6.25.2009

Titus' Milestones to Maturity: Gaining My Own Zeal

By PJ Smyth

This is the big one. On the journey to maturity and leadership, many pass Milestones 1 and 2, yet find Milestone 3 elusive. Milestone 3 is the place of gaining your own zeal.

Take a look at what Paul says of Titus: "But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit." (2 Corinthians 8:16-17, 23)

What a jump! Titus goes from being the tag-on servant-hearted guy to a leader in his own right whom Paul now speaks of as "my partner and fellow worker." How did this radical promotion happen? Answer: Titus gained his own zeal.

[When we develop our own zeal] We begin to do things not primarily because we are told to or asked to, but because God's zeal is welling up inside us and becoming our own zeal. The things that God and Paul were passionate about had now also become Titus' passion. He owned the mission for himself. At Milestone 3 our fire is stoked from within us by God more than by a "Paul" outside of us.

Read a series of blog posts entitled Titus' Milestones to Maturity By JP Smyth here.


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