Encouragement for Today

February 14, 2025 The King of Your Heart ANN VOSKAMP Lee en español

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ …” Ephesians 3:17b-18 (NIV)

Your heart answers to what it loves. Whatever you make much time for in your life ends up being the king of your life.

Ultimately, you crown what captivates you.

Is Love Himself your King, or have you overthrown Love Himself — only to throw your heart at the feet of cheap lesser loves?

What if Jesus stands before you now, heart bound to yours, eyes searching yours, heart whispering to yours: Am I the King of your heart? What have you crowned with your time, attention, interest and heart even though it can’t raise you to real life in the end? Have you seen what I have done for you — to move you closer to My reviving heart? Has My love moved and changed your heart? Have you listened to all the ways I’ve been wooing you away from that which doesn’t satisfy and back toward divine love, holy wholeness and the fullest life?

These questions beg for a real answer.

He is the One who lived the perfect way you always hoped you would, and now He offers the record of His life to be your life. He’s the One who died the painful way that could have been yours, and He has absorbed all your pain as His own. He’s the One who heals broken hearts, the One who gives sight for every single one of your blind spots. He’s the One who walks on the waves of your every storm, feeds you soul-sustaining bread in the midst of a multitude of troubles, crushes the head of every hissing lie, and raises your dead hopes back to life.

This is your everyday resurrection, your everyday reality, your everything. Don’t miss it.

Jesus is your King, Redeemer, Restorer, Sustainer, Lamb, Lover and Lord — the only One whose passion has ever loved you to death and back, resurrecting to offer you to the safest, realest life. He is life. And He has saved us for Himself.

Don’t miss Him. Pilgrimage into the palace of His presence, and bow down.

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ …” (Ephesians 3:17b-18).

Jesus is the One who gets all of you — all your loyalty and complete allegiance, your whole heart, whole life, whole self — so you get to be whole. The King died to be the King of your heart … the King of your everything.

This changes everything — starting right now.

King of all, You traded heaven for a cross to call our hearts Your home. Forgive us when we crown distractions, fears or ambitions instead of You. Open our eyes to see what You’ve done, stirring us with Your love that heals, calls and makes us whole. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

OUR FAVORITE THINGS

In Loved to Life, embark with Ann Voskamp, New York Times bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts, on a spiritual pilgrimage following the entire life of Jesus through the Gospel of John. Loved to Life is an invitation into:

• Forty inspirational, grace- and hope-filled devotions.
• Forty Bible passages that pilgrimage with Jesus from the beginning to the end of the Gospel of John to encounter and experience Him in a fresh, transformative way.
• Forty original woodcut illustrations to mark each day of the pilgrimage.

Jesus held the cup that holds the story you never wanted, the pain you wish you and your people had never known, the scars that have forever marred your only heart. For the love of you, Jesus drank this cup of suffering to love you back to life. Turn and gaze on the One who gave you His whole life — and you’ll find the love you’ve been looking for your whole life.

ENGAGE

Discover more from bestselling author Ann Voskamp here, and follow Ann (@annvoskamp) on Instagram or Facebook to be encouraged alongside a community of women seeking to live out the gospel.

FOR DEEPER STUDY

John 11:25, “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die …’” (NIV).

Who or what is the king of your heart? What’s one step you can take today to dethrone distractions, fears or ambitions and instead crown Jesus as King of your heart?

Share with us in the comments!

© 2025 by Ann Voskamp. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 31 Ministries thanks Tyndale House Publishers for their sponsorship of today’s devotion.

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