OCD and signs from God

Does anyone else feel they find themselves getting lots of signs from God?

The thing is, I pray for a sign and it seems like I get a ton but I can't tell if it's really God or just me being overly aware.

For example, lately I have been obsessing over a fear of a house fire. I prayed to God asking for a sign and for Him to show me what to do to stop a fire from happening.

After praying, I swear there was a million signs. Problem is, were they signs or am I just hyperaware? For instance, after praying: I was watching the office and after the episode the next one on the lineup was called "The Fire." At the same time I was cleaning out this closet with a bunch of old papers and found 2 papers, from 2 completely different landlords, BOTH about our smoke detectors. This to me was the biggest sign. What are the chances these two papers would be right next to each other ? They are from 2 different landlords so no reason they would be together other than coincidence if not a sign. Then my cousin sent me a Snapchat of a game she was playing and there was fire in the game.

What do you think? Coincidence or signs? Anyone else battling these things?

I'm a fairly religious person as well, but I would think that a sign would presumably convey some kind of meaning. What it sounds like is that you're noting every single reference to fire that comes up in your daily life -- and fire is a pretty common word. Just imagine if you were worried about getting hit by lighting, how many times within a few days you'd encounter words like "storm", "rain", "clouds, etc. My advice would be to try and take a deep breath and treat your obsession as an obsession.

I've had this all of my life. To date, NONE of my imagined messages from God have come to any sort of fruition. Coincidences abound - everywhere! I think if you were to receive such a message it would not take the form of your present perceptions of messages. I recall dreaming once about a car accident and the next day found out my son was in one - and survived, thank God. But that dream was an entirely different phenomenon than seeing signs from God everywhere.

Now, not to get too metaphysical about things, there may indeed be messages from another dimension, a supernatural realm, or from God - or maybe even the devil playing with our heads. But I only found inner peace by finally deciding to ignore these so called miraculous messages. Coincidences are fun, and most people marvel at them without getting bent out of shape over them. We with OCD tend to fixate on imagined messages as we need to believe that A GREAT SOURCE OF COMFORT is out there to protect us. And we do need to believe that, to desperately want security, a feeling of peace and safety, and our ritualized thinking provides with temporary relief. We must have needed to feel safe at an early age and OCD rituals, obsessive praying, etc. helped us out.

This never works, but I'd say, pay no attention to these signs. If there are mystical messages out there, they won't appear in every day coincidences. There are millions of impressions we take in a day, and once in a while, we see these coincidences like two papers from landlords talking about smoke detectors. From an outsider's perspective, that doesn't seem rare at all. But we are quick, us OCD folk, and pick up cues from everywhere. A lot of us are witty and have highly developed senses of humor as well, because we are so practiced on seeing relationships (even if there are none) and understanding the illusory world of so called normalcy - we see behind the masks of expected "normal" social behavior.

Hope this helps.