Our Youth Planting a Seed of Legacy
The spiritual discipline of prayer can seem rather complex. A few weeks ago, we had a summer Bible study on this very topic. Some of the questions brought up were:
- Does prayer change God’s mind?
- How does God hear all of our prayers at the same time?
- Does God wait to act until we pray about that specific thing?
We stepped into this topic, and into these difficult questions. Yet, at the end of the night we concluded that prayer is one of the most significant ways we can’t act out our faith. It’s not about how and if God responds, it’s about humbly coming before the Father. We pray to the father to help align our will with His.
So what happens when we align our will with His? A few weeks ago, Donna Mroz, from OC-United, revealed that answer to our students. Two years ago, Donna shared with our group that she had an idea for a domestic abuse support group. She stated that many women in abuse situations won’t attend a support group because they don’t feel safe. She had an idea to hold the support groups at a police station. Donna shared, “How much safer would a woman feel if their abuser would have to show up at a police station to confront them?” Donna told our group that she was in the initial stages of proposing this idea to the Fullerton Police Department.
I told her that we should pray for this idea to happen. We should walk down to Police station and hold hands and prayer for this to be God’s will. I’ll never forget the look on Donna’s face as our students excitedly jumped up from their seats and hurried out the door to go pray for her and her idea. 10 minutes later we gathered on the sidewalk and, one by one, each of the students prayed for Donna and for the support group.
Fast forward two years later as Donna is sharing about the success of her Fullerton support group. She tells the students that they are a few weeks away from launching their 2nd location at the Anaheim Police Department. She told us that she feels that this is her legacy, that God is calling her to start an abuse support group at every police department in Orange County. She then reminded us all of that moment two years ago, maybe something we had forgotten about. Donna told our students that this was their legacy too, that they were a part of this ministry to victims of abuse. Because of their prayer she knew this is what God wanted her to do.
It’s true that we never know how God will respond to our prayers. Yet, we can confidentially pray for His will to be our will. When we do that we are participating in His good works that He has been planning all along.