When Change is Coming – Part 1
I recently spoke to a young woman preparing to get married. The next day, I had a conversation with a woman preparing to start a new business. Their minds were in completely different places. One was thinking about flowers and gift registries; the other was thinking about marketing strategies and website design. What both of these women had in common, however, is that they were both preparing to face huge transitions.I started thinking about transitions and lost count of how many there are. Starting college, getting a new job, losing a job, retiring, getting married, going through a divorce, moving, having a baby, going back to school, becoming an empty nester, becoming a mother-in-law. You get the point. Almost all of us are close to another change.If that’s accurate, every single one of us needs to be completely aware of the fact that the enemy uses changes to try to take us out. Good transitions or tough transitions, he’s not particular. He just knows it’s a great opportunity to trip us up. You see, changes are like the seams in a garment: the places that are most likely to get torn; the places that are most vulnerable.[bctt tweet="Changes are like the seams in a garment: the places that are most vulnerable."]So, what does that mean for us?It means the first weapon we must have is awareness. Most of us can think of a time when a change in our world unintentionally ended up getting us disconnected from the Lord. A sweet couple gets married and decides to sleep in for a few Sundays after the honeymoon and, before you know it, attending church and being in community becomes an occasional thing. You move and you lose your daily interaction with friends, and the enemy loves to whisper that it’ll never be the same. Your children come home from school for the summer and your daily routine is turned upside down and you end up going days and then weeks without your priority time. All three scenarios leave us vulnerable. We need to have a strategy in place to neutralize the enemy’s attempt to get us off course.So, here’s a question…What changes are you currently going through or anticipating soon?With your response in mind, arm yourself with a strategy. Planning ahead is the key. Today, we’ll look at the first of 4 areas so you can start to strategize now.Evaluate your transition in light of the following spheres:
1. Spiritual Health
Maybe you’re in a good place spiritually. Maybe you’re in a bad place spiritually. Whether you feel super connected to the Lord or disconnected, you should look realistically at the change ahead and determine how you can protect some time alone each day to spend with the Lord through the Bible and prayer.
If your transition finds you busier than usual, determine 30 minutes that’s off limits to everything else. Guard it fiercely. Put it on the calendar now. Even if each day of the week looks different, you know the 3 or 4 different variations of your day. Make a specific plan and appointment for each type of day.
If your change leaves you with a slower pace than usual, be equally intentional. Maybe your roommate moved out or you’re an empty nester for the first time. Sometimes too much time can cause us to be lulled into thinking we’ll eventually get to it. Don’t be fooled. Be equally intentional to pick a time (preferably earlier in the day) to connect your heart to God’s Word and focus on what’s good.
[bctt tweet="Let’s do our part to render the enemy ineffective."]Change is a part of life. Through every change, we need to know that the Lord is close. Let’s do our part to render the enemy ineffective the next time change comes our way.Check in next Tuesday as we evaluate 3 other critical areas to keep ourselves healthy in times of transition.