The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections

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

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections   Today's Devotional • Back to Home Page   Aug 21 Devotional Special The 3-Part Surrender Series Part Three The Sweet Life The Intimacy of the Surrendered Life There is a sweetness that comes only after surrender — a sweetness so gentle, so quiet, so unmistakably holy that it cannot be produced by effort, emotion, or striving. It is the sweetness of Christ drawing near. The sweetness of His presence settling over a life that has finally laid down its will. The sweetness of knowing Him, not in theory, but in experience. Surrender gave Him full access to all of me… and gave me full access to all of Him. That is the sweet life. It is not dramatic. It is not loud. It is not emotional. It is not forced. It is the quiet sweetness of a God who comes close. The Sweetness of His Nearness The sweetest part of surrender is the nearness of Christ. Not imagined. Not hoped for. Not wished for. Not “felt” in a moment of worshi...

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections   Today's Devotional • Back to Home Page   Aug 21 Devotional Special The 3-Part Surrender Series Part Two The Surrendered Will A Clear Teaching on What Surrender Really Is Surrender is not complicated, but it is serious. It is a simple, deliberate decision to stop running your own life and let Christ take His rightful place as Lord. This is what happened to me on April 8. And this is what I want to explain in a simple manner. 1. What the Will Actually Is Your will is the part of you that decides. Your will is:  your ability to choose your ability to say yes or no your ability to obey or resist your ability to follow Christ or follow yourself God created your will. He does not override it. He does not force it. He waits for it. Meaning He is patient and He will wait for you to release control of your life to Him. You tell Him that you want Him to be on the throne of your life, that you will willingly step do...

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections   Today's Devotional • Back to Home Page   Aug 21 Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit . . ." The Quiet Work of God Today’s message from Chambers feels like it was written about my life. August 21 — The Ministry of the Unnoticed — rests on the verse, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and reminds me that true spiritual character is quiet and unseen. Chambers says that conscious influence is pride, and that the moment I wonder whether I am useful to God, I lose His gentle touch. Jesus works in the ordinary places, in the unnoticed moments, and that is where He has been shaping me. The Lord has breathed on this ministry. In just eight months, it has received over 5,400 views, and more than 750 of those have come in the last fourteen days alone. That is not normal for a quiet devotional blog like this one. It is supernatural. I have not promoted this work, yet p...

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections   Today's Devotional • Back to Home Page    Aug 20 Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest Matthew 11:28 " . . . and I will give you rest" The Calm You Cannot Explain There was a moment in my life, long before surrender, when the Holy Spirit placed a calm inside me that I could not explain. I did not know the word for it then. I did not know it was “rest.” I only knew that everything inside me suddenly laid flat — no ripples, no waves, no panic. It was a supernatural calm, the kind that smooths the tarmac of your soul so you can walk through a moment without fear. I was standing in a kitchen in Boston while someone calmly described a future for me that would have taken my precious daughter from me and stripped me of my life. Yet inside me, I felt nothing but stillness. It told me, “Be quiet. Say nothing.” And I obeyed. That calm saved me. If I had spoken, things could have escalated and trapped me befor...

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections   Today's Devotional • Back to Home Page   Aug 18 Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest Luke 18:23 "When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich" Devotion: Love for Jesus Alone The rich man loved his wealth so much that Jesus' words, "sell all that you have," hit him with deep discouragement, and he went away from Jesus struck speechless with sorrow. Jesus demands that we give it all up for Him. All of it. Everything that we are. Everything that we have. Everything we cling to and depend on. Everything that we own. Everything that has a grip on us has to go. He wants us just as we were when we were born, stripped down to only our very soul, standing naked and without before Him.  Our free will—it will cling to its freedom. It will fight this battle with or without you.  But if we truly mean what we say, we must follow Him in whatever way He leads. I was sixty‑eight, ...

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections   Today's Devotional • Back to Home Page Aug 17 Today's Reading: My Utmost for His Highest Luke 18:22-23 ". . . Jesus . . . said to him, 'You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.' But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich" . . . And Come Follow Me The Lord woke me one night from a deep sleep with one loud word, "Complacent." I heard the same word again the next day from a coworker as we talked. The Lord  can speak louder than a whisper. I listened, I heard, I responded to His word. I ended up taking another job which lasted over 15 years.  When we hear Him speak to us, do we respond with action?  John 10:27 —  "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Or are we discouraged?  Has He asked too much of us?  Chambers' message today speaks to us about the rich man. He went away very sorrowful. Bec...

The Quill and Me—Devotional Blog•Oswald Chambers Reflections   Today's Devotional • Back to Home  Aug 16 A Testimony of Surrender Fully Surrendered To The Son When it comes to surrender, that is all there is on our part — surrender. Surrender all of you to Him… and He does all the rest. You just surrender. Yield every single part of yourself to His holy fire of sanctification. The Holy Spirit who dwells within you is the sanctifier. He will take each part of you in His loving hands and sanctify you — burning off everything that does not belong anymore. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit: God in Spirit within you. He is sanctifying you: working the very nature of Jesus Christ into your very nature. You just yield. Yield to Him whatever He brings to mind that needs to be yielded. Before surrender, I laid down a fifty‑year burden — the weight I had carried for most of my life. After surrender, the Holy Spirit began emptying the rest. One day, while I was writing...