"Pick a Side!"

"But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;" (Psalms 103:17)
Talk about a sleepless night; I actually thought about doing this blog at 2 this morning. It may have been this title; although I do not remember what time of the night that it entered my mind, only that it just kept repeating over and over, and next thing I knew I was dreaming about 'will,' as in, the will to do this or that. Here is that word 'fear' again; just a gentle reminder that there is something more to this relationship than just trying to get along with God. After the last couple of days, I was starting to feel that I was seriously lacking in my effort to serve the Lord. When God speaks into our hearts, it is usually in regard to our own needs and failures, not just for someone else that might be listening. Here is the difference between what we are and what God is: Everything! We are weak, but He is strong; we are unholy, but He is Holy; we are lacking the love needed to love as we should, but God is Love! That was the kind of stuff that was going through my mind all night; the huge contrast between what God is and what we are, and the main reason we need to keep drawing closer and closer to Him. There is where I believe that fear takes a place in this relationship, in that it causes us to desire to be on the right side. It's not just about being afraid of something, because the fear we need requires that we draw closer and closer; if anything, we are afraid of being out of His protection and His will. There's that word again, 'will.' Will you do this for me? Do you have the will in you to do what is right? Can I will myself to do anything at all? God has given us free-will, which an ability to make a choice about what we should do, or not do. I don't think that it needs to be a negative thing, not unless we will not fear the LORD; if we don't fear the LORD, then free-will, will be devastating, to say the least. I might think that I fear God, but when I do some of things I do, even though I know that He is watching, how does that demonstrate fear? It does not! And then I realize how much I need His mercy; and it's a good thing that it's from everlasting to everlasting, otherwise I would have used it up long ago...
"But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus." (Romans 3:21-26) NLT