A
person who is said to have a monkey on his or her back most likely appears to
be struggling with an overwhelming and troubling burden. A persistent problem
might be described as a monkey on one’s back. www.voices.yahoo.com/idioms-unpacked-monkey-back-5456074.html?cat=37
John
Meggiolaro, a managing partner at the business development firm, The Travid
Group, in his post Getting A Monkey Off
Your Back profoundly stated that “almost
all of us are walking around with one or more monkeys on our backs. For some,
they are the size of a baby chimpanzee. For others, they may be full-grown
gorillas. No matter the size, the fact that one or more are there demands our
attention. And it's no secret that the care and feeding of these monkeys can be
overwhelming”. http://EzineArticles.com/5174439
I can agree with Mr. Meggiolaro to a
certain degree. Unless you are a child as described by Jesus Christ in Matthew
18:3, we all are walking around with
a monkey-two monkeys-three monkeys (you get the drift) on our backs! And the monkey
or monkeys is sin in its most basic form. So it doesn’t matter the size – sin
is sin and because it separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). Anything that we
allow to detach us from God puts us in a very bad place.
There were also several suggested
for getting the monkey off our back, like: 1) pick a monkey; 2) state your
desired outcome in a proactive manner; 3) identify the possible road blocks
that might get in the way; 4) select actions to overcome those road blocks; 5)
identify anything else that may impact your ability to achieve your desired
outcome; and, 6) take action.
Pick
a monkey. Galatians 5:19-21
“Now
the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts
of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness,
revelries, and the like; of which, I tell you beforehand, just as I also told
you in times past, that those that practice such things will not inherit the
kingdom of God”. These are your monkey choices and I guarantee you that we
all have a multitude of these little critters; they don’t come in ones’!
State your desired outcome in a
proactive manner.
Matthew 7:7-8; Matthew 6:6; 1 Peter 3:12; 1 John 5:14-15
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For
everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks,
the door will be opened”. “But thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly”. We want to rid ourselves of the monkeys, we want
relief from the stress and we want peace. God knows what we need even better
than we do and he is willing to give us the means necessary to put our lives
back on track. As a matter-of-fact, he has already given it to us, it is called
prayer! But we have work to do…like His will….for starters and enders! “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and
his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them
that do evil”.
“And this is the confidence that we have
in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if
we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of him”. We have to be proactive in our petitions to the
Lord and remember we have an active part in our prayers; we must be willing to
do our share.
Identify the possible roadblocks that
might get in the way.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9; Matthew 6:24; 1 John 2:15-17
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed”. “No man can
serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else
he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”.
“Do not love the world or anything in the
world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[a] is not in them. For
everything in the world—the lust of the world and its desires pass away, but
whoever does the will of God lives forever”. Our only roadblock is the love
of the world for this is the catalyst for every sin that we commit, no matter
what that sin is, because if we love anything or anyone more than we love the
Lord, we will sin. Whatever it is that has put us a guilty distance from God
starts with something that is in the world that we desire…whatever it is, and all of this gets in our way of serving Him
properly and causes those monkeys to jump all over us!
