Tate Vs. Rousey On "The Ultimate Fighter": An Answer To Prayer?

Earlier today on Yahoo, I saw a headline regarding the Tate-Rousey feud.  After reading the article, I was amazed to discover that former Strikeforce champ Miesha Tate will now be coaching against UFC champ Ronda Rousey.  Long story short, Cat Zingano, who was supposed to coach, injured her knee and had to bow out.  Dana White called Tate to fill in and she said yes.  Since the biggest grudge match in MMA today is now going to happen, UFC fans (including myself) are ecstatic.  However, considering how the events unfolded, I'm wondering if God is using this to accomplish something much greater. 

After all, I saw the match between Zingano and Tate.  Zingano won fair and square, and if Kate Winslow hadn't stopped that bout, Tate wouldn't have a face left.  In an instant, Tate lost a chance to coach and get a title shot on the first ever season of "The Ultimate Fighter" to have female coaches.  However, now, she miraculously gets reinstated as a coach and title challenger in one fell swoop.  Tate is an elite fighter, but there is no way she can claim that she earned this.  God gave it to her as a gift.  I truly believe that Jesus will use this to lead her to Him.  Am I saying that my prayers were the only factor here?  Absolutely not.  Do I believe that God has listened to them?  Oh Heaven Yeah! 

Now, obviously, I was not praying for Zingano to get injured.  I'm a huge fan of "Alpha" and think that she is a humble and classy fighter.  I loved her brutal honesty after the match where she admitted that she was scared to death of Tate and really looked up to her.  Nor am I saying that God gets enjoyment out of letting athletes get their joints blown out.  That simply is not true.  Sometimes, though, God allows bad things to happen so that His work can be seen in the lives of people.  I believe that it was His will that Tate would get this coaching spot, and I also believe that He will use it to reveal Himself to Tate.  For that reason, I prayed for fifteen minutes at church tonight that He would use "The Ultimate Fighter" to lead her to salvation.  As I was praying, Vitor Belfort and Benson Henderson came to mind as well.  I prayed that those two Christian fighters would have an impact on Tate as well.  At any rate, Jesus Christ has shown that He has been listening to my prayers, and I will no longer doubt Him as I continue to pray on the behalf of MMA fighters.

For more on how Tate became a coach on "The Ultimate Fighter", see the following link to Yahoo!Sports:  

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mma--ronda-rousey-shocked-as-miesha-tate-replaces-an-injured-cat-zingano-on-ufc-s--tuf--show-233340082.html

Miesha Tate Prayer Update #3

I prayed all of last night to get caught up on my prayers for Miesha Tate's salvation.  It was rough: I kept getting distracted and doozed off several times.  I do not recommend marathon prayer sessions for people who are just starting off.  In my opinion, it's better off to consistently pray for a short time period a day, then increase it as your spiritual muscles grow.  At any rate, I felt led to pray about her relationship with Bryan Caraway this time.  Now, listen, I don't know either of these people and have no idea whether or not they have a good relationship.  In fact, their dating life is none of my business.  That being said, it is foolish to think that Miesha's boyfriend won't have an influence on whether or not she finds God.  For that reason, I prayed that God would work it out so that Miesha would be led to Christ, regardless of whatever happens to her relationship with Bryan.  Who knows?  Maybe Bryan will get saved, too.  I will just have to pray and have faith. 

Miesha Tate Prayer Update #2

I just prayed for Miesha Tate for an hour to put myself back on schedule.  I shifted my focus to asking God to help her heal physically from her match with Cat Zingano.  I also asked him to help her recover emotionally, since getting upset in a bout with such high stakes had to be an extremely disappointing experience.  For some reason, "Temari's Theme" from the Naruto soundtrack kept playing in the back of my mind and I was imagining myself praying in the voice of Chester Benington from Linkin Park for a bit.  However, that probably had more to do with the fact that I am a rabid Linkin Park/Naruto fan (although I am giving up the latter for reasons I will reveal later). 

I did get some bad news earlier today, though.  I won't get into all the gritty details, but suffice it to say that it involves my living situation.  I was blindsided with it after my afternoon jog and wasn't too happy, although I kept my emotions in check.  I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened the month that I decided to get right with God and dedicate myself more fervently to Jesus Christ.  Especially since this happened only a couple of days after I lost my job.  Nonetheless, God has shown that He is still looking out for me, since He gave me my old job teaching martial arts again.  While I do anticipate more trials as I pray for the salvation of MMA fighters, I know that Christ will support me through these hardships. 

Rebirth!

God has told me for months that my 28th year would be life-changing.  I have a great new church, new friends, a new martial art to master and everything is getting better.  The darkness that began in December of 2010 has finally started to lift and the Holy Spirit is showing me what I need to do for my future.

At the same time, I am remaining vigilant.  Without a doubt, Satan has gotten wind that 2013 is the year of my rebirth.  The recent spiritual ambush which I experienced confirmed it.  Luckily, my mentor and a local pastor came beside me to help me survive it.  Christ listened to their prayers and rescued me from the evil one.

However, there is one more battle that I must face.  Even if Satan were to be chained up in the bottomless pit right now, I have one foe who will not be defeated so easily: myself.  Is my flesh more powerful than the devil?  Absolutely not.  Nonetheless, Satan can only be in one place at one time, whereas I am stuck with my sinful nature until the day I die.  Starting this year, I will daily put that nature to death.  Starting this year, I am reborn!

Miesha Tate Prayer Update #1

So far, I've stayed on top of my prayer sessions for Miesha Tate.  It has not been easy.  Satan has done all sorts of things to try to distract me.  Sometimes, he has succeeded in breaking my concentration.  However, whenever I get knocked off course, I refocus on God and get back on track.

I've mainly prayed for her salvation, but I've also prayed for healing from the feud with Ronda Rousey.  Obviously, I don't know Miesha personally.  That being said, based on what I've read and watched online, it seems like she was wounded deeply by the whole conflict.  Additionally, that upset loss to Cat Zingano has to have been devastating, so I will pray that she bounces back from that, too. 

Stepping Into The Spiritual Octagon

I've decided to make MMA fighters the focus of my prayer projects.  God has used them in a mighty way in my life.  Before I got into MMA, I was depressed and discouraged.  I honestly felt that my life was going nowhere.  Seeing these young men and women pursue their dreams inspired me to go for my own.  In praying for their salvation, I am able to give something back.  I also love that some of them are Christians and honor Jesus for their success.  For these warrior-saints, I will be praying that they receive the strength to resist temptation and continue to boldly proclaim their faith.  Meanwhile, I will step into the spiritual octagon to battle on their behalf through prayer.    

May Celebrity Prayer Project: Miesha Tate!

                                                        (Photo from Wikipedia.org)

After skipping April, I decided to get back on track by praying for the salvation of former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Miesha "Cupcake" Tate.  In spite of being an accomplished fighter, she is best known for her personal feud with current Women's MMA Queen Ronda Rousey.  If WMMA were high school, Rousey would be the head cheerleader and Tate would be the President of the Honor Society.  It was basically a no-win situation for Tate; it had to be tough to see everyone gush over the person who went out of their way to make her life miserable.  The bright side of her upset loss to Cat Zingano is that it gives time for the whole feud to cool off a bit.  This will allow her to refocus on her fighting career.  In light of this, I decided to refocus on my prayer life and made Tate my May prayer project.  So here we go: 31 15-minute rounds of prayer for the former champ!  Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's time!