Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:6
“We may have knowing of our Self in this life by continuant help and virtue of our high Nature. In which knowing we may exercise and grow, by forwarding and speeding of mercy and grace; but we may never fully know our Self until the last point: in which point this passing life and manner of pain and woe shall have an end…
Methought it was needful to see and to know that we are sinners, and do many evils that we ought to leave, and leave many good deeds undone that we ought to do, wherefore we deserve pain and wrath. And notwithstanding all this, I saw soothfastly that our Lord was never wroth, nor ever shall be. For He is God: Good, Life, Truth, Love, Peace; His Clarity and His Unity suffereth Him not to be wroth.
For I saw truly that it is against the property of His Might to be wroth, and against the property of His Wisdom, and against the property of His Goodness. God is the Goodness that may not be wroth, for He is not [other] but Goodness: our soul is oned to Him, unchangeable Goodness, and between God and our soul is neither wrath nor forgiveness in His sight. For our soul is so fully oned to God of His own Goodness that between God and our soul may be right nought.”
Julian of Norwich (c. 1342-c. 1416) in Revelations of Divine Love (Grand Rapids: CCEL, 1966), pp. 49-50.
Notice what Julian says is needful for us to see and know: “we are sinners, and do many evils that we ought to leave, and leave many good deeds undone that we ought to do.”
In this, however, God is not wroth. That’s Middle English for “intensely angry, furious, or incensed.” Instead, His goodness perpetually pursues us all the days of our lives.
So if you want to grow in generosity today, give thanks for God’s generosity toward you as a sinner and ask Him to help you bless others as He has blessed you.
This will lead to doing more good deeds rather than leaving them undone. And you will gain in the process. As we do good, we take hold of life as God designed for us to live it.