How a Heart Grows Cold
How a Heart Grows Cold
Tolu Olowoyeye · September 25, 2026
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The writer of Hebrews gives a warning that is easy to read too quickly: "beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God" (). Departing. Not falling in a moment, but departing, a slow leaving, a gradual walking away that the person doing it may not even feel.
That is because hardening is a process, not an event. The text calls sin deceitful for a reason (). It never announces itself honestly. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to love God less. It happens by degrees. A quiet time skipped and not missed. A conviction ignored until it stops speaking. A compromise rationalised so smoothly you barely notice the line move. It is the old picture of the frog in slowly warming water, the danger is precisely that it never feels like danger.
Insight: A heart does not go cold in a moment. It cools by neglect, one unfed morning at a time.
But look closely at the remedy tucked inside the warning, because it is full of mercy. The writer does not prescribe a dramatic revival, a mountaintop experience, a single grand recommitment. He prescribes something almost boringly ordinary: "exhort one another daily" (). The antidote to slow drift is daily contact, daily with the Word, daily with God, daily with people who will keep you honest.
You will not feel yourself drifting. Drift is silent by nature. That is exactly why you must check the anchor while the sea is still calm, rather than waiting for the storm to tell you the rope has been slipping for months. Tend the fire today. A little fuel now is worth far more than a rescue later.
Pray this: Lord, keep my heart soft. Where I have drifted without noticing, draw me back. Give me the daily habits and the honest friends that keep the fire burning, and let me never mistake the slow chill for peace. Amen.
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