One of the thoughts I need to set aside is that thought that God could be angry all the time. Angry for my failures. Angry for my stubbornness. Angry for my many sins.
If I feel that God is always angry, how could I desire to sense His presence?
God is love. There may be a lot of times when He feels sad and disappointed for my faults, but I must set aside my image of Him that’s angry all the time.
After all, did He not want us to refrain from hate? Hate is a poison that kills the heart and soul. Hate is that which prompts a person to kill his brother. To hate is to already suffer the pains of hell even while on earth.
Is that the kind of feeling then I must attribute to God? It is certain that He will never approve of my sins, but it is also certain that He is the God of Infinite Mercy and Compassion. He knows my weakness. He knows I’m but like dust. And He loves me. That’s what I must always keep in mind.
Here’s one of the most beautiful quotes I’ve ever read from Julian of Norwich:
“our Protector God has no need to forgive us, for the Divine is not angry with us; it would be impossible for God to be filled with vengeful wrath. I saw that our lives are grounded and rooted in love; without love, we would not be alive. When grace allows us to look into the amazing Divine Goodness, we see we are endlessly made one with God in love and it is impossible that anger separate us from Divine Love. For wrath and friendship are opposite forces. How could the One who erases and heals our angry arrogance, making us gentle and humble, be anything but unified in love, all gentleness and humility, which is the opposite of wrath?”
— Julian of Norwich (All Shall Be Well: A Modern-Language Version of the Revelation of Julian Norwich by Ellyn Sanna)
Here is an excerpt from The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence:
“I consider myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King. Touched with a sensible regret, I confess to Him all my wickedness, I ask His forgiveness, I abandon myself in His hands that He may do what He pleases with me. The King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all.”
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"