Need some opinions on thoughts sent by God

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Tis_Bearself

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I’m thinking that if a thought causes me worry or anxiety, then the thought didn’t come from God, unless it falls in one of these two exceptions:
  • Well-founded, unscrupulous anxiety about my soul. Example: If I don’t go to Mass for months and then I get worried about my soul and I go to Mass, then the motivation probably came from God.
    OR
  • An immediate worry about something I can/ should address. Example: I leave a pot boiling on the stove, I forget about it, then a while later I remember, “Oh I had something on the stove!” I rush in and turn it off before it burns, starts a fire etc. This motivation might also have come from God.
BUT
If I just have some stray anxiety about say, nuclear war happening at some unspecified time, or my own death happening, then this isn’t from God. It’s from some other evil source (the Devil, my own fallen human nature) trying to make me worry.

What do you think?
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I’m thinking that if a thought causes me worry or anxiety
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I’d disagree with how you said this. A thought doesn’t cause us to worry or be anxious. I think we are ultimately responsible for being worried or anxious. By that I don’t mean that people don’t have serious struggles with worry, anxiety or sadness. I certainly do. But I mean at the end of chain it is us entertaining the thoughts, or ruminating on them, or not trusting God.

As you point out a ‘worrying thought’ could be good. It could be something that causes us to stop what we are doing or take care of something we should have.

Or the ‘worrying thought’ could be that we left the stove on. That is really a neutral thought. Maybe we did leave the stove on. But maybe that isn’t likely. Maybe it is a constant worry we have that is never true. Maybe we don’t realize that even if we did leave the stove on most likely nothing bad will come from it. In that case if we ruminate on the thought it will only destroy our peace of mind.

Even though I think we are ultimately responsible for how we handle a thought I definitely think some thoughts are from our fallen nature or demons. I think we can look at every thought that comes to us an opportunity to grow in holiness. If the thought motivates us to do something good that is obviously good. If a thought, indulged in any way, would lead us to evil then it is a chance to grow in holiness by rejecting it.

The reason I mention this is because I agree, good thoughts could be from a God or His Angels. But even the bad thoughts, which could very well be from demons, are allowed by God’s permissive will to give us the opportunity to grow in holiness.

One key way to grow is to simply trust in God. To me that is what all worry is. Worry is my inability to control something. But the truth is I control very little. I don’t even control my next heartbeat. Trust is the antidote. I depend on God to sustain me at every moment. I often don’t think like that. But it is true.

Anyway, for worrying thoughts I always like the Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
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If you have anxiety about say war or your own death then I don’t think it comes from God but rather yourself. You are not right with God and it causes said symptoms. I was like that for years and I finally made peace with myself and all the things I done in life. I also forgave others of their wrong doings. I mean we don’t want to die but when the time comes I’m ready. The Lord will take care of my family. This I have no doubt. Pray and then pray some more. It helps.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
If I just have some stray anxiety about say, nuclear war happening at some unspecified time,
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It is normal to have curiosity for what the future holds for us, but it is not good to dwell on that. Better to have faith and trust in God that whatever happens, He will helps us from above.
 
It is said the devil wins the greatest through pride. So I am wary of exciting pleasing thoughts especially if they involve religion.
An obsessive scare I would blame it on me mostly. Anxiety attacks also me.
A thought from God must include - something I don’t already know of or is not something I would think about. Also must include some very useful information, it has to lead somewhere. It can be comfortable or uncomfortable.
A scare outside my area of control like a war that may start or epidemic and such, something I have no control of, I would say it is my survival instinct working against me because I am uncoordinated. God would never warn me on thus and if He wants to remind me of a sin I committed He does so directly presenting that sin again to me.
 
When I’ve just woke up and a thought pops in my head, I’m not having “free will”. I’m not even awake enough to know what I’m doing yet.
 
That’s - a great observation Bear !
I was watching some video things from this site -
You might find this interesting -

 
Tis_Bearself said:
What do you think?
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The analyses of anxiety you propose is already “mystical” in that we are trying to see God’s providence in our lives and spirits.

That being said, the specific way you are formulating by rule/exception remits (or is at least very reminiscent) to the rules of St.Ignatius. Although you give it a peaceful formulation which I like, and tends also towards “grace”.

I like @exnihilo answer since the 2 cases mentioned (dwelling/ruminating) regarding anxiety are clearly not of God.

Well, it depends Tis_Bear. Given your rhythm of prayer I’d wish God didn’t allow for you to be exposed to a “breaking” tribulation that does take you to your limits. When that is the case, sources of anxiety will take all shapes and forms and composing a complex set with several origins.

Remember the 3 enemies of the soul? Flesh, world, devil? Well, when you are in a tribulation, and especially so when you are following through with obtaining indulgences, the devil will get mad, some people are not going to like it, and finally through grace you’ll discover things about your nature “the flesh” (attachment to sin) you didn’t know before and are supposed to grow in sanctity through. Problem is also, when all factors combined surpass your abilities and your only chance is guarding from sin while waiting in the Lord.

As a rule of thumb, if anything causes you to sin or fall away from the Lord forget that anxiety, don’t succumb to it, and keep in the Lord.
 
1:5 Americans suffer from some form of anxiety. That is 64 MILLION souls. This is seen regularly in such venues as cancer forums. It is obvious and can be paralyzing.

You sound as though you may have occasional bouts of anxiety, as your questions may tend toward the scrupulous, IMO.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is employed with great success against scrupulosity and OCD, although medication may be required in more extreme cases.

Great subject to discuss with Priest and doctor.
 
Hard to say with certainty. It is easy though to know if a thought comes from the Evil One, which would be contradictory to the word of God. If a thought is telling us to not to go to mass on a Sunday or to blaspheme against Mary, we can safely say they are not from God but most likely from the Evil spirit.

There are gifts of the Holy Spirit which allow us to hear God’s word, which is generally called the word gifts or knowledge gifts. Examples of these are word of knowledge, word of wisdom or prophecy. These are for use to understand the word of God deeper and in some cases to direct us on what to do in a given situation. The difference whether they come from God or merely our own thought, is that the former are graces from God that have wide ranging result in our lives, especially to encourage or open ways for us and for our spiritual growth. Our own thought OTOH is just that - it does not have significant effect on our lives.
 
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po18guy said:
1:5 Americans suffer from some form of anxiety. That is 64 MILLION souls. This is seen regularly in such venues as cancer forums. It is obvious and can be paralyzing.
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We are given so many things to worry about in life, that does not mean we actually have to worry about them.

I had tests done for cancer in November 2011, about a month later the doctor phoned and said he urgently wanted to see me, it was non – Hodgkin Lymphoma, this was a name I recognised, our friend had this cancer, and died a few months later. I prayed for the wisdom, strength, peace and serenity to do God’s will, whether the cancer was a death sentence, or just an inconvenience. I can only say that from the moment of making this prayer, I have experienced a profound sense of peace, and the thought of cancer has never troubled me for a moment.

Cancer could be a truly worrying process, you wait a month or two for tests, you wait for the results, and you wait for more tests, but the prayer to do God’s will sort of handed the problem to God, and I have never had to worry. I have never once prayed for healing, at the age of 62, the prayer for healing was too complicated, it might or might not be my time to go. Recognising this profound sense of peace comes from God, gives me reason to be thankful.

I could not imagine this sense of peace without a faith and trust in God. I can say, from the moment of hearing about my cancer and making that prayer, I could talk about cancer in the same way as I talk about going shopping?
 
po18guy said:
You sound as though you may have occasional bouts of anxiety, as your questions may tend toward the scrupulous, IMO.
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I am a lifelong anxiety sufferer. My husband did a great deal to reduce my anxiety, but he just died.
I am doing pretty well with the anxiety in his absence now, with God’s help and after a lot of prayer, Adoration, etc. but I have the occasional intrusive thought.
 
So considering these things said in the video, I wonder from whom the whole movement of “expressing yourself” is coming.
 

Taking the shield of faith -
we are able - to quench - the fiery darts of the wicked one !
 
Intrusive thoughts are awful. I tend to see something sinister behind them. But still how we handle them is still on us. I think there are a lot of good techniques for handling them. For me I find my need to control things is the center of even my intrusive thoughts. The intrusive thoughts for me all boil down to me doing something uncharacteristic which can feel like I’m out of control. This itself is really a trust issue.

Sorry to hear your husband died. Prayers for you and him.
 
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. In Your mercy send the consolation of Your Holy Spirit upon his loved ones, in this, their time of sorrow. Amen.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, as practiced by Dr. Gregory Popcak (on EWTN) can be a tremendous help in combating anxiety. Anxiety is insidious, stealing your peace when you need it most. It is heartening to hear of your struggle against it.

It sounds like you have only occasional flare ups, which must be an improvement. Prayers ascending!
 
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