Hi,<\/p>\n
I’m wondering if promises that randomly pop up in your head are considered valid. Are you required to keep the promises, even though they’re just thoughts? I have OCD and get these thoughts constantly. They cause me a deal of anxiety. Also, in order to treat OCD, am I allowed to purposefully think or say a promise and avoid keeping it? This is in order to lower the anxiety associated with the pop-up thoughts. Will God see this as sinning, regardless of the reason as to why I’m doing it?<\/p>\n\t
“Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it – when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters. And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing<\/em>” (Leviticus 5:4-5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A common mistake is to assume that any promise must be done. But what if a person promises to commit a sin? Such a promise cannot be kept because you cannot do evil in order to do good. “And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? –as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just<\/em>” (Romans 3:8).<\/p>\n
Careless or thoughtless oaths are sinful. Promises are important, so they must be well thought out. In the Old Law, a thoughtless promise was treated as a sin, but you do not see a requirement that they must be kept.<\/p>\n
But I want you to notice something else: promises are given to someone else, they are spoken. A random thought is not a promise. To think about making a promise is not the same as making a promise. To comment on a thought by saying it out loud is not the same as an actual promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hi, I’m wondering if promises that randomly pop up in your head are considered valid. Are you required to keep the promises, even though they’re just thoughts? I have OCD and get these thoughts constantly. They cause me a deal of anxiety. Also, in order to treat OCD, am I allowed to purposefully think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[508,965,967,648,647],"class_list":["post-49413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-mental-illness","tag-ocd","tag-pop-up-thoughts","tag-promises","tag-vows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54618,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-treat-promises-i-fear-as-void-and-non-binding\/","url_meta":{"origin":49413,"position":0},"title":"Can I treat promises I fear as void and non-binding?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello again! I've been wondering: since I suffer from OCD, then are all my promises, which I'm struggling to avoid, nullified the very moment I make them? The problem is that I'm having trouble knowing when my OCD mind is playing games with me or when it's really me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70785,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-vow-not-to-make-promises\/","url_meta":{"origin":49413,"position":1},"title":"Did I vow not to make promises?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm worried that I vowed to God not to make promises. Now I was talking to God, and then in the heat of the moment, I said, \"I do not want to make vows,\" only I didn't say that fully, and I'm pretty sure I cut myself off halfway\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10839,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-have-ocd-religion-and-obsess-over-bad-thoughts-is-there-anything-you-can-do-to-help-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":49413,"position":2},"title":"I have OCD-Religion and obsess over bad thoughts. Is there anything you can do to help me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a serious and tormenting question. I am a member of the church of Christ and have been for a while. Four years ago I was diagnosed with OCD-religion. This is a mental illness which produces unwanted and intrusive bad thoughts. I have been in pure misery and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33699,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-have-ocd-and-suffer-from-blasphemous-thoughts-should-i-stop-confessing-these-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":49413,"position":3},"title":"I have OCD and suffer from blasphemous thoughts. Should I stop confessing these thoughts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a Christian who suffers from OCD. I just read your website on OCD and feel extremely comforted by your knowledge of the illness. I have blasphemous thoughts, and I keep confessing this as sin over and over and over again. Maybe all that confessing is my OCD.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-break-a-deal-i-made-with-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":49413,"position":4},"title":"Can I break a deal I made with God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Last year, I promised God some things in exchange for Him healing or freeing me from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). I promised to stop watching a series that I watched a lot, horror movies, and anime. Well, now I am in psychiatric treatment and I still have OCD, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38767,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-compulsively-want-to-make-vows\/","url_meta":{"origin":49413,"position":5},"title":"I compulsively want to make vows","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a question about vows. For a year or so, when I become concerned that something I'm doing or might do is sinful, I suddenly start to think a vow to God that I won't do that thing. This happens with no time to think about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}