Today I watched birds being mist netted, a technique to capture birds in the wild. Nets that are very difficult for birds to see are strung between two posts somewhere birds are likely to fly into it. The nets are built so that once a bird flies into it, it falls into a loose bit of net, where there's enough slack that a bird's struggles only tangle it more in the net.
How very like sin that is! The devil puts temptation in our paths, in the places we least expect, and the more we struggle to free ourselves without help, the more we entangle ourselves. I also watched a person trying to untangle a bird from a mist net; the bird struggled even harder once he started trying to get it out, ultimately getting itself even more tangled than before. But the man patiently worked to get the out of the net (a process that looked at the least uncomfortable for the bird). And that, too, is like sin--when God tries to rescue us, we often struggle just as much or more against his hand, even though our struggles only tangle us in our sin more. Being untangled can be a long, painful process; but God is patient with us. He keeps trying.
I pray that God will give me the faith to not struggle against His untangling hand.
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