This is one of the most ridiculous products I have ever seen. If you are someone who visits my husband’s blog (www.brainofshawn.com) you will see this picture a little ways down on his page. He really wants one of these things and the response he has gotten from nearly everyone in our family is “FOR WHAT???”. Silliness aside, it really makes it seems as though the person wearing this “thing” has a tentacle for an arm. It looks like the monster lost the arm to its human costume.

Of course this got me thinking. The monster within… we all have one… some of us don’t try too hard to conceal it… some of us are mortified when it shows it’s ugly face. It’s different for everyone, yet it exists. My “monster” usually appears when dealing with friendships. I really am terrible. I can be a super-sensitive, anger-prone, grudge-clinger. At times, this is what my monster looks like and the tentacles come out! It really is quite the ridiculous mental picture… going along then all of the sudden… THE SWAMP MONSTER RETURNS!

Anyway, what does God’s word say about this? It’s a matter of the heart really…

Before Christ, we work alone at trying to earn our way through… and the result?

“The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?”-Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)

“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

“No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and made us waste away because of our sins.” -Isaiah 64:6-7 (NIV)

So by ourselves, we can do nothing…

“…apart from me you can do nothing.”-John 15:5

We MUST rely on Him and Him alone…

“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” -John 14:5-6

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” -John 15:4

When we do accept Jesus as our Lord we are washed clean, punishment paid (by Christ on the cross), and we are given the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Even when words fail us and we are so caught up in the battle against our “monsters” the Spirit intercedes for us…

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” -Romans 8:26-27

Constantly depending on our Father in heaven, the work of His Son on the cross, and giving access to the Spirit who lives in us, we can claim victory through the fruits that He gives us…

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22-23

How do we slowly eliminate this “monster” with-in? Continually give ourselves to God. When I become that super-sensitive, anger-prone, grudge-clinger I go somewhere quiet and bare my soul to the Lord of all creation and let the Holy Spirit work. Reliance on the Father is the only defiance against such a beast!