Just let go and let God!  Have you heard that before?
 
What keeps us from honoring God, trusting God, loving God?  Ephesians 4:31 states, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you........” Are we afraid to let go? Have we been let down so many times in the past that we are afraid to trust someone?

God is not just someone. God is everything. And he loves us and tells us He will look out for us. “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Is it our ego getting in the way with us thinking that we don’t need any help and that we can get by on our own? Are we afraid to ask for help because we don’t want to owe anybody, anything? God loves us and wants to help us. Things happen. We make mistakes, our friends and families make mistakes and sometimes the results are devastating. “Be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7). If we know God, love God, have Him in our lives we can get through. It may take a while, maybe a long while but with God’s Love and encouragement, we can keep moving ahead.

Proverbs 4:25 reminds us to “Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your gaze be straight before you.”   As God cares for us, He wants us to care for others. “Let all you do be done in love.” Corinthians 16:14. We can share His love with those around us. “Let brotherly love continue, show hospitality to strangers. I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:1-5

Today, I encourage you to take one step closer to Letting Go and Letting God work in the hurt, broken, painful places in your life.  You will never look back and regret being healed.  

Dan Smith
Manager for Rocky Mountain CTN
​Colorado Springs

I turned off the Super Bowl Sunday night after the end of the third quarter and Patrick Mahomes throwing an interception, thinking that the 49ers had the game in hand. It wasn’t that I was angry thinking that the 49ers were going to win (because I like the Broncos and the Buccaneers), but just that the momentum looked to be obviously shifting to their side. I decided to shut off the game and go downstairs and work for a bit. That work time ended up going through the end of the game and later than I thought it would. I decided to check the app on my phone to see the final score and lo and behold, the Chiefs pulled out a victory! I then went to Facebook and saw all of the people saying that it was probably one of the best Super Bowl endings they had seen in a long time. They were complimenting the play of Patrick Mahomes and what looks like a continued promising career in the NFL and glad that Andy Reid finally won his Super Bowl.
 
I remember telling Yolanda that I was fairly sure the Chiefs were going to lose and it was going to be boring to sit and watch the end, while giving her my “professional assessment” of how I just knew in my gut what the outcome of the game was going to be. Little did I know that I was absolutely wrong and missed watching the end of a great game.

Isn’t that similar to problems hitting our lives as Christians? We go through something that we did not expect or pain hits in life some way and we think, “Well, I know how THIS one is going to end.” Maybe that is more of a reflection on our lack of trust in what God is doing behind the scenes and an assumption that because it happened like this before it will be that same way again. The reality is that we cannot predict the end of really…anything! We can react to our emotions and how we think something is going to happen or not happen, but only God really knows the outcome of any situation. We are only to pray and trust that he will work things out for our good in the long run.
 
There is a verse in the Bible, Proverbs 16:9 that says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” We can think we have it all planned out and know what the outcome is going to be, but God is the only one who knows the ending so we need to stay in it until the end. We need to focus more on asking God for his patience, listening to his heart, and learning to ignore the things we can FEEL when we go through the gyrations of life.
 
Today, don’t stop trusting in, listening to, leaning on, learning from Jesus whether there is currently no storm, some kind of ridiculous maelstrom that seems unbearable, or seeing issues brewing on the horizon. The Bible does NOT promise us that we will be free of issues in life but that we can have an assurance that He will ALWAYS be there and never forsake us…as long as we never give up. And the ending to HIS story and our lives will be even better than the end of a closely matched football game that in reality, didn’t change my life or probably yours either.

Blessings and praying for God to do something special in your life today to help you to hang on to His promises!

Brian Morris
General Manager
Rocky Mountain CTN

​At this year’s event, you’ll receive coaching from men who have run hard and been victorious. Among those who will be speaking are  Andrew Wommack, sportscaster  James Brown, and retired NFL head coach  Tony Dungy. This event is FREE! A $40 meal ticket is available for purchase if desired and includes one lunch and one dinner. There will also be food vendors on site.
For more information or to register, visit   website.

It is interesting to see where our culture is settling when it comes to the word “tolerance” and its definition. Webster’s Dictionary defines tolerance as “the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with”. Does that sound like what our culture is promoting? In the world of Christianity, the word tolerance is not always associated with Jesus, yet, he was the PERFECT example of what it meant to tolerate all kinds of things. I think we need to look a little closer to what that word exactly means.

This may sound funny, but when I think of social media and all the platforms that we live on digitally, I think what would Jesus’ accounts look like? Would they have Bible verse posts? Would it have the “latest miracles I performed” or maybe a request to have prayer needs shared? Would it have instagram pics of amazing wood creations and the ID @NazerethWoodWorker and another account @SaviorOfTheWorld with cool quotes like Toby Mac? J I also think about who his friends might be and how he would respond to posts of people he disagreed with and who challenged his patience. In reality, are we not supposed to be Jesus to the world around us? To take into consideration how the Jesus in us would respond to all of those things considering how everything we say or post will either draw people to Christ or push them away?

I guess we don’t consider that even in Bible times there were people who probably disagreed with Jesus and his teachings but Jesus had to have tolerance for them, not to justify what they were doing, but to keep a door of conversation open with everyone he met. People who don’t understand the teachings of Jesus don’t realize that it is important to temper EVERY action with Jesus’ love.

I read this morning in my devotions a part of the book “The Stronghold of God” by Francis Frangipane about how “The love of Jesus is a preservative in our world.” He gave an example of the cans in a grocery store that looked destroyed or beat up because of the pressure on the outside of the can being greater than what was on the inside. The reference was that when we have the love of Jesus inside pushing us forward and outward then we can withstand the pressures of this life and all the things that come along with it.

Today, be mindful of the importance of the love of Jesus “pushing” you on the inside to withstand the pressures that will come from the outside. Also, never forget that tolerance and being able to listen to people you disagree with MUST come from a standpoint of Jesus’ love and not just patient listening.

The future of our culture depends on our ability to show the love of Jesus not just to people we agree with but those who are looking for peace in their hearts and minds.

James 4:4-10 (The Message)
4-6 You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and His way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”
7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and He’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.

​Who is God?  He is the fountain of life, the only source of existence and power and goodness, and throughout the universe there is nothing good but what God works.  God had created the sun, and the moon, and the starts, and the flowers, and the trees, and the grass; and are they not all absolutely surrendered to God?  Do they not allow God to work in them just what He pleases?  When God clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to God as He works in its beauty?  And God's redeemed children, oh, can you think that God can work His work if there is only half or a part of them surrendered?  God cannot do it.

God is life, and love, and blessing, and power, and infinite beauty, and God delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him; but, this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders God.  And now He comes, and as God, He claims it.  

You know in daily life what absolute surrender is.  You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service.    I have a pen that is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it.  If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly.    Do you expect that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, God can work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him?  God cannot. 

Every one of us is a temple of God, in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition: absolute surrender to Him.  It is with our free will that He has given us, that we do this.  God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it, God cannot work His blessed work in us.  
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From the Olive Tree One Year Daily Devotional. 
Adapted from "Absolute Surrender and Other Addresses" by Andrew Murray.  

Merry Christmas from our Rocky Mountain CTN family to yours.  May you experience Peace and Joy from  our Savior- Jesus Christ.