DAY 1: When God Moves You (Part 1)

"Surely the LORD is in this place..." (Genesis 28:16)

Day 1: Transitions - When God Moves You

(adapted from Senior Pastor written devotion, "Managing Transitions In a Downturn")

Life is full of transitions. You move. You graduate. You go through puberty. You start a job. You end a relationship. You change jobs. Most of us are in transition most of the time. This devotionals are about helping you navigate those twists and turns of life, in managing change in a downturn like the one we are in right now.

Transitions are usually stressful and confusing and scary because you leave familar structures and familar surroundings behind. Alexandra Robbins has written a great book titled; The Quarterlife Crisis and they talk about some of the transition from a stable job to losing that job. One of those interviewed who had lost his job of 22 years said, "When I lost my job. I was really struck by how much I didn't have my 'self' figured out. Without the easy structure of a company and the predictable routine of a work-week I'd used to all of my life, I noticed how everything else was changeable in my life."

When we go through a transition, it's unsettling - it feels like everything is up in the air. I think Job captures the feeling in Job 7:16. "My life makes no sense." But what you need to see during this series of devotionals is that God uses transitions - especially the stressful ones and scary ones and confusing ones - to reveal Himself in ways that He can't during the normal "Monday to Friday, Nine to Five" routine of life.

Genesis 35:7 is a touchstone for these devotional on transitions. It says Jacob "built an altar and called the place El Bethel, because it was there God revealed Himself to him when he was fleeding from his brother." Esau wants to kill Jacob because Jacob stole his birthright. So Jacob literally runs for his life. He's in transition from one place to another place and in the middle of that transition, God reveals Himself to Jacob.

There is something about times of transition - you lose a job or move to a new place or end a relationship - that opens us up spiritually. Our spiritual antennas go up a little higher. We learn to lean on God a little bit more. You don't have to tell someone who is in transition to pray. They can't pray enough!

The question we need to ask during times of transition is this: "What does God want to reveal to me through this transition."