“Prime Time” Deion Sanders may be best known for his on-the-field antics and showboating during his time as both a professional baseball and football player. Today, Sanders is a changed man. As head coach at Jackson State football team, he leads the next generation of football stars including his QB star son Deion Junior. Little did he know that the past 12 months would have been the trial of his life. Yet through it all, prayer and faith saw him through to another spiritual and physical victory.
“It’s been a tremendous ride,” he recalled in a recent interview on Thee Pregram’s YouTube channel.
“It may smell like smoke because we’ve been through the fire but I wouldn’t change none of it. I needed it, I love it, I’m proud of it. I am thankful for it.”
Sanders related that in the midst of an extreme trial of faith and life, he saw and knew God in a way he never knew before. Sanders revealed earlier in the year that he was forced to amputate two toes after battling blood clots that threatened his life.
“I got to really see God’s face and the different personalities of God I feel. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
This was his second bout with a life or death situation when in 1997 he attempted suicide by driving his car off a cliff. Sanders survived and eventually gave his life to Christ.
“I was going through the trials and tribulations of life. I was pretty much running on fumes. I was empty, no peace, no joy. Losing hope with the progression of everything,” Sports Casting reported.
“I finally just got on my knees and gave it all to the Lord,” Sanders said.
For Sanders, he’s now a family man, putting God and family ahead of the game or anything else. But that doesn’t mean he’s exempt from trials and tribulations. Just this year, Sanders is coming out of a tremendous personal trial where the reality of death and/or losing his leg from the knee down was a reality. But it was his prayer and faith that kept him alive and intact physically.
“When I look up and say thank you, Jesus. I know the quiet cries in the hospital. I know all those speaking in tongues and praying and praising him through and through. I am pretty sure some of those nurses thought I was crazy. I know when I walked out of there, they said that negro, he’s saved, I don’t care what anybody else says.”
Sanders confessed he cried out to God all night, trusting his life into the Lord’s hands.
“He heard you because you’re here,” said his assistant coach who interviewed him.
Sanders responded, “Amen.”
“God saw me through.”
