Catalyst of Change

There have been times and events in our nation’s history that were a catalyst of change. The type of catalyst of change I’m talking about were so powerful that they drastically changed our attitudes and behaviors. December 7, 1941 was just such a catalyst of change. The attack on Pearl Harbor convinced us of Imperial Japanese aggression, making us truly believe that we needed to participate in the battle to end the unprovoked hostilities that were dominating the lives of people in Europe and Asia. Another catalyst of change was the Axis agenda of world domination, producing “faith” in us toward  a sacrificial response that set aside personal comfort. We volunteered to fight, to refit factories for war and we adopted a lifestyle of austerity that was vastly different from the self-centered “roaring twenties”.

September 11, 2001 was another catalyst of change. We became “believers” of the reality that there was an enemy who truly sought the destruction of our society and the death of innocent citizens. In our “faith” that militant Islam was an aggressive and relentless foe, we changed our attitudes and behavior once again to submit to the inconvenience of heightened national security, to volunteer to fight in foreign theaters of operation and to invest in maintaining a constant state of vigilance.

What we “believe”, or have “faith” in, always changes our behavior. As in the examples above, a catalyst of change produced results in our actions! Those who don’t change indicate by their actions, or lack of action, that they don’t accept as true what is known or obvious to others.

Faith in God works in a similar fashion in our lives as believers, because faith in God is a catalyst of change! The Lord, through the truth of His Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, has shown us the reality of our sinful condition, the judgment that we all face, His great love for us and the salvation we can have through the blood of Jesus. Having been convinced of such truth, we are now called to “live by faith” and “walk by faith” resulting in an obvious change of attitude and behavior because of what we “believe”!

Living a crucified life requires that we pursue the life-altering, behavior-changing work of the Spirit in us in order to accomplish the present goal of the Lord in our lives, which is to make us like Jesus. Faith allows us to proclaim with the apostle Paul, “the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me!” (Galatians 2:20)

How exciting to be His people,

Pastor David Vanderpool