As an editor, one of my favorite verses has always been Hebrews 12:1-2. A section of it reads:

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…”

You would think it would be the word “Author” that catches my eye, and while it does resonate with my editor-heart, the more striking word to me in these verses has always been the word “eyes.”

Eyes are a fascinating thing. You see, many days what my eyes are focused on is where my heart is focused. My bet is, you are similar. When you see a good sale, do you pine longingly for that treasured item? Or, like me, when you see fresh chocolate chip cookies or a mouth-watering steak, is that all your heart (or maybe your stomach) wants? Or, on a more serious note, when you stare deeply into the eyes of a loved one, does your heart soar with gratefulness?

This year, I’ve seen the truth of the saying ‘the eyes are a window into the soul.’ They show us where our focus is. To summarize Jesus’ words in Matt. 6:19-23, for where your eyes are fixed, there also will be your heart. But, the question I keep coming back to in pondering this word, eyes, is this: What are my eyes fixed on? Jesus, or other things?

the question I keep coming back to in pondering this word, eyes, is this: What are my eyes fixed on? Jesus, or other things?

I can honestly say it’s been a mixed year. There’s been a lot of change, transition, and questions this year - and my eyes have gotten diverted from Jesus more than a few times. It’s been a daily journey to keep turning away from other things and back to my King. But I praise God for His relentless pursuit and ever-beckoning call in my life. He continues to place measures of grace that enable me to keep fixing my eyes on Him.

One of the measures of grace He has used this past year was that of my volunteer role with the Dayton Women in the Word team. Serving as the Content Editor, I had the great privilege to help steward over many words this year. Words that informed, words that told stories, words that spoke life - words, ultimately, that we hope and pray gave God back some of the glory He is due.

I saw this role as an active practice of stewardship. A stewardship of truth. And through this role, I saw that God is the Steward over my life. I won’t lie to you, 2018 has been a hard, confusing year in many ways, but one thing I have definitely had is ample opportunity to choose to trust Him. Trust Him, even when I cannot see. Trust Him, even when I don’t have answers or specific direction. I’m learning, albeit slowly,  that this is what faith is, choosing to trust - not because you “get it all,” but because God is sovereign, good, and wise.

As a sermon I listened to recently reminded me, I’ve seen God say to me over and over again: “I didn’t ask you to have all the solutions, I asked you to have faith.” That is what this role has taught me - to have more faith. Faith that God can do abundantly more than I can ask or imagine. Faith that He uses broken people and situations for His glory. Faith that He can be trusted. Faith that He will do what He says He will do. Faith that He is faith-FULL, even when I fail in faith.

So, now as I close this chapter and move on to work on some other things the Lord is calling me to, I think about all that God has done in the past year through DWITW, and I am humbled. I’m humbled to have been to have taken part in this weighty work of stewarding truth - it has taught me once again to fix my eyes back on Jesus and choose to trust Him. This has been a true and pure gift.

My goal was always to lift high the name of Christ and to encourage other women to do the same. And I know  this is the goal of our new Content Editor, Stephani Duff. So, as I close this chapter, that is my encouragement to her and to you dear readers of the DWITW blog community: Fix Your Eyes on Jesus. He will never fade. He can be trusted with your yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows. He is a good Steward. He is a good Author and will continue perfecting you, growing you up into His likeness, for the sake of the gospel!

---

Bekah Brewer wants to live in a world where travel is quicker & cheaper, people are wisely vulnerable, and where discipleship is not just a concept but a thriving heartbeat of the whole Church. When she’s not editing for DWITW or her business (Words Redeemed), you can find her playing soccer, pouring into friends & family, or planning out more times of fun, rest, and growth. Her favorite Scripture is Philippians 1:27a: Just one thing: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. (HCSB)

Today's team journal was written by our Social Media Manager, Kelly Gwin.

“We walk by faith, not by sight.”

What does it look like for you to walk by faith in your life right now? The Lord has been training me in this area for some time now, and staying true to my own form, it's taken me until very recently to realize that. I know I’m supposed to trust God and not lean on my own understanding (Prov. 3:5-6), but when circumstances in life are truly proving to make zero sense to me, that knowledge suddenly becomes very difficult to walk out. A trial that seems to have no end in sight, a new depth of intimacy with God that I’ve been longing for, but that comes with uncertainty and perhaps criticism, and new insights from His Word that all point me to one thing: faith.

We've been praying the Lord’s prayer together as a church community for the past few months, and I’ve been using that model in my own prayer time and expanding on the various elements with the Lord as I pray through all the things in my heart and life. And seemingly when I get to “your kingdom come” all these things begin to well up and spill out. I’m asking for the Lord’s return, but I’ve been asking for so much more. I’m asking for the fullness of His kingdom in my life, in my marriage, in my home, and my church community. I’m asking for His kingdom to come in my parenting as I walk through intense difficulty with a child who I know was made for His glory, but has me daily on my knees in defeat. I want ALL of what it means to belong to the God of the universe, the God of the Bible. I’m continually reading stories of extraordinary things that happen in the lives of Biblical characters and realizing I'm lacking. Where are these extraordinary things in my life? I know He’s the same God. I know He’s got the same desires, the same power, the same willingness that He had then. So what’s missing? Faith.

So, in my life right now walking by faith and not by sight means leaning into the strange and uncomfortable things that I see in God’s Word

Now let me clarify that, in Christ, I am missing nothing. In Christ, there is no lack. What God is doing now is showing me more of who He is, and the way He sometimes does this is just different than the way we had planned. Can I get an “amen?” If I want to hear His voice and obey to the uttermost the way Ezekiel did, the way Abraham and Moses did, the way the early church disciples did - hearing very specifically from God and moving forward with action in confidence that they heard their Father’s voice - that requires faith. If I believe in a God of miracles and want to walk in the Holy Spirit who imparts gifts that are meant to be in operation, that requires faith. If I am going to faithfully continue to believe that God is good and has a glorious plan for my daily struggles in parenting, and all the sin that abounds in it, that requires faith.

So, in my life right now walking by faith and not by sight means leaning into the strange and uncomfortable things that I see in God’s Word, but not in many churches. It means having confidence that if I’m His sheep, then I do hear His voice and I can obey with confidence. I can trust the Holy Spirit and His Word to guide me without fear of the results. Walking by faith means trusting in a God that’s beyond my understanding when I feel like I just can't make it another day as the mother of a child I love so dearly. It means letting go of absolutely everything the world expects of me and clinging only to Jesus, because He’s proven Himself trustworthy. I would love to end by sharing a personal paraphrase of Hebrews chapter 12 that God prompted me to write this morning (of course) as a letter from Him to me, and maybe from Him to you.

“You have my Word to see that by faith all these people walked in obedience and didn’t even receive the promise that I was later faithful to give. You have the benefit of seeing my faithfulness because of them. You can see that I keep my promises, and that my word is true.

Because of this, throw off your sin and run by faith the path I’ve set before YOU. Looking to me, the One who gave you this faith in the first place, and who is sanctifying you. I have taken the weight of shame and condemnation off of you on the cross so that you can do this without growing weary. You will not have to endure what I endured for you. This is discipline; loving training in holiness. Because you are my daughter, and I desire LIFE for you. I’m doing all things for your good. So that you will be with Me and be like Me. So that you will be strengthened and healed. Strive for peace and holiness with those I’ve put in your life. Make sure that you are pouring out the grace that I’ve poured out onto you, not allowing room for bitterness. Because you belong to Me - the One who’s already covered it all so you can walk by faith that these promises are secure in me. Don’t turn from Me. Don't resist Me. Listen to Me and trust Me. There are consequences if you don’t. Either way, I have seen to it that you will receive my unshakeable kingdom and that you will stand unshaken in it. So be grateful and worship me with fear and awe, in light of who I am. I am your God. God Almighty.”

---

Kelly Gwin wants to live in a world where deep heart-talks happen at the top of every hour (you know, ones where everyone cries), gardens thrive without effort, and all the walls are white. When she's not discipling her 3 young girls and trying to keep her coffee hot, you can find her serving and living life with her Faith Christian Fellowship Dayton family, listening to some sort of podcast, or being "social" on behalf of DWITW.

Her favorite Scriptures are: Psalm 86:8 and Romans 5:8.

Are you dreading something or living in fear? Are you terrified of the future? Often times life’s circumstances bring us to places of great trepidation and uncertainty. Although we are not being pursued by a great nation such as Judah was in Isaiah 7 and 8, in some ways the spiritual warfare that we face is as real and foreboding. When we succumb to the enemy’s devices by meditating on and analyzing all the ins and outs of a situation, we are fighting against the Lord and His great grace over our lives. So often we, like Judah, listen to the report of our enemies and not what God is saying. We feel as though we are being conquered or terrorized by something or someone in our lives. We falter in our faith because we have our eyes on ourselves as the solution, rendering us unable to stand against the wiles of the enemy. God reminds us in Isaiah 7:9 that unless we stand on Him, we will not be able to stand at all:

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.”

How do we stand firm in our faith when we feel as though we are floundering? We grab hold of the Rock of our salvation! We anchor our hearts and minds on the One who condescended to our lowly estate in order that we may experience the power of His presence in our lives. We are ambassadors of Christ, made fit for royal service in our King’s great army. And yet, all too often we believe in the enemy’s strength more than in the power of our God - a God who moved heaven and earth to rescue us from darkness. God has ordained us and called us His own and we are to walk in newness of life. Many times that translates to laying down the old, worn path of worry, fear and anxiety and coming face to face with the living God, who by His mighty right arm has conquered all our foes! 1 Peter 2:9 confirms our position in His kingdom:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

There is a high call on our lives to proclaim the excellencies of Christ to a people who do not yet know Him. How can we do that if we are in bondage to fear and dread? There is no reason to be afraid or filled with dread of the future because Jesus is our great hope and He is victorious! He rescued us out of darkness! What are we doing running back to Egypt, walking those old paths of sin that we died to? We have believed the report of men over God. We are so prone to wander back to the old ruins of our life before Christ, where we believed that we were sovereign over our own lives.

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
- Isaiah 7:14

Our culture spoon feeds us the demonic worldly ideology that we are to be independent and self sufficient. This ideology creates great barriers of unbelief that stand in the way of us viewing Christ as supreme in our lives. When we lose sight of God in our circumstances, we grow fearful and unbelief begins to propagate a whole host of lies in our minds. We are so quick to forget that God is with us. We must remind one another that we are not alone and we were never meant to do this alone but that God, in name and character, is with us. 

It was no coincidence that Isaiah was sent to prophesy to Judah immediately after he had seen the Lord (Isaiah 6). His assignment was to carry the true message that God IS with us to His people. They had believed the lie that their safety and security was dependent upon their own wits and strength, but God encouraged them with the hope of His condescension so that they would have faith and be able to stand in the face of great tribulation. Just the mention of His name, Immanuel, connotes a calming and quieting effect for God’s people. We have a peace that the world cannot offer, but we must continually remind one another that we are not alone. Jesus himself reminds us that we are not alone in John 14:25-29:

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” 

Jesus left the earth so that we could have access to Him 24/7! We must believe that He is with us and that knowledge will surely lead our hearts toward the path of peace. We must rejoice in the knowledge of this truth together, reminding one another daily so that our faith does not fail. It is essential to our daily lives that we walk in the mandate of Philippians 4:4-7 in order that our minds not be taken captive by the lie that we are on our own. We must believe that He is with us!

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.  The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- Philippians 4:4-7

---

 Karen Savage wants to live in a world where Christ is Glorified. When she's not serving her family, you can find her serving others. Her favorite Scripture is John 15:7-8 ESV.