Struggling Against the Snare

We talked about proverbs 29:25 in our Bible study this morning. 

"the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be safe." Proverbs 29:25

There are two ways to interpret what “the fear of man” could mean in this verse. It could be fear of what other men can do to us or any fear in general that man deals with. Doug got to talking about a snare and how it works. I never really put much thought in it, but the snare is usually a string or wire in a loop that tightens as the animal tries to get away. The more the animal struggles to get out of the snare the tighter and tighter it gets. 

We talked about this concept and how it applied to two groups of believers. For example, if a domesticated dog got caught in a snare, you can instruct it to sit and be calm as their master removes the snare it is trapped in. A wild animal on the other hand, will take no instruction. It will run, pull and accept no help until it completely tires itself out. As believers we either fall into the category of sitting calmly and letting God remove the snare, realizing He can and will remove it for us. Or, we fall into the wild animal category, struggling on our own until we fully exhaust ourselves. 

I struggle too much trying to remove snares I get caught in with fear, exhausting myself over and over. Our talk about the snare helped remind me that the more I struggle on my own, the tighter the fear grips around me. Sitting still, giving it to God, and waiting on Him to remove the snare is no doubt the better option of the two. A dog can't remove the snare himself and neither can I, so I may as well stop struggling, sit calmly and wait. If I have to wait either way, I may as well not waste time exhausting myself in the process.