OCD
Pt. 2 – Mirror, Mirror
I. Introduction
No doctor's appointment is needed. No blood has to be drawn. No X-rays need to be developed and reviewed. There is no need for a second opinion. The diagnosis is accurate and the outlook is bleak unless we get treatment. We are all sick. We are all diseased. We have all succumbed to this sickness and it continues to deepen as we check our social media feeds and believe that the highlights are real life. We get sicker as we believe the filtered, touched up photos are reality. We grow green with envy. We turn shades of red with anger thinking we have been overlooked and left out by God. We are overtaken by sleepless nights and increasingly heavy debt loads trying to keep up with people we really don't know and probably don't even like! We are minding our own business feeling some amount of contentment and thankfulness and then they get that car. They get that house. They get that job. They go on that vacation. They get that recognition. Now all the sudden OCD - Obsessive Comparison Disorder - sets in and we are now unable to be everything that we are supposed to be in Christ. So, the fact is we are sick. The question is how do we recover?
Numbers 13:2-4, 27-33 (NIV)
“Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
OCD leads to see sickness!
The spies, sent by Moses, allow their view of others to cause them to see themselves as grasshoppers. In fact, the KJV says it like this "we were like grasshoppers in our own sight!" Their OCD causes them to be see sick.
Because they didn't see correctly the Children of Israel didn’t enter Promised Land and end up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They didn't enter the Promised Land because they didn’t believe the right things about God. They didn’t enter because they didn’t believe right things about themselves.
If you don't believe Him about you, then you won't believe the right things about you that are necessary to get what He says you can have and to be who He says you can be. How you see you matters. I can't allow how I see them impact how I see me.
I wonder how many of us miss the provision and the promise of God in our own lives? How many of us overlook what God has given, is giving and will give simply because we are see sick? How many of us are missing out on possessing the promise of what God has for us simply because we are see sick? If you see yourself wrong, then you will see yourself retreating. You will pull back. Why? Because you can't follow Jesus if you are comparing yourselves to someone else!
Our eyes are what causes us to be sick. But our eyes are also the key to our healing. We must see to be free!
Notice the only difference between the report given was the eyes. Caleb saw differently. Caleb and Joshua are the only 2 of the 12 that ever enter the Promised Land simply because they saw correctly, so they thought correctly! They saw correctly, so they believed correctly!
Unless you see yourself correctly you will be overcome with OCD. The issue is that if we don't see ourselves correctly, then we either see ourselves as inferior or we see ourselves as superior and either view will destroy us. So, how do we get it right? We have to look right.
OCD is cured when we manage our mirrors!
OCD is cured when we look right! Wait this sounds messed up. You have been saying we can't become sick with comparison and how you are talking about looking right. Looking right keeps us trapped. I have to look as happy and as successful as the other person. I have to look right - live up to societal demands. That isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about the cure to OCD is looking right. Getting our eyes off the wrong thing onto the right thing. In other words, the cure to OCD is we manage our mirrors. We destroy OCD when we get the mirror/standard right!
So, Paul tells us what the standard is not!
2 Corinthians 10:12-14
We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.
But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!
The people around us are not the standard . . . wrong mirror. In fact, Paul says when we use the other person as the standard, we are ignorant. Comparing ourselves to those around us is like looking in a fun house mirror trying to get a clear picture of who we are. The standards we are trying to use keeps changing. OCD is running rampant and is at epidemic levels because we are looking in the wrong mirror! We are trying to figure out who we are by comparing ourselves to others, by watching Instagram, by allowing Hollywood or society to tell us who we are when they don't even know who they are - they don't even know if they are a man or a woman! Why would we allow those who have no clue who they are to us who we are?
If we are going to cure OCD, then we must see ourselves correctly. To see ourselves correctly we have to have the right reflection. To have the right reflection you must look in the right mirror. Manage your mirror!
What is the right mirror? What is the standard? I submit to you that God's Word is the right mirror. In fact, the Bible says that God’s Word is like a mirror. (SLIDES 17-18) We don't just read the Bible! As you read the Word it reads you! Just as a mirror reflects what you look like on the outside, God’s Word reflects what you’re like on the inside. We must see ourselves in the Word!
One man said, “The fundamental purpose of God's Word is to give us true self-knowledge; it is a real mirror, and when we look at ourselves properly in it we see ourselves as God wants us to see ourselves.
The Word exposes our weaknesses, strengths and our identity.
The perfect illustration and example of this is Jesus. Jesus saw Himself correctly. With no arrogance or pride, He said about Himself, "I’m the way". "I’m the truth." He didn't compare Himself to others. I'm more of the way than they are. I am more of the truth than they are. He just said I am the way and I am the truth. In other words, the Word knew who He was. He knew who He was, so He doesn’t need to compare Himself to anyone else.
Here is the challenge if you don't know who the Word says you are, then you will allow other people and their opinions right or wrong to become the standard.
You have an assignment this week. If you want to stay sick or if you don't want to get rid of OCD, then don't do this but if you want to be free so that you can get the promise of everything God has for you then you will take the prescription. The prescription is to get into the Word and find out who the Word says you are. We have to know who we are.
OCD is broken in us when we allow God to introduce us to the us He created us to be.
Here is the truth about the Israelites. They didn't have an aptitude problem. In fact, Caleb says it correctly when he said, "We are well able to take the land." They had an attitude problem. They saw wrong, so they thought wrong. The same is true about us. You don’t have an aptitude problem. You have an attitude problem. You are well able. You are gifted. You are anointed. You are skilled. It isn't your aptitude! It is the fact that you have an eye problem. You don't see correctly so you have an attitude problem. Your attitude is I’m not enough even though He has said, “He is enough in us”. Your attitude is I'm not strong enough even though He said, "Greater is He that is in you" and even though He said, "All things are possible to Him that believes." You attitude is I'm a nobody even though He said, "You are the head and not the tail. The first and not the last. You are a joint heir with Christ Jesus."
Please don't forget that the first attack of the enemy in garden was to get us to question what God said. We know the enemy has a job assignment to kill, steal and destroy. I think sometimes we get so focused on the kill part that we forget about the steal part. The enemy wants to steal your knowledge of you are in Christ from you because if he can keep you from knowing who you are, then you may survive, but you won't have any confidence. If he can steal the knowledge of who you are and get you focused on someone else, then he will steal your joy. If he can steal your knowledge of who are you, then he will steal your faith.
But if you can see you as God sees you, then you will possess what you are called to possess and you will possess it without pride but rather with gratitude.
I am asking God to open your eyes this week. The eyes have it. Let us see us right. How do you do that? Look in a mirror? Yes, the right mirror. The mirror of God's Word. Who does God say that you are?
Chosen, anointed, favored, hand selected, more than a conqueror, loved, accepted, known, beautifully and wonderfully made . . . those are all from the Word but what is the Word for you? Find it. Reflect on it. See yourselves in in.
