Pour Out All Your Strength

To grow, as a tree must shed its thick leaves,
the pastimes and pleasures you enjoyed in the world
must fall away from you one by one.
Each time a leaf falls,
there will be the pain of leaf parting from tree,
but if the nourishment once spent on the leaves
goes down to the roots that reach deep, deep into the ground,
the tree will keep growing, its trunk ever thicker.
As a tree comes into full leaf and sheds it, over and over,
and so grows to maturity,
pour all your strength toward the depths of your soul.
When you reach deep, deep into me, your soul will not run dry.
Do not act like the hypocrites
Do not act like the hypocrites.
A hypocrite carries a water jar on their head,
wondering, Won’t someone see me and say how hard I work?
Won’t someone see me and call me faithful?
Looking around again and again, they trip on a stone,
lose their balance, and spill the water.
Will the master not see the jar
only half full, and rebuke them,
and send them back to draw it again?
If you keep only the master in mind and look straight ahead as you go,
the faithful servant who hears one word of praise from the master
is honored by everyone together.
So I want you to act wisely.
You must not act like the hypocrites.
Forgive
Does persecution hurt you?
You still have a long way to go.
They do not persecute you because they understand anything.
They are not thinking at all.
They simply say whatever thoughts an evil spirit puts into them.
You asked me once
how I could have loved Judas Iscariot.
It was not that I loved him.
As I have vessels I use for honor and vessels for dishonor,
I simply did not throw him away; when the time came, I would use him.
Do not throw such a one away.
There is surely a use for them, and a time when they will be needed.
But people do not even know whether they are vessels for honor
or vessels for dishonor,
yet they go wherever their own thinking leads.
Be thankful that you are being used as a vessel for honor.
Would you then slander and criticize them?
If someone wants to learn, do not cast them off.
By the word they will stumble of their own accord,
and through that same word they will be broken.
How would you know?
Never be the first to judge
and cast off anyone who comes to Christ.
Whether I cast off or mend and use, that is mine to do; you are only to love.
When you always discipline yourself with a sharp blade,
when you discipline yourself with prayer and with the word,
you will bear more fruit.