There is a Net: Part 1

Imagine a tightrope walker in rehearsal, wobbling across, every muscle and nerve trembling with raw fear.  The angst has a ripple effect for everyone in the room.  We are growing increasingly uncomfortable as we watch.  It's not the incompetence makes it so incredibly awkward.  It's the unharnessed anxiety morphing into panic that reverberates in all of us now,  every moment is cringe-worthy.  She is shaking and sweating uncontrollably.  We really don't want to watch..  This is more than performance anxiety.  It's like she's scared for her life.  As if falling wouldn't just be an embarrassment, it would be the end.  Of everything.

She is freaking out because she's forgotten,
or maybe I never knew . . .

There is a Net.  
A Very Strong Net.
And there is a Coach.  Calling out encouragement and truth.  But the walker can't hear Him.  She can't hear anything except the Fear, and it's eating her alive.

". . . Depending on Me may feel like walking on a tightrope, but there is a safety net underneath; the everlasting arms.  So don't be afraid of falling.  Instead, look ahead to Me.  I am always before you, beckoning you on--one step at a time.  Neither height not depth, nor anything else in all creation, can separate you from My loving Presence."  (January 21 in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young)

It stuck out to me when I read it, the line: "So don't be afraid of falling," . . .
FALLING IS NOT AN ACTUAL DANGER
not any more.
The reality:  There is nothing to fear.
The supposed feared object - falling, failing = ultimate tragedy, destruction, shame, whatever . . .
DOES NOT EXIST.
His Arms are TOO BIG, TOO ETERNAL, MORE PRESENT, MORE REAL than any possible or imagined misstep, mess, nonperformance, affliction, catastrophe, doom.

There is a net.
There is a Net.
My Father's Arms are REAL.  HERE.

I may stumble, but I will not
CAN NOT
fall.
Not ultimately in a cataclysmic sort of way.
It is outside the realm of possibility.
I am dwelling on things that no longer exist.

"The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.  Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand."  (Psalm 37:23-24, NLT)

Ultimate and final failure don't exist for me any longer.
This new freedom is not because of my skill, experience or performance,
but because
THE ETERNAL ALMIGHTY GOD holds my hand
and every inch of my being.
(Re the Psalm above, in case you're wondering who the "godly" are.  I am godly only because Christ sacrificed His life to share His godliness with me.  Still trying to get my head around this.  I am definitely not, nor is anyone else, innately godly of my own doing.)

If you are a follower of Jesus, if you have put your trust in Him, you wear his Godliness, His Name, His Death and HIS RESURRECTION
and you are listening to Fear
Sweet dear fellow Christian (little Christ)
Brother or Sister
You are listening to a Lie.
LIE.
FOR THE CHILD OF GOD, FEAR IS A DELUSION.

FEAR = DELUSION

Because

IN CHRIST THERE IS 

NOTHING TO FEAR.

This is not a figurative, positive-thinking, self-help kind of statement.
This is a declaration of reality . . . similar to:  the Earth is round.
There is NOTHING IN EXISTENCE that can ultimately harm the person who trusts in Jesus.
Romans 8!

Now about that Coach, moving on to Part 2 . . .