Day 1: When Your Heart Went Missing

Revelation 2:2-4 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

Sometimes we just mail it in, you know? Maybe that’s you today. You open your Bible, said a prayer before your feet hit the floor, and wanted to follow Jesus. But, if you’re honest, there’s a sense that you are going through motions your heart checked out of long ago.

The believers in Ephesus knew that feeling. They had impressive resumes. In fact, Jesus mentions their hard work, sound doctrine, and endurance under pressure. If there was a checklist for faithful Christianity, they would have aced it. But Jesus saw something they had missed: their love had gone cold.

Here is what unsettles me about this passage: Jesus does not rebuke them for laziness or heresy. He rebukes them for lovelessness. All their religious activity had become a substitute for the one thing that mattered most. They were serving a Savior they no longer loved.

I wonder if that hits close to home for you today. You have not walked away from the faith; you still believe all the right things. But somewhere along the way, duty replaced delight. And now your Christianity feels more like a job than a relationship.

Here is the grace in this rebuke. Jesus does not expose your drift to shame you. He exposes it to save you. He is not pointing a finger of condemnation. He is extending a hand of invitation. He wants your heart back.

The One who first captured your affection is still pursuing it today. Will you let Him?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I admit that sometimes I go through the motions while my heart isn’t set on You. I want to love You like I should. Help me to do that today. Amen.

Day 2: The Gift of Remembering

Revelation 2:5a Remember then how far you have fallen.

Sometimes we get to a point in life where we don’t have affection for God, but we can remember when we did. Back when prayer was not something you had to force yourself to do. When Scripture came alive as you read it. When worship stirred something deep. Maybe you think back to a time when you actually wanted to be with Jesus.

And, we wonder, “What happened?”

Life happened. Disappointment happened. Busyness crept in. Slowly, the flame that once burned bright began to flicker. And then you find yourself far from where you started, wondering how you got here.

Jesus tells the Ephesian believers to remember. At first glance, that sounds cruel. Why would He want them to dwell on how far they have fallen? But look closer. This is an invitation to hope.

Remembering serves a holy purpose. It reminds you that what you have lost was real. Those better days with Jesus were not a fantasy. That love actually existed. And if it existed once, it can exist again.

Think back to your own story. When did your heart burn hottest for Christ? What were those days like? What made you eager to pray, hungry to learn, quick to repent? Do not let shame silence those memories. Let them stir a holy longing in you.

The distance between where you are and where you want to be may feel enormous. But the path back is not complicated. It begins with remembering.

God is not asking you to manufacture feelings you do not have. He is asking you to acknowledge where you are so He can lead you somewhere better. The way home starts with telling the truth about how far you have wandered.

And, listen: He has been waiting for you the whole time.

Prayer: Lord, I can remember a time in my life where my love for You burned hotter than it does right now. I want to love You like that again. Change my heart, Holy Spirit, so that I have a passion for You like I did before. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Day 3: The Road Called Repentance

Revelation 2:5b Repent, and do the works you did at first.

I think we may have made repentance into something it’s not. We treat it like penance, like self-punishment, like groveling before an angry God until we have sufficiently proven our sorrow.

But that is not what Jesus is offering here.

When Jesus calls the Ephesian church to repent, He is handing them a gift. Repentance is not the price of restoration. Repentance is the path to restoration. It is God’s gracious provision for wandering children who have lost their way.

The word “repent” simply means to turn around, change direction, stop walking away and start walking home. There is no complicated formula. No required waiting period. No probationary season where God decides if you are serious enough.

You just turn.

Think about the works you did at first: the eager conversations with God. The genuine delight in His Word. The tender conscience that hated grieving Him. Jesus is not demanding that you manufacture those things through sheer willpower. He is inviting you back to the relationship where those things naturally flourish.

We miss something when we resist repentance. We think we are protecting ourselves from shame. But we are actually imprisoning ourselves in it. The longer we refuse to turn around, the heavier the burden becomes. Repentance is not humiliation. Repentance is freedom.

Your heavenly Father is not standing at the end of the road with arms crossed, waiting to lecture you. He is running toward you with arms open, ready to embrace you. That is the God you are returning to.

So turn. Today. Right now. The road called repentance leads straight to the Father’s heart.

Prayer: Loving Father, thank You that I can come back to You. Convince my heart of Your love today and let it draw me back to You. Amen.

Day 4: More Than Opposition

Revelation 2:6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

The Ephesian believers had sharp discernment. They could smell false teaching from a mile away. They refused to tolerate evil. They stood firm when others compromised. And Jesus commends them for it.

But commendation is not the same as approval. They hated the right things. They just forgot to love.

It is easier to build an identity around what you oppose than around whom you adore. Being against something requires less vulnerability than being for someone. You can construct an entire faith out of walls and boundaries and defensive positions. But at some point you have to ask yourself: What am I building toward?

Picture making a massive wall around your home. It is strong, and nothing threatening can get through. But in your focus on protection, you forgot one critical detail. There is no door. The wall keeps everything out, including you.

That is what happens when hate becomes your defining posture. Yes, there are things God hates, and we should hate them too. Like injustice, abuse, lies, and idolatry. These deserve our opposition. But opposition is not the destination. It is a guardrail, not a goal.

The goal is love. Fierce, costly, world-transforming love. The kind of love that flows from hearts captured by Jesus. The kind of love that not only rejects what is evil but runs toward what is good.

Are you known more for what you stand against or for whom you stand with? Has your faith become all walls and no welcome? The church Jesus wants is not just doctrinally correct. It is deeply loving.

Hatred of evil should flow from love for God.

Prayer: Lord, help me to hate what You hate and love what You love. I ask this in the name of Jesus, amen.

Day 5: Shaped by the Gospel

John 3:16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

You know this: you can’t manufacture love. You can try. You can grit your teeth and force yourself to be patient. You can paste on a smile and pretend your heart is warm. But eventually the effort exhausts you, and you are right back where you started.

There’s only one way to become genuinely loving. You have to be loved first.

This is why the Gospel changes everything for me and you. It is not just information to believe. It is a reality that transforms. When the truth of what God has done for you sinks from your head down to your heart, something shifts. You stop striving and start overflowing.

Think about the Gospel. You were created for a relationship with God. You rejected that relationship and chose yourself instead. Because of that, you deserved judgment. But God, who is loving, sent His Son. Jesus absorbed the wrath you earned. He died the death you deserved. He rose to offer life you could never achieve.

And then He sent His Spirit to live inside you, reshaping you from the inside out.

Friend, we need to remind ourselves of the Gospel. We need to be gripped again by the love that gripped us first. We need to feel the weight of grace so that grace can flow through us to others.

You will never become a loving person by trying harder. But you will become a loving person by believing deeper. Let the Gospel do its slow, steady work in you. Let the Holy Spirit use the truth of God’s love to produce the fruit of love in your life.

That is how cold hearts catch fire again. Not through effort. Through encounter.

Prayer: Father, let me remember and cherish the Gospel today. As I do, let me become more loving. Amen.

Day 6: The Christ Who Walks Among Us

Revelation 2:1 Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

Before Jesus addresses the Ephesian church’s failures, He reminds them of something crucial– He walks among them.

This is not a distant deity issuing commands from heaven. He is the risen Christ moving through His church, present and attentive. He holds the stars in His hand. He walks among the lampstands. Nothing escapes His notice. And nothing escapes His care.

You might be wondering, “Why does this matter?” Because when Jesus speaks difficult words, He speaks them from nearness, not distance. When He exposes cold hearts and abandoned love, He does so as one who is intimately present with His people. His rebuke comes wrapped in relationship.

We often picture God as far away. Especially when we have drifted. We assume that our spiritual coldness has created distance between us and Him. We imagine He has moved on, disgusted with our half-hearted devotion.

But here is the stunning truth. Jesus has not abandoned you, even when you have abandoned your love for Him. He is still walking among His church. He is still holding His people. He is still present, still pursuing, still near.

This changes how we hear His correction. A stranger’s criticism stings. But a loved one’s concern heals. Jesus is not a cosmic critic pointing out your flaws from a safe distance. He is the Shepherd who walks beside you, gently calling you back when you wander.

Whatever conviction you are feeling right now, let it be shaped by this reality. The One who sees your cold heart is the same One who refuses to let you go. He walks among us still. And He is walking toward you today.

Prayer: Gracious Father, thank You for Your correction. Thank You that You don’t stand far away pointing out my flaws. Thank You that You are with me, helping me change. Amen.

Day 7: Love That Christ Produces

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

The Apostle Paul is the one that wrote this part of the Bible. Notice what he does not say. He does not say the fruit of effort is love. Or that the fruit of discipline is love. Or that the fruit of trying really hard and gritting your teeth is love.

He says the fruit of the Spirit is love.

This matters more than we realize. When Jesus calls us to be a loving church, He is not handing us a new assignment to fail at. He is pointing us to a new source of power. The love He demands, He also supplies. We do not produce it. The Spirit produces it in us.

Think about how fruit actually grows. An apple tree does not strain and sweat to manufacture apples. It simply stays connected to its roots, receives nourishment, and fruit appears. The tree’s job is not production. The tree’s job is connection.

The same is true for you. Your job is not to manufacture love through willpower. Your job is to stay connected to Christ. To abide. To remain. To keep yourself in the place where the Spirit can do His transforming work.

This is incredibly freeing. You do not have to pretend to be more loving than you are. You do not have to fake warmth you do not feel. You simply come to Jesus in your coldness and ask Him to do what only He can do. Warm my heart. Fill me with Your Spirit. Produce in me what I cannot produce in myself.

The love that marks the church Jesus wants is not human love improved. It is divine love implanted. Stop striving, start abiding, and watch what the Spirit grows.

Prayer: God, let the Holy Spirit change me so that I love more. That’s my simple request today. In Jesus’ name, amen.