Justin Sullivan A Life Worth Following

The Power of Prayer Many times people equate the effectiveness of prayer with what God has done to answer their requests, and when they do not get what they ask for they turn to God in bitterness and accuse Him of not caring for them. Sometimes God does not always answer our prayers with an immediate yes, but He sometimes answers them with a not yet, and regardless of His answer, He most certainly always cares for us. We tend to turn our focus inwardly on our own needs and we forget how amazing it is when God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, chooses to use us to meet the prayers of others. Such was the case today when God used the Oklahoma City Ambassadors to answer the prayer of a little old lady who was the grandmother of a small girl who had just had a brain aneurism. The little girl desperately needed an MRI, which costs about $8,000 pesos ($200.00 USD). The family did not have that money so the hospital told them that it was probably best to take her home so that she could die comfortably in familiar surroundings instead of in a hospital. That night the grandmother prayed for God to send her some angels to help her grandchild. We went to the hospital not knowing any of this and not expecting to have this kind of encounter, but in the very last room that we visited this little old lady came running up to Coach V speaking rapidly in spanish and pointing up to the sky. Not knowing a lick of spanish but sensing the guidance of the Holy Spirit Coach V called for a translator. The lady proceeded to tell coach the story of her grandchild, and how she had asked God to send her angels. Then she told coach that we were those angels. After sharing this story with the ambassadors, many of the players felt led to help provide for this family and we took up a collection. We were able to give enough to help this little girl to get her MRI, which is the only chance she has to diagnose the problem and help the doctors to be able to treat her. When Ramon and Coach V presented the Grandmother with the money she was overcome with emotions and she embraced our players with hugs, handshakes, and tears for so long that we were actually late for our baseball game. This Grandmother had prayed the night before out of love and desperation for her grandchild, and God used the ambassadors to show her God's love and compassion for His people. My prayer is that God will continue to use the Ambassadors to answer the prayers of people who are desperate and hopeless. I pray that we continue to make ourselves available to be used to bring hope and peace to people who are searching for answers. I pray that our ambassador players are changed for life after seeing how God can use them to meet the needs of those around them, and that by making themselves available to be used they can point a needy people to God. Living for God is the greatest journey that any of us could ever embark on. Everything else becomes secondary. The highlights and joys of our lives become the stories where God uses us to build a bridge to someone else's heart and everything else seems insignificant by comparison. After today I am encouraged to discipline myself to pray more. Jesus modeled this discipline for a reason, he taught His disciples how to pray, and he challenged them to make it a priority. Oh yeah, we played a baseball game today and won 6-2. Fun, but insignificant in comparison to seeing God use the Ambassadors to answer prayer. -AD