Believe in the One He Sent

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Watching all you people with green thumbs this time of year is like watching little kids in early December. The excitement is palpable. You finally get to dig in your dirt. Finally, you get to plant your salads and your flowers. And, like the kids who write their letters to Santa and wait in hopeful anticipation, so do you do your planting and watch for the first sprouts to poke up through the earth.

If you didn’t believe that your garden would grow, you wouldn’t do the work of planting seeds. If little Johnny didn’t believe that presents would be under the tree on Christmas morning, he wouldn’t bother making a list.

What about our faith? Do we believe that Christ, risen from the dead, is alive within us? Do we do the work of asking our Lord to strengthen our faith? 

Our brains may not be able to grasp the power of the risen Christ, and our minds may not be able to fully comprehend that the Eucharist really is the Body and Blood of Christ, but when we profess our belief in these truths and open our hearts to Him, we invite our Lord to bless us with even deeper faith – faith that has the power to transform us.

Deeper faith gives us the strength to imitate Christ even more closely and become more like Him. It also gives us the courage to take steps toward Him with humility, kind of like how you plant seeds: We trust that He’ll bless us and our efforts and bring to fruition the works of our hands. 

With stronger faith we open our hearts to Christ’s loving grace and come to understand His Way better. As Augustine of Hippo said, “For understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe so that you may understand.”

And what rewards we receive when we believe! We receive insight where there had been ignorance. We experience peace of mind and heart when we accept that “God makes all things work together for good for those who love him” (Romans 8:28). We learn the redemptive value of suffering. We are strong with Him where we had been weak by ourselves. And so much more.

As you plant the seeds in your garden this spring – or watch your neighbors do so – ask our Lord to plant the seeds of faith deeper into your heart. Ask Him for faith that fills you with grace, courage, strength, humility, and understanding. Let your belief in Him enlighten you; transform you; and empower you to do His will.

“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”  –John 6:29

Open my eyes, that I may see You. Open my ears, that I may hear You. Open my heart, that I may love You in the people around me.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below.  Comments are always welcome! 

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list. 

You can also find my posts on my Facebook page!

P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the people around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Life in Abundance

Photo credit: Free-images.com

Though our consumer society tells us otherwise, material goods may give us fleeting happiness, but the joy they give doesn’t last forever. Everything breaks down, or we get tired of them: cars, appliances, homes, clothes. Like the bicycle that brings happiness to the 10-year-old until he wants a bigger bike, our possessions bring us joy, but that pleasure is short-lived. We’re always searching for the bigger, newer item. 

Our souls are searching, too. They’re searching for Christ – for Peace. God designed us to understand that there’s more to life than accumulating stuff. Deep down, we’re happiest when we live in Christ and allow Him to fill us with His grace, power, and love. We experience lasting joy when we’re detached from our material goods; we feel His peace when what we want aligns with what He wants. As Augustine of Hippo wrote, “You have created us for Yourself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in You.” 

When Christ said, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), He wasn’t saying, “If you follow Me then you’ll have material wealth and you’ll be free of hardships.” What He meant was more like, “If you follow Me then you’ll have riches that are greater than material goods. Do everything with Me and for Me, and I’ll give you hope in difficult times and peace through your suffering.” 

What does this abundant life look like? Goodness in our hearts. Joy in simple things. Detachment from worldly goods. The freedom, desire, and willingness to share what we have. A clear conscience. Avoidance of anything that separates us from Christ. A sense of purpose in contributing toward the betterment of society. Feeling that what we’re doing is what God wants us to do. Gratitude for our life; taking care of our body, mind, and soul. Appreciation of nature; taking care of our planet. A welcoming and inclusive heart toward people of all walks of life. The desire to spend time with our Lord – and doing so – to let His grace fill our heart. 

Having abundant life doesn’t mean we won’t have hardships. Christ wasn’t spared His passion and death, yet God used Christ’s suffering for a greater good: to break the power of evil and to prove that evil and even death itself didn’t have the last say. If we imitate Christ and ask God to use our suffering for some greater good, He will do so. We then trust Him to lead us through each difficult situation. His love gives us hope; His strength gives us peace.

Material goods give us fleeting happiness. Seek the lasting joy that comes from having an abundance of spiritual goods. Strive for riches that will never break down. Follow Christ, and let Him fill your soul with His abundant blessings.

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” – John 10:10

“Lord, fill my soul with Your riches.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2024 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature and so I appreciate your help in sharing my reflections. Thanks!

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

You can also find my posts on Facebook!

P.S.

Pray for peace in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, and around the world. Donate toward a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the families around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Chocolate Trees?

Last weekend as we walked around the neighborhood, my husband and I admired the many trees full of apples, pears, and peaches. I said to him, “Why didn’t God make chocolate trees?” Wouldn’t it be great to pick a Hershey bar or even special dark chocolate off a tree! Then I added, “Well, He did give us cocoa plants. I guess He left it up to us to figure out how to turn that into something delicious.”

In addition to providing us with fruit and other food, God has generously allowed us to experience the joy of creating all kinds of wonderful items made from the basics. We’ve learned how to make ice cream from milk, bread from wheat, and wine from grapes. Can you imagine the excitement the ancient peoples felt when they first tasted rich chocolate?

God didn’t make chocolate trees because, in His wisdom, He knows that we learn patience and the value of hard work when we have to put in some effort to get what we want. We appreciate it more. Picking tomatoes off the vine that we planted and watered for many weeks is incredibly more satisfying than picking one out of the bin at the grocery store. Also, just as loving parents don’t give their child everything he wants when he wants it, in His love for us God doesn’t give us everything we want, either. We may want chocolate to be as readily available as the fruit that grows on trees, but fruit contains vitamins and nutrients that help keep our body functioning properly. Chocolate? Not so much. 

This appreciation goes far beyond growing food, too. Maybe you’ve felt happy in your work when you finally solved a problem, discovered something new, or finished a project you’d been working on for a long time. 

All work is valuable. Through it we learn, produce, and interact with other people. Some work we get paid to do; other work may keep our household running smoothly or benefit the community in some way. Everything we do can be considered sacred if we do it to the best of our ability and thank God for the opportunity and the people we work with. Whether we work in a chocolate factory or are a stay-at-home parent, the work itself is less important than the way we do it. 

As Augustine of Hippo said, “I will suggest a means whereby you can praise God all day long, if you wish. Whatever you do, do it well, and you have praised God.” 

“May the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours; prosper the work of our hands for us!” – Psalm 90:17

“Lord, thank You for letting me see the value of my work. Help me to do it to the best of my ability, and always with love.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2023 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature and so I appreciate your help in sharing my reflections. Thanks!

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

P.S.

We continue to pray for an end to the war. If you’d like to help the people of Ukraine through the Cleveland Maidan Association, you may use either PayPal or a credit/debit card here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/...

P.P.S. If you’re able to help the people of Maui, here are a few organizations that are accepting donations:

The Hawaii Community Foundation 

The American Red Cross

The Maui Food Bank

What We Long For

 

What We Long For

 “He longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.”

–Luke 15:16

The verse above is found in the story that traditionally has been called The Prodigal Son, The Lost Son, or The Forgiving Father. This parable holds many lessons for us; here’s one to consider:

We’re given details indicating that the father was wealthy. The younger son asked for his share of his inheritance while his father was still alive (see Luke 15:12) and ‘set off to a distant country’ (v. 13). While it was cruel to essentially tell his father he wished his father were dead, his wanting to get away from home isn’t much different from our own desires to move out on our own, travel and explore. He wanted to see what the rest of the world was like and how the people out there lived. Although he had everything he needed, he longed for something different and thought he would find it if he had the freedom to get out.

This verse makes it clear that, after a time, he found himself unhappy, starving, and alone. His new ‘friends’ left him when he ran out of money. Even the detested pigs ate better than he did. He had thought that getting ‘out there’ and away from his father would make him happy, but any happiness he experienced was short-lived.

Sometimes we, too, look outside ourselves for happiness, peace, and love. We mistakenly think that there is such a thing as a ‘perfect’ job, house, or spouse. We think we’ll be happy if only we could find it and may spend a lifetime chasing after it.

Augustine of Hippo once said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Nothing on earth can satisfy this longing in our hearts because what we’re longing for is Perfect Love and Perfect Peace – God Himself. Until we meet Him in eternity, we will find only glimpses of this Love and Peace here on earth.

God is love. He lives in you; He’s everywhere you are. Open your eyes to His presence. Allow Him to draw you closer to Himself and to fill your heart with more and more of His love. How? Some people take a moment each morning to write down three things they’re grateful for. Some sit outside or by a window and thank God for showing His love through nature. Some turn to the psalms or other Scripture passages for reminders of His love.

When you feel restless, remember that God created you. He designed you to long for Him -- Perfect Peace and Perfect Love. When you open your heart to His love and see Him all around you, you’ll get a glimpse of the joy and peace that awaits you in eternity.

“Lord, draw me closer to You. My heart will be restless until I rest in You.”

 

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2022 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! Feel free to share it with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Thanks!

 If you would like to receive these reflections directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

 p.s.

We continue to pray for an end to the war. If you’d like to help the people of Ukraine through the Cleveland Maidan Association, you may use either PayPal or a credit/debit card here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/...