Prayer RAM (Catawba, NC)

The station PAX posted at the sight of “36 Hours of Joy” and participated in a Prayer RAM.  Two PAX held down the fort at the Station!

Warm-up:  SSH   Humpies   LBAC

• Running to the first spot.  Pray for a clear mind and cast off all that is distracting or burdening you.  Praise God for who he is in your life and what he has blessed you with.  Spend time praising God.  Pray to yourself or pray aloud as you feel led today.

Run to Creamery:   Rocky Balboas for the six

• Wide merkins – 10 (IC)
• Diamond Merkins – 10 (IC)
• Should Tap Merkins – 10  (OYO)

The prayer focus was that God is glorified through 36 Hours of Joy.  Pray for a servant’s heart.

• Psalm 25:4-5Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.  Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

Medball prayed us out of this station.

Before running to the next station prayer focus was to pray for the safety of everyone involved in the event, the safety of the route, volunteers, and everyone attending.  If you know individuals pray for them by name.  Pray for strangers.  Pray for wisdom and for the drivers to be alert.  

• Psalm 34:15 – The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.

Stop at Peoples Bank.  Rocky Balboas for the six.  Partner up.

• Wall sit – Muhammid Ali’s (partner runs lap and switch)

• Wall sit – Joe Fraziers (partner runs lap and switch) 

• Wall sit – OH Claps (partner runs lap and switch)

Prayer focus was for the community of Catawba, NC, and for unity within the community during this station.  Pax prayed out loud.

Slow mosey to the grassy area.  Prayer focus is for the Youth in Catawba NC and for the Youth center.  The land and the building.  

• Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
• This verse is so powerful.  Q repeated this verse multiple times throughout this section of the workout.

Exercise:  BLIMPS (Burpees, Lunges, Imperial Storm Trooper, Merkin, Plank Jack, Squat) – 10 – Sprint field SSH for six – 9 sprint field SSH for six – repeato to 7 reps.  Pax prayed out loud throughout.

Mosey to church Parking Lot:  8 sprints (80 yards).  Every 2 complete 10 merkins in cadence.  YHC reminded that group that we complete exercises in cadence because we are stronger together.  If we stay together we are stronger.  Bat-flippers might get out front and the six might fall behind, but together we are always stronger. 

Slow mosey to the baseball field across from the church.  While slow moseying YHC read the following.

• Ephesians 6:10-17   10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

• Belt of Truth – The devil fights with lies and sometimes his lies sound like the truth; believers have God’s truth which can defeat the devil’s lies
• Breastplate of Righteousness – The devil often attacks our hearts — the seat of our emotions, identity, and trust.  God’s righteousness is the breastplate that protects our hearts and ensures his approval.  He approves of us — having sent his Son to die for us —- because he loves us.
• Shoes of readiness that come for the gospel of peace – The devil wants us to think that telling others the gospel is a worthless and hopeless task — the size of the task is too big and negative responses are too much to handle.  But the shoes God gives us are the motivation to continue to proclaim the true peace that is available in God — news everyone needs to hear.
• Shield of truth – What we see are the devil’s attacks in the form of insults, setbacks, and temptations.  But the shield of faith protects us from his flaming arrows.  With God’s perspective, we can see beyond our circumstances and know that ultimate victory is ours
• Helmet of salvation – The devil wants to make us doubt God and doubt our salvation.  The helmet protects our minds from doubting God’s saving work for us.
• Sword of the Spirit (word of God) – The sword is the only offensive weapon in this list of armor; all the others are defensive in nature.  There are times when we need to take the offensive against the devil.  When we are tempted, we need to trust in the trust of God’s word.  

Pax circled up on the field and completed several more exercises to finish off the time.  The one legged crouching tiger was lots of fun for all.  Medball reminded the PAX of the story of Joshua holding his arms up during the battle and others coming alongside him to help him hold up his arms.  This was a great reminder that we need others around us, other men, to continue to do God’s will

YHC finished with a word of the day.  The word of the day reinforced putting on the armor of God.  If you are not equipping yourself with the armor of God then what in the world are you doing?  As men of God, we must be equipping ourselves with the armor of God and preparing ourselves for the battle at hand.  We do this because we all will find ourselves in valleys, on mountain tops, and everything in-between.  As a group together we can lean on one another when we are in the valley.  Men, you will end up in a valley, you might be in one right now, that’s OK, it happens!  When it does reach out to another PAX so that they can walk with you, encourage you, and help pull you out of that valley.  If you are on a mountaintop, then look for the man that might be in the valley and help pull them out.  F3 is so much more than a workout it is a brotherhood.  Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity!” This is F3!!!  This is what we should be about.  Men, we like to think that we do “hard” stuff, but we have yet to do anything “hard” compared to what Christ has done for us.  He paid the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.  YHC asks Lip Sync to share a story from this past weekend at Love Life in Charlotte.  The short story is that God was moving and had already set the stage.  All Lip Sync had to do was show up.  Guess what Lip Sync showed up and God moved.  Sometimes it’s as easy showing up, being in-tune with the spirit, and trusting that God has all of the details worked out!!  I encourage you this week to do several things:  

1.  If you are in a valley and struggling, reach out to someone.  We are all here for one another.  
2. If you are on a mountaintop, then look for a brother to encourage and walk with them through the valley.
3. God calls us to show up and trust that he has set the stage and HE will do great things through you if you are in the middle of his will.  Pray that God’s will be done in your life, then SHOW UP and watch him work!
4. Put on the armor of GOD!!! Let’s GO!

Countarama – Namarama (VIDEO)

By the way, there’s a thing called 36 Hours of Joy on October 23-25.  Come out and see what God is doing in Catawba, NC!