January 01: Philippians 1:20 - Bold for Christ in the New Year (Today's Reflection from My Utmost For His Highest)

Happy New Year

Guided by Oswald Chambers' Golden Book: My Utmost For His Highest - We begin the New Year. 

Note: I will use this book only as a "guideline" for our daily bread. This is my blog and my words. I am guided mostly by my own walk, my own journey...God is leading me and to this end, let us begin.

Oswald Chambers had an astute insight. Charles F. Stanley wrote a foreword note for this book and a snippet of it states: The most important aspect of the Christian life is our personal relationship with Christ. Few individuals have had the insight into the Person of Christ as Oswald Chambers, and fewer still have been able to make its application so inescapable. This volume is not a treasure to be admired but a message to be lived. 

And I say: Let's live it. 

Portrait: Oswald Chambers

Daily Bible Verse: Philippians 1:20 (NLT)

For I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that causes me shame, but that I will always be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and that my life will always honor Christ, whether I live or I die.

Paul's words remind us that determination in Christ is not abstract - it is lived in daily choices.

Oswald Chambers says: It's as if Paul were saying, "My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest - my best for His glory." To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning.

When God directs you to make a choice about something in your life...what is your response? 

Sometimes we just do not hear him; other times we ignore him, and then other times we hear him but deny him. We usually regret all of these actions...we are selfish. We do not want to surrender our will to the Most High God. 

Most of the time we begin to debate about the decision...what it will cost us...in our time, our relationships with our family, friends, spouse, co-workers etc...we usually do not immediately respond with a resounding: Yes, Lord. 

Unresponsiveness to God will cause a crisis to arrive in our lives to get our attention. We come to a crossroads. We must make a decision - either for or against. 

If a crisis has reached you...consider surrender. To Jesus Christ and what He wants you to do, so He can use you, for what He wants to Do through you.

Christ our Savior

We are His hands and feet, we are His vessel. Our bodies are His temple - His Holy Spirit - The Holy Ghost - lives within every Christian from the moment we accept him as our savior. We belong to him. He alone paid the price for our sin. His blood, his pain, his life... sacrificed...so we might have eternal life. Doesn't he deserve your everything?

Paul, the author of Philippians, was used by God.

Paul is in prison at the point of his writing Philippians. The time he spent in prison is when he wrote Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians and Philippians.  

If you have not read of Paul's powerful encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus...written by Luke, it is in the book of Acts 9:1-19; Acts 22:6-16; Acts 26:12-18. I also encourage you to read all of the books written by Paul: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. Paul is thought to be the author of Hebrews also. 

Prayer

Let us begin the year in prayer...

Father, we praise Your holy name. 

Thank You for Your mercy, love, and bountiful grace.

Forgive us of our sins. 

Shine a light on our path.

Strengthen us and give us faith over fear. 

Guide us to obedience. 

Your will be done in our lives.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Jesus the True Vine: John 15:4 (NLT)

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me."

Selah: think on these things

Benediction

May this year begin with surrender and end with fruitfulness in Christ.

Go forth in His promise,

walk boldly in His truth,

and rest in His peace.

Jesus, 

The Quill and Me

Reflection added June 6, 2026: Today God revealed something to me that still leaves me stunned. Months ago, I began to realize that I was actually living out these devotionals in my own life as I wrote them. That realization alone was mind‑blowing. But today, while updating this post, the very first words I saw were the ones I had completely forgotten I wrote on January 1: “Let’s live it.”

I never imagined those words would become literal in my life — but God did. I didn’t mean them the way they have now been fulfilled, yet they became a prophecy over my year. I have been living these devotionals before, during, and after writing them, without knowing that God was leading me through the very truths I was putting on the page.

The first devotional was about the Surrender of the Will, and I surrendered my will to God on April 8. I had no idea I was writing the very journey I would later walk. Today, in the Quiet way God works, He let me see that His hand has been guiding my writing — and my life — from day one of this calling.

~ Quil

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