without spiritual significance?
 
I am not sure this is a good address to OP’s concern. When we say everything is spiritual, that’s true, but I’d say that comes about by acknowledging that the mundane has a spiritual side rather than necessarily explicitly bringing the spiritual in. It’s all too easy for a certain sort of personality to effectively paralyze themselves trying to see the “spiritual” side of things. I have seen people make fools of themselves trying to find “God’s will” for their career, when selecting one according to perfectly practical concerns would have done just as well. Or letting their desire for the “one God has for them” blind themselves to a faithful and compatible partner in front of them.

OP, God is not sitting in heaven counting your transgressions against you. If you do not know of something specific you have done to offend God, consider that you have not. And do not shun the natural goods! There is no sin in rest. I certainly don’t feel guilty for the amount of video games I played the last few days - I have done my duty as best I could and frankly I needed the stress relief.

The truth is that good things in their proper place are good, even if they aren’t the kind of thing usually considered “spiritual.”
 
NuclearReceptor - I ‘hear’ what you say, and empathise with your ‘dilemma’. There are indeed many times when I wonder if I have done enough of this or that, or fought off ‘temptation’ hard enough. I too tend to analyse and wonder if I am in any sort of reality ‘over-analysing’ a situation. My stratagem to combat such concern is to frequently pray for the gift of discernment - it seems to work. Always remember that God knows our weaknesses, but at His essence He is love, and especially loves those who struggle with life, but persist in humility and who call out for help. I think it was St Padre Pio who said something to the effect - “Pray and don’t worry”.

It is often a stratagem of Satan to attempt to make you feel that God is a hard and fearsome task master, and that you are facing a hopeless situation regarding our own condition, and to then feel despair and depression - that way lies additional vulnerability he can take advantage of.

One thing that I do find is that pretty much all of my past sins are run past me to ponder upon - sometimes I feel they are put to me by Satan to try to make me feel I am a hopeless cause - but at other times I feel that it is God just keeping me from becoming complacent in my old age.
 
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Thank you all for your responses. God just seems silent, and in my mind, silence seems to mean not caring. Maybe He sent me here for answers.

Sometimes I get thoughts: God set you up for failure. He just set you up for false hope and eventual disappointment. Why do you read about the saints? You’ll never be like them. All those saintly inspirations are for holy people — you are evil. You will merit nothing by prayer – prayer only works for saints. It doesn’t matter if you pray the Rosary — it has no effect anyways, and you pray so pitifully and full of distractions.

And then there are the intrusive thoughts I won’t get into.

I wish I can silence my mind…to live a life of simple humility, simple charity.
 
I definitely know it’s not from God…but maybe the devil is off somewhere else and I’m just thinking those things by myself without any external influence.

what if i’m attributing to the enemy when it’s just me that’s at fault for thinking of these things?

maybe my subconscious is trying to rationalize why this and that happens, and i need something to blame – and the devil is conveniently there.

the mental faculty is truly confusing…
 
In one sense, everything is a spiritual matter, because we have a body and a spirit, and what touches one influences the other.
But does everything have a deep, dark significance? No. do all our problems come from a wrongness in our spiritual life? No.
It’s so easy for us to overthink this stuff…
 
Well we should discern whether it is from the Holy Spirit or evil spirit, all negative ,depression, sad ,sinful and all bad thoughts are from evil spirits ,and all Holy and good thoughts subjects to the will of God, his commandments and the teaching of the Catholic Church is from the Holy spirit,also our human thoughts which are negative and does not helps us personally as well as others for common good ,we should not pay attention to it
.Every thing should be taken as through spiritual dimension,because there is spiritual battle going on with us and the world at large satan against the children of God Eph 6:10-20 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 1 peter 5:8 8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert.Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour ,so we have be careful and alert even in our thoughts for the first attacks will be through our thoughts.

Wisdom 1:3 For perverse thoughts separate people from God, and when his power is tested, it exposes the foolish;
Wisdom 1:5 For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit, and will leave foolish thoughts behind, and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.
 
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God is around all day, but He should be around in a natural manner. That means if you have a sudden frustration (“I lost my car keys, Lord, help me!”) Or joy (“It stopped raining in time for the ball game, thank you Jesus!” ) you can reach to him. It doesn’t mean you should be worrying every 15 minutes if you’re making Him mad by eating a second helping of fries or whatever.

Think of Him as a family member who’s always nearby. You can talk to that person if you need to but you don’t have to discuss everything you’re doing in the house with them on a moment by moment basis.
 
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