O Lord, Hear My Prayer

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When life knocks us down and we don’t get the answers we want to our prayers, we may question God’s love for us. Maybe you’ve asked Him questions like, “Why did You let her break up with me?” or “Why did You let me get fired?” God might answer, “She didn’t love you. I want you to be happy, and you wouldn’t have been happy with her” and “I let you get fired so you could find more satisfying work that better utilizes your talents.”

Heartache, fear, and anguish are natural and normal human feelings and may drag us into dark places. We may feel abandoned by God and wonder why He let this happen.

God doesn’t promise we won’t have pain; He promises to be with us during our pain. Christ relates to our suffering because He also experienced deep anguish during His passion and crucifixion. He begged the Father to ‘take this cup away from me’ and yet added, ‘not my will, but Yours be done.’ The Father knew, and Jesus knew, that He had to die first in order to attain the joy of victory – His resurrection. 

Asking, and trusting, Christ to carry our cross with us helps take some of our pain away. Prayer helps us remember that He loves us and wants what’s best for us; that He sees things we can’t see and knows things we can’t know; that He wants us to be happy; that He can make good come of any situation; and that He will never leave us alone. 

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia used to talk about a contest he was asked to judge, a contest to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old boy. The boy’s next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman whose wife had recently passed away. When the boy noticed the man out in his yard crying, he went over to the man, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he’d said to the neighbor, the little boy replied, "Nothing. I just helped him cry."

Christ may not change our situation, but He shows us His compassion through a friend’s loving actions and supportive words. He reminds us of His love when we read Scripture. He gives us new insight and encouragement through a homily. He’s also given us tools to help ourselves relieve stress through activities we enjoy like taking in the beauty of nature, listening to music, getting some exercise, or doing yoga stretches. 

Suffering is part of life, and Christ never meant for us to suffer alone. In the midst of our pain, we trust Him to stay with us and help us carry our cross. 

“Oh, Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.” – Psalm 102:2

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.

Let Christ Get Into Your Boat

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In Mark’s gospel, the apostles are rowing their boat with the winds blowing against them. They’re straining at the oars – anyone who has rowed or paddled against the wind can relate to this! Then, they see Christ walking on the water and they’re terrified. As He walks toward them, He tells them He’s with them so there’s nothing to be afraid of. He gets into their boat and the wind stops. Why didn’t Christ stop the wind first? He wanted them to learn that He’d be with them during any trial, and that no obstacle could stop Him. 

He wants us to learn from this, too. Just as He saw the apostles’ fight against the wind, Christ sees our struggles, too. He makes Himself available to us to calm our fears. Do we let Him get into our boat? And how do we do this? 

We recognize, first, that fear babbles at us and tries to keep our minds fixed on everything that can go wrong or everything we’ve done wrong. In contrast, faith lets us keep our focus on Christ’s love for us. Faith gives us the courage to believe and trust that He’s with us, and will stay with us, and that He’ll calm the storms around and within us. Later in the passage, Mark points out that they crossed the lake and landed at Gennesaret. So we know that, after Christ got into their boat, the apostles continued to row until they reached the shore. So faith lets us say, “OK, God, everything’s in Your hands. I’m going to keep rowing; I ask You to guide me in the direction You want me to go.” Our job is to listen and then act when we sense Him steering us in a particular direction.

It’s this turning to Christ, this asking Him to guide us, that frees us from our fears of the fierce winds we’re battling. We recognize that maybe the only thing in our control is how we ‘row our boat’ while the winds blow. We can row frantically on our own and let ourselves be filled with anxiety, or we can row steadily, trusting Christ to be with us and lead us, not allowing fear to overwhelm us. 

We can’t ignore our struggles, just as the apostles couldn’t ignore the wind. Like the apostles, we let Christ into our ‘boat’ – whatever situation we find ourselves in – and continue to row with Him by our side. We ask Him to calm the storm that’s raging in and around us. We listen for His direction and act accordingly. And in doing all of this, we open our hearts to His peace. 

“‘Then He saw that they were tossed about while rowing… and said to them, ‘Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!’ He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.” – Mark 6:48, 50-51

“Lord, stay with me. Guide me. Let me experience Your peace.”

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. 

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

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, in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, 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 families around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

When the Storms Rage

 

 “A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ The wind ceased and there was great calm.” –Mark 4:37-39

The wind is howling, rain is pelting the apostles, and waves are crashing over the sides of the boat. Anyone who has lived through this kind of nightmare can identify with the apostles’ terror. Yet through it all, Jesus is asleep in the stern. As the apostles struggle to stay afloat, they wake Him up and accuse Him of not caring that they’re all about to drown.

Jesus orders the wind to stop and it does. As miraculous as that is, we may wonder: Why did He allow the storm in the first place? Why didn’t He prevent it?

One answer is that He knew that their fear would bring them closer to Him; it would make them turn to Him for help. His stopping the storm let them witness His power, which strengthened their faith in Him, which made them want to follow Him more closely, which let them experience more of His love. Had the seas stayed calm, none of that would have happened, at least not there.

God wants you to experience His love, too. Is your boat being tossed around? Are you going through another storm right now? Do you feel far away from God, or think He’s sleeping through your ordeal? If so, call out to Him. Tell Him about your pain and your fears. Ask Him to guide you through them.

Look for Him, and see how He calms the storm through the people around you. If you’re preparing for a funeral, maybe friends are calling, texting, or bringing you meals to share in your sorrow and remind you that you’re not alone. If you’re suffering with an illness, feel His love expressed through the people caring for you. Maybe this downtime could be an opportunity to take care of yourself by slowing down, talking with Him more, listening to Him more, and letting Him remind you of His love for you. If you’re worried for someone else going through a storm, follow His promptings to reach out to them. You may be an answer to their prayers.  

Trust that God will be with you through every storm. Let your worry and fear inspire you to turn to Him for help. Trust Him to use His power to rescue you in one way or another. Let Him show you His love for you and strengthen you in body, mind, or spirit.

“Lord, help me to trust You’re with me when the storms are raging around me.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2022 Gina Bedell    

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.

Comments are always welcome! Feel free to share it with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Thanks!

 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/...