“Your zeal hath provoked very many” (2 Corinthians 9:2).
Hmmm. I wonder how the Spanish 1960 Reina-Valera renders that verse portion . . . . “Your zeal has stimulated the majority.” Not significantly different.
These folks had a zeal for “ministering to the saints” (1).
What am I zealous about? Maybe I have become so laid back that nothing drives me or gets me worked up (in a positive way).
If I am zealous about something, does God approve? Or does He yearn for me to be zealous about something else?
Furthermore, what effect is my zeal having on others? Are they choosing what I am choosing because they see my commitment to it?
These are difficult questions for me to face.
And important questions, too!
I wonder how one should express their zeal? I would hope that I’d be an encourager to brothers and sisters in the Lord; I want to be that. I have, over the years, learned that just because I’m wound up about something – just because it ministers to me at a particular moment – doesn’t mean that it is “the” answer to the need of others at that same time. But I hope that they would be encouraged that the Spirit of the Lord is willing to meet them just as He has met me, at the very point of my need, in His own unique and personal way.