‘Preparing to Cross’

Sep 16, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Angel of the Church

The letter to the church in Ephesus was written to its angel. This angel was a spiritual being assigned to serve, protect, and challenge that specific church. This reminds us that the church is not merely a human organization. It is a spiritual entity with a heavenly life and a divine purpose. Jesus positions himself within the gathered community of his disciples.

This angelic assignment signifies that our primary existence is spiritual. We have heavenly help ready for us. The goal is to be so engaged in kingdom advancement that this angel is actively at work. We should be confronting evil, tearing down strongholds, and seeing salvations. Our activities should matter in the spiritual realm.

Many of us can become preoccupied with programs and administration. We can mistake busyness for spiritual impact. But Jesus walks among the churches, looking for a witness that is powered by more than human effort. He is looking for a church that puts its angel to work. Are your daily activities engaging the spiritual realm or just managing the physical one?

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.”
(Revelation 2:1, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God to make you aware of the spiritual reality of your church and your role within it.
Challenge: Identify one practical task you do for the church and pray for its spiritual impact before you begin.

Day 2: Jesus Walks Among the Lampstands

Jesus identified himself to the Ephesians as the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands. The lampstands represent the churches. He is not distant or disinterested. He is present and moving within his gathered people. He cares deeply about the local expression of his body.

In our individualistic culture, it is common to prefer a personal spirituality. We might say we like Jesus but not the church. Yet Jesus positions himself in the gathered environment of his disciples. He does not have a favorite lampstand. He walks among them all, commending what is good and correcting what is wrong in each one.

It is naive to believe one church is inherently better than another. Jesus is present in them all. Your commitment to a local church is an invitation to encounter the Jesus who walks there. He sees your service, your perseverance, and your heart. Will you choose to meet him in the midst of his people this week?

“These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.”
(Revelation 2:1, NIV)

Prayer: Thank Jesus for his specific presence in your local church and ask to see it with fresh eyes.
Challenge: Intentionally greet three people at your next gathering, remembering Jesus walks among you.

Day 3: The Danger of Getting It Right

Jesus commended the Ephesian church for getting so much right. He knew their hard work and perseverance. He applauded their doctrinal soundness; they tested and rejected false apostles. He noted their holiness; they hated the evil practices of the Nicolaitans. They endured hardship without growing weary. By all external measures, they were a successful church.

Yet, Jesus held one critical thing against them. They had forsaken their first love. They maintained right belief and right practice, but they lost the passionate devotion that once characterized their relationship with him. Their faith became cold orthodoxy. It was all duty and no devotion, all law and no love.

You can have perfect doctrine and impeccable behavior. You can serve tirelessly and avoid sin. But these things, unless fueled by a passionate love for Jesus, become a hollow religion. They can make you critical and judgmental. Is your spiritual life marked more by correct activities or by a warm affection for Christ?

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.”
(Revelation 2:2-4, NIV)

Prayer: Confess any area where your service has become duty without delight.
Challenge: Write down one thing you do for God and one thing you do with God simply out of love.

Day 4: Remember, Repent, and Return

Jesus gave the Ephesians a clear path to recovery. He commanded them to remember the height from which they had fallen. He told them to repent. Then he instructed them to do the things they did at first. This was a call to return to their original, passionate love for him. This return was an active choice, not a passive feeling.

The stakes were incredibly high. Jesus warned that if they did not repent, he would come and remove their lampstand. The lampstand symbolized the church’s witness and the Spirit’s power. Without a foundation of love for Jesus, the church loses its light. Its testimony grows cold and its power evaporates.

The responsibility to keep the fire of first love burning is yours. It is not your pastor’s job or your group leader’s task. You must actively remember what God has done, repent of coldness, and return to those initial practices of devotion. What is one “first thing” you can return to this week?

“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
(Revelation 2:5, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God to bring to your mind a specific memory of your early love for Him.
Challenge: Set aside 15 minutes today to do one thing you did when you first loved Jesus, like reading a favorite Psalm or singing a worship song.

Day 5: Fasting for First Love

Fasting is a powerful spiritual discipline to rekindle first love. It is not a form of penance to manipulate God. Instead, fasting does two things: it makes you hungry, and then it makes you holy. It is a way to pray with your entire body, not just your mind. It brings your whole person into alignment with your pursuit of God.

We live in a culture of consumption and instant gratification. Our appetites easily become our gods. Fasting trains us to say no to a legitimate desire like food so we can say a louder yes to God. It is like putting on noise-canceling headphones for your soul. It turns your body from an enemy into an ally in your spiritual life.

This practice was common throughout church history. It is a practical way to declare that God is your first love, above all other loves. It is a passionate act, a willingness to endure a small suffering for the one you love most. Will you dare to practice this discipline to fan the flames of your devotion?

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
(Joel 2:12, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God for the grace to fast, not as a duty, but as an expression of desire for Him.
Challenge: Commit to skipping one meal this week to pray, telling your body that God is your ultimate source of life.

Sermon Summary

A call to consecration frames the movement from preparation into the next season: hands emptied of bad habits, unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy and false identities. Revelation 2:1–7 serves as the biblical lens, placing the church of Ephesus—once a flourishing centre of revival that burned occult books and resisted idolatry—before the sober rebuke that its deeds outpaced its devotion. The letter’s images—the angel, the seven stars, the lampstands—reassert the church’s primary reality as a spiritual, heavenly community that Jesus walks among; corporate life matters because the gathered body participates in a spiritual witness. Praise lands on orthodoxy, perseverance and holiness: tested teachers were exposed, endurance under hardship received commendation, and resistance to idolatrous compromise was noted. Yet the central critique pierces through: the church has forsaken its first love, trading warm devotion for dutiful orthopraxy; mission and morality without affectionate relationship risk becoming cold, judgmental and ineffective.

A pastoral strategy flows from that diagnosis: return, repent and rekindle. Practical disciplines—seeking nights of prayer and worship during “Seek Week,” coupled with intentional fasting—aim to move congregants from intellectual assent into embodied devotion. Fasting receives careful defense: it is not penance or manipulation but a discipline that makes the person hungry for God and trains the body toward holiness, integrating mind and flesh so prayer becomes “whole-person” practice. Historical precedent and biblical examples underscore fasting’s place among spiritual disciplines; restraint of appetite becomes a training ground for resisting other temptations and for reorienting worship. Responsibility lands on each believer: spiritual health measures include prayer meeting attendance and personal devotion, and rekindling first love requires active choices—repentance, return, and the willingness to suffer small losses for deeper union with God. The sum of these elements aims to recover a church whose witness is powered not only by right belief and right behavior, but by an undiminished love for the Lord and for one another.

Key Takeaways

1. Consecrate: leave burdens, receive God Consecration combines cleansing, sacrifice and dedication so that present burdens no longer anchor spiritual movement. Abandoning habits, grudges and false identities creates space for God to act, not as a transactional gain but as an invitation into a new way of life. Consecration relocates trust from earthly securities to the promised presence that leads across every threshold.
2. Recover first love for Jesus Love constitutes the primary fuel for faithful witness; right doctrine and moral zeal without affection calcify into judgment. Returning to the initial, relational devotion rekindles warmth toward God and people and reshapes ministry motives. Recovery requires honest repentance and the deliberate restoration of practices that cultivate intimacy rather than mere performance.
3. Pray and worship to rekindle Corporate and personal worship serve as practical encounters with the person of Christ rather than mere religious duty. Regular, intentional time of prayer re-sensitizes the heart to God’s presence and reorients affections away from competing loves. Worship provides the atmosphere in which obedience becomes response to love rather than obligation.
4. Fast: train body, awaken soul Fasting disciplines appetite so that bodily desire no longer dictates spiritual direction; it trains restraint and widens capacity for holiness. By making the body a participant in seeking God, fasting translates intellectual longing into embodied dependence. Regular, sensible fasting shapes character, sharpens spiritual perception and helps overcome recurring strongholds.

Bible Study Guide

**Bible reading**
Revelation 2:1-7 (NIV)

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

**Observation questions**

What specific actions and attitudes of the Ephesian church did Jesus commend?
What was the primary criticism Jesus had against them, and what two commands did he give as a solution?
What was the potential consequence if they did not follow his commands?
What final promise is given to those who are victorious?

**Interpretation questions**

How can a church or an individual have strong doctrine, perseverance, and moral purity, yet still be missing the most important thing?
Why would Jesus threaten to remove a church's lampstand for losing its first love, even if it was still doing many good things?
The call is to "return" and "do the things you did at first." What might those "first things" have looked like for a new believer or a vibrant young church?
In a culture that prioritizes comfort and instant gratification, what makes the spiritual discipline of fasting so counter-cultural and potentially powerful?

**Application questions**

Take an honest audit of your own spiritual life. Are your actions and beliefs more fueled by a sense of duty and routine, or by a warm, affectionate love for Jesus? What is one indicator that reveals the answer?
"Returning" to your first love is an active choice. What is one practical step you could take this week to intentionally rekindle your affection for God, such as setting aside a specific time for prayer or worship?
Fasting is described as training your body to say 'no' so you can better say 'yes' to God. Is there a specific appetite or desire that often competes with your devotion to God? What would it look like to practice a small, manageable fast from that thing to create more space for prayer?
Consider your involvement in the life of the church. Is it primarily about receiving teaching and community, or is there a sense of participating in a spiritual mission that Jesus is walking among? How could you adjust your perspective or participation to align more with the latter?
The health of a church is often measured by its prayer life. How does your personal commitment to prayer and corporate prayer gatherings reflect the priority you place on your relationship with God?

Sermon Quotes

You are loved either side of the river but to step further into the things of God - you have to leave something behind.

We should be up to so much kingdom advancement we need an angel there fighting on our team.

Somewhere along the way they were still doing the stuff, they just forgot the saviour.

All duty no devotion. All law no love. Losing excitement and enthusiasm and just cold hard orthodoxy.

Right beliefs without a heart of love makes you a judgemental pharisee and those people missed Jesus entirely.

I don't get on my knees because I always feel the presence of God. I get on my knees because I can't afford to let the fire go out in my heart.

Fasting makes you hungry for God, then it makes you holy.

Fasting is choosing to pray with your body instead of just with your mind.

Self control is saying no to what you want now to say yes to what you want most.

Fasting brings your entire person into alignment around a pursuit of the presence of God.

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