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Living-Out My Sanctification

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections  
Today's Devotional • Back to Home Page 

A person standing on a rocky hill at sunrise, facing toward the bright light breaking through the clouds, symbolizing walking in the light and choosing a surrendered life.

—Living-Out My Sanctification—

Aug 27
Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest
John 12:35
"Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . ."

I have been living surrendered since April 8th of 2026, but I am having a hard time living it out in my everyday life. I lived by my own standards for 68 years and now find it hard to adjust to this new life. I love my new life, but I have not lived a disciplined life for 68 years. I have not lived loving Jesus for 68 years—devoted to Him and placing Him as my #1 priority. I am still working on that. He is still working on me. I am stubborn and willful and like to have my own way too much. Lord, I need your help. 

It is August. I have had some wonderful experiences these last few months, but they will not carry me into tomorrow. I want to continue my humble and surrendered attitude. I have dealt with burdens and released them. Now I am dealing with my carnal self—my stubborn self—trying to come back on me with small resentful feelings, feelings of wanting my own way again. That is so wrong and it makes me feel bad. I do not want that old person coming back into my life. 

And I know I am old in age, yet I am not talking about the aged person that I am, but the old version of me—the one I was before surrender, the one that was striving to get through each day all on her own. Never asking for help. Never acknowledging the Lord's presence. I will not allow it to happen.
 
I bow my head and let the light reclaim me. I do not want the darkness. I have made a promise to myself to revisit all of the devotionals I have written this year and let them minister to me. Let them sink into my life, take them one by one, and apply their truths to my everyday life and make sure they stick to me. As I have been making updates to the devotionals, I have reread many of them and realized that I did not apply the principles I wrote about to my own life long enough for them to become a part of me—a part of my new life. I need that to happen like I need my next breath, because that is the only way this is going to work —if I apply the light He has given me to the reality of my current surrendered life.

The Holy Spirit is doing His part, and I need to do my part with better discipline. I will ask for His help because I am getting older and I tend to forget things at times. So this is going to be a time when I have to make notes and post them on the wall so I can remember it until it becomes a habit. Please pray for me that I can make the truths I write about into my own new habits.

Because every detail of my life—whether physical, moral, or spiritual—will be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. And I do not want to be found lacking. 

Unless my righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, by no means will I enter the kingdom of heaven. I must not only write about it and know it, but I must exhibit it in my everyday life. I must not be prideful or self-satisfied, or let the self and will out to play for even a minute. That just will not do at all. I cannot let Him down. He has been so good to me. 

And I must not let what I have worked so hard for disintegrate within me. Chambers says that I must work it out—that it must be so genuine that it shows in my everyday life. I must act upon all the new principles and doctrines that I have written about so that my life will be truly sanctified, so that the light of Jesus will surely shine through my own life. 

Chambers message today is: Living Your Theology, and I have been experiencing it in real time. We must walk in the light we have, lest the darkness overtake us. That is why I must revisit the devotionals and pull the light out of them and place it in my life for all time, so the darkness with not overtake me. 

Selah,
~ Quil 

Breath Prayer

Lord, You see me
Help me keep my surrender

Scripture References

1. Struggling to live out surrender daily

Romans 7:15 “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

This is Paul describing the same struggle I am describing — the tension between the surrendered life and the old habits.

2. The old self trying to come back

Ephesians 4:22–24 “Put off your old self… and put on the new self, created to be like God.”

This is my theme — resisting the old version of myself.

3. Bowing your head and letting the light reclaim me

Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”

1 John 1:7 “Walk in the light, as He is in the light.”

Both match my imagery of returning to the light.

4. Applying truth to everyday life

James 1:22 “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”

This is the heart of my devotional — living the truth, not just reading it.

5. The Holy Spirit doing His part

Philippians 2:13 “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.”

This verse explains the partnership I described.

6. Every detail of life judged by the Cross

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ… the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.”

This verse captures the Cross as the measure of life.

7. Not letting what I’ve worked for disintegrate

Hebrews 2:1 “We must pay the most careful attention… so that we do not drift away.”

This is exactly the warning I am describing.

8. Walking in the light I have

John 12:35 “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.”

This is the anchor of my devotional.


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