The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections

Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest Devotional of the Day — Home Page Matthew 5:30 "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell" For years I thought this verse was literal, but I learned today that it is not. Jesus is using hyperbole — extreme exaggeration for emphasis — to teach the seriousness of sin.  So, we do not need to amputate any limbs; but we do need to apply strict discipline  to the habits and choices that sabotage our walk with the Lord. Some things may not be sin, but if they pull our focus from Him, they need to be limited or removed.  Anything that weakens our obedience, distracts from our focus, stirs up old patterns, or dulls our spiritual sensitivity is not right for our new walk with the Lord.  These distracting activities must be removed with the strictest discipline if we are to grow and mature in Him...

Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest Devotional of the Day — Home Page Philippians 3:12 "I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me" Have you experienced the Grip of God? I have... and it is profound. If you have been there, then you are still there... in His grip. Chambers says we do not choose to work for God but we do so because He has "laid hold of" us. And we do not choose what we are called to do, He does. So... you may know the true call of God if this is the case. A true call is from God, God chosen, God ordained. Not chosen by that person, not decided by that person, but by God.  When someone is truly called — when they are in the grip of God — there is a steadiness about them that does not come from personality or ambition. They do not choose the work; the work chooses them. There is a quiet compulsion, a sense that they must do what God has laid on them, even when it is difficult, unseen, or costly. ...

Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest Devotional of the Day — Home Page Jeremiah 1:8 — “I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord. There is a deliverance God gives that is deeply personal — it is the deliverance of your life , your soul, your walk, your calling. God told Jeremiah, “Your life shall be a prize to you.” That is the same promise He gives every one of His children. He never promised to guard our possessions. He never promised to protect our plans. He never promised to preserve our comfort. But He did promise to guard us . And when we loosen our grip on everything else, peace begins to settle where panic once lived. We get into trouble when we cling tightly to things God never promised to keep. The tighter our grip, the more fear rises. But when our heart rests in His overshadowing care — when we believe that He Himself is our Keeper — our outlook changes. We stop measuring life by what we lose or gain, and we start seeing life through the lens of His f...

 Today's Reading: Isaiah 41:10 Devotional of the Day — Home Page This devotional journey is made of three connected messages: • God’s Peace for the Anxious Heart • God’s Purpose for Your Life • God’s Strength for the Weary Soul Together, they form a gentle path — moving from God's peace, to His purpose, to His strength. Each message is written from lived experience and the leading of the Holy Spirit. If your heart is anxious, searching, or tired, may these words guide you back to the One who sees you, knows you, and walks with you. Peace for your heart. Purpose for your life. Strength for your journey. All found in Him . God’s promise in Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Is your soul weary?  God sees you .  He knows you.  He loves you.  He has provided for you.  God promises to give us s...

Today's Reading: Jeremiah 29:11  Devotional of the Day — Home Page This devotional journey is made of three connected messages: • God’s Peace for the Anxious Heart • God’s Purpose for Your Life • God’s Strength for the Weary Soul Together, they form a gentle path — moving from God's peace, to His purpose, to His strength. Each message is written from lived experience and the leading of the Holy Spirit. If your heart is anxious, searching, or tired, may these words guide you back to the One who sees you, knows you, and walks with you. Peace for your heart. Purpose for your life. Strength for your journey. All found in Him . "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11 Have you ever wondered if God has a purpose for your life?  Well, He does.  Even if you have never had a reason to think about it— think about it now.  Would God give you a life without a purpose?...

Today's Reading: Philippians 4:6-7 Devotional of the Day — Home Page This devotional journey is made of three connected messages: • God’s Peace for the Anxious Heart • God’s Purpose for Your Life • God’s Strength for the Weary Soul Together, they form a gentle path — moving from God's peace, to His purpose, to His strength. Each message is written from lived experience and the leading of the Holy Spirit. If your heart is anxious, searching, or tired, may these words guide you back to the One who sees you, knows you, and walks with you. Peace for your heart. Purpose for your life. Strength for your journey. All found in Him . Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God… shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6–7 If you have an anxious heart,  anxiety attacks,  sleepless nights…  if the cares of this world are tearing you down —...

Devotional of the Day — Home Page 2 Corinthians 6:1 "We . . . plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain" Chambers’ devotional today is Drawing on the Grace of God—Now. “My grace is sufficient for thee” is a verse I have heard often. I always thought it meant God’s favor that He may or may not choose to give in a moment of need. Grace was never taught in Sunday School or from the pulpit. But today I discovered that grace is supplied by the Holy Spirit Himself — a continual inner flow, like a never‑ending waterfall within us. Grace is God giving us what we cannot give ourselves: strength, help, patience, peace, wisdom, power… just to name a few. Grace flows from God continually — a never‑ending supply of whatever you need, abundant, full, and overflowing. If you fail to draw on it, it is like going thirsty while a fountain of clean, free water stands right in front of you, waiting for you to drink. Our verse of the day: “We… plead with you not to receive th...

Devotional of the Day — Home Page John 12:27-28 "... what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 'Father, glorify Your name'" As a saint of God, we should not ask for the difficulties in life to be prevented or removed. Jesus said, " but for this hour I have come." And God did not deliver Him from the suffering but delivered Him through the suffering.  We say, there should not be sorrow and suffering in life. But there is sorrow and suffering. We must accept that fact and deal with it; we are being careless with our lives if we refuse.  It is a fact of life. Sin, sorrow, and suffering exists. God did not make a mistake allowing them existence. Sorrow is part of the human condition, you may try to avoid it but it will eventually find you anyway.  Sorrow removes shallowness but it does not always make us better people. It can deepen you or destroy you... depending on how you receive yourself. Do you fac...

Devotional of the Day — Home Page Luke 22:53 “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” The hour was late, and the power of darkness was moving… Many people think darkness hides them, but nothing is hidden from God. Sin was in the making of that arresting party. Sin was the reason they hated Him — not His sin, but their sin. Christ was sinless. But He exposed their sin, and they hated Him for it. Sin is the reason Jesus came to earth. Sin is the reason He died. If we live our lives without being reconciled to the fact that sin destroys, and without getting right with God, we will live in sin — and it will be one disaster after another. I lived that way for 68 years. I lived through more disasters than I can count. And yet… God was still working on me. Because now, my life is good. I have surrendered my life to God, and He is the ruling force in my life. Sin no longer rules me, and I no longer live in disaster. I survived those years only because He was preserving me for...

Devotional of the Day — Home Page Isaiah 53:3 "He is . . . a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" The fall of Adam plunged humanity into sin.  We all face the inherited corruption of the fall.   When we are young, we do not deal with the reality of sin. We grow up thinking we will control our own lives. We get educated, we mature, and we assume we will grow out of our wicked ways.  As we grow older, we do not confront the sin in our lives. We joke about it. We condone it. We join others in it. We look at it as something to be covered up or hidden. We do not address it as sin. We make less of it and brush past it with the tendency to excuse it.  Sin can creep into every facet of our lives. Many things that do not look like sin contain sin — but we do not realize it until it has taken root.  Chambers teaches: "Sin is a fact of life. Sin kills. We must bring ourselves to terms with this fact. Sin makes the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontr...

Matthew 7:2 "With what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you" You will be judged  by the same measure you used to judge another.  Wow, that brings on a bit of trepidation in my heart. I am sure I have judged another at some time or another in my life. We say things without thinking about what we are speaking out loud. We tend to be uninhibited in looking for faults in others. But we cannot see the very same thing in ourselves when we look in the mirror.  I have become more intentional in my thinking process and in my speech since my day of surrender. I am sure it is the Lord giving me a discernment about this matter that has caused this caution in my manner. I am glad. I do not want judgment or criticism directed toward me, and I certainly do not want to be guilty of directing it toward someone else.  It is hard to believe that the faults we notice in others often exist in us as well — hidden until ...

  1 Peter 2:9 "You are . . . a royal priesthood . . ." We are of "a royal priesthood" by right of the atonement of Jesus on the Cross. The accomplishment was not of our own but solely His own sacrifice. We can state that we have victory in Jesus because of it, but if we are not in the proper relationship with Christ, those words hold no meaning.  Are we still performing internal searches in an effort to see if we are what we ought to be? This can generate a self-centered type of Christianity in our lives. We are not to be focused on self but on Him. We need to launch out in reckless relief that our redemption is complete and then not think about ourselves anymore. We need to open our hearts and begin to follow the lead of Jesus Christ and what He taught.  We are to pray for the friend on our heart, pray for God's saints, we actually need to pray for everyone.  Pray with the realization that we are perfect only when we are in Christ Jesus and not at any time are...

  Job 42:10 "The Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends"  We are saved by the atonement of Jesus Christ. There is nothing for us to do but humbly accept His sacrifice. It is a done deal. It is a complete deal. It is a gift . It is something that causes us to feel indebted to Him. We feel like we need to do something to deserve it. We feel like we need to do something to pay for it . We feel like we need to just do something ... anything ... We just feel like there has got to be something that we can do  —  but there isn't . And when we keep going down this path... well, it is just the wrong path to go down, that's all there is to it. Stop. Turn around. Let us go back to the beginning. We accepted Christ as our Savior. He paid our bill. We could never have paid it... not ever. But it got paid, and we accepted that we had been atoned of our sins by His death for us. Period. That is it. It is done. We must accept it, graciously, and stop trying t...