2025 – Heather Bush

March 14, 2025

New Revelations on the Daily Fight

Each day is a new struggle and has been for a long time now but each day “His mercies are new every morning”. But it goes beyond that. Every morning I wake up and on one level or another decide if I’m still going to believe He is who He said He is. It’s a conscious decision to believe that He will be faithful to listen because I am going to Him in prayer asking for the strength to get through the day. Not on my strength, but to be filled with His strength.

This is where the whole context of the verse comes into play: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

(Lamentations 3:22-23)

And as I lay here when I first wake up I put on what is known as the “Armor of God”

But I keep this in mind:

““I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.”

(Lamentations 3:55-58)

And here’s the thing, as I was doing the dishes after a long day (but a good day) I had air1 radio on and they had a concert live from Red Rocks. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to listen but then the one speaker said “If He didn’t die on the cross and be resurrected three days later, leaving an empty tomb behind but a path to heaven and the Father through Him before us, then all this is just for naught. One of my favorite passages in the Chronicles of Narnia is when Lucy asks if the line is tame. And they reply tame? No, of course he’s not a tame lion. But he is good.”” That caught my attention right away and as they began they just said we’re going to play and we want you to just realize the good He has done, how He has been faithful and name that out loud wherever you are because it says He inhabits the praise of His people.

There is something very powerful and profoundly different when you thank God for something out loud. It’s the same way as a child yearns to hear I love you from their parent. When someone you know beyond a shadow of a doubt loves you and they tell you those words out loud it means so very much.

How many children in generations previous but even today say “I know my parents loved me but they never said it”? And it was at that moment I stopped everything and just said “You actually were in Jerusalem. You actually did come down for my sake. You were actually there. It’s not just a tv show, a movie or a historical figure, You actually were there and it all happened.”

It’s not that I didn’t believe this before, but it was a deeper realization. As if my brain and heart combined to lay down a new neuropathy, a new folding of that grey matter that makes up my frontal lobe. “Religious Belief at the Level of the Brain: Neural Correlates and Influence of Culture” notes: The frontal lobe, located behind the forehead, does much of the work of complex thinking, like planning, imagining, making decisions, and reasoning. Specifically “The prefrontal cortex (PFC), specifically the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, plays a crucial role in integrating information and forming beliefs, along with other regions like the precuneus, anterior insula, and ventral striatum”

But here is where it really gets deep. I realized how much she had gotten me through today. And the day before that and the day before that and the last four years. I finally said if I need this pain as a reminder then give me more of it. If this is the only way I’m going to pay attention to you and realize how much you love me and how faithful you are- if this is the only way right now that things are able to get through to me then keep it coming. Of course this is not my will. This is not what I want. This is not the avenue I would choose, but if it’s the only one that is going to be effective right now then I completely accept it. I completely surrender to, however you want to use me. But I also completely surrender to whatever means you choose to get through to me because you know me better than I do. Not my will, but yours be done.

And then it leaded me into thinking about the armor of God and about how they’re not even pieces of armor alone; to me they are pieces of Christ that we put on every morning just as much as we do when we take communion and eat the bread and drink.

What is the Full Armor of God? Bible Guide for Each Piece is a very good article detailing everything about the armor of god from Christianity today.

But for a deep dive here is a study guide pdf on the armor of God from scriptures explained with verses and full explanations, that is in my opinion well worth me going over and few times to soak it all in.

The Armor of God

The armor of God is an illustration in the Bible that reminds Christians about the reality of spiritual battle and describes the protection available to them. Each piece of armor has a distinct purpose and means of defense against temptation and evil.

Armor of God: Bible Passage

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

“Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Ephesians 6:10-18)

References:

Gaw A. C. (2019). Religious Belief at the Level of the Brain: Neural Correlates and Influence of Culture. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 207(7), 604–610. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000001016

Motel, April (2024) What is the Full Armor of God? Bible Guide for Each Piece

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-the-full-armor-of-god-how-can-i-put-on-the-whole-armor-of-god.html

The armor of God. N. A. Scriptures explained. N. D. https://www.scripturesexplained.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-full-armor-of-God-Bible-study-revised.pdf

February 1, 2025February 1, 2025

“Paid In Full”

There is something to be said about when Christ becomes so important to us that we ask to become more like Him. There is a phrase that “I should decrease and he should increase” and yet unfortunately we do not get to choose the way In which He makes us more like Him.

It is the dying to self process; this realizing that we are not the center of the universe, we are neither the creators of the universe nor do we have the power to manifest anything to come to us as so many prosperity gospels or new age thinkers believe.
Often times it takes quite a lot to get something to stick for me in my head and my heart, but I thank God that it is done and manageable stages.

Like many good teachers they don’t try to teach you the entire alphabet in 24 hours. You take it letter by letter, day by day, week by week and then weeks turn into months and months into semesters then eventually you’re done with that grade. Thankfully at the end you do know the alphabet and a forever if there comes a time when you don’t you remember the letter sequence you can fall back onto the rhymes that those clever teachers who so joyfully taught and encouraged you along the way. In reality they were also teaching you ways to help remember when under times of stress.

I feel it situations like this when Christ actively takes us up on our offer to transform us and have us become more like him. He uses things that we may or may not be aware of depending on where we are in our walk with Christ – somethings may be more obvious than others – but I think no matter where you are on your walk, things will never happen the same way twice. And for good reason that we don’t become complacent in our lessons.

For me, I’ve learned that pain is something I resonate with and have my entire life because of being so empathetic, going through my own life experiences and listening to others. That’s why I wanted originally to be a therapist but realized after my first master’s course, I would be up at 3 o’clock in the morning worrying about my patients.

For the last four months I’ve had a mild disc herniation with bilateral sciatica that I was told required no surgery- which was wonderful news. However, I found that physical therapy didn’t work because it was not tailored to what I needed- the movements were too big, the drive to strengthen the core too soon and then I found that I was allergic to many of the medication’s they normally would prescribe.

I’ve just been pressing on and doing as much as I can to keep my eyes on Christ in the process but what I’ve realized is He’s working on me through it. He’s brought to light things that have been very helpful such as an increase awareness of empathy for others, but also realizing that I need to go to Him for the answers and not to others. It’s to deepen my relationship with Him and things of my own that still need work.

The acupuncture and massage, a tens unit and essential oils have been extremely helpful thank God as well as quality time over FaceTime with friends or family and I’ve learned to be so much more grateful and how important it is to have an attitude of gratitude. To be honest however, this is something I am still working on it’s not very easy to always be grateful when in such constant pain.

As mentioned previously, I have learned that there are things still to be worked on that I thought I had already worked through and I do believe the entire process of sanctification is very much like that of an onion- they’ll always be one more layer to deal with and more often than not you may crying at times but in the end it makes all the difference. We will never be perfect this side of eternity.

What makes the difference between having hope feel like a four letter word and actually believing that there is a reason for this is not so much that there is a guaranteed healing (because they’re very well may not be, but thee very well can be just the same). The fact that if He is working on me it meant He listened to me all that time ago. If He is working on me through this pain, it can too make me more like him because it creates more empathy and reliance on Him, so a deeper connection. It means He cares enough to want me to be more like Him .
That He loves me and want me. If He didn’t want and love me, why would He want a relationship with me or for me to even be more like Him to begin with?

It means that I learn more about Him through what I’m going through because I can emphasize with the pain he felt. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying or suggesting in any way shape or manner that I know what it’s like to feel the pain of the crucifixion not in the slightest! Rather it is in my experience of this pain reminds me of all the unfathomable pain and horrific death He endured so that He could restore the relationship of all of humanity through His death and resurrection.
He willing became the perfect sacrifice to restore my ability to have a relationship with God the Father and that goes not only for me but for anyone who’s willing to see what He did out of love before I even gave Him a second thought. To accept that we are not perfect and therefore cannot stand in front of God who is completely Holy. Jesus willing suffered all of that pain on our behalf, was crucified although blameless, He lived a perfect life and He took on the sin that separates all of humanity on Himself so when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior God no longer sees us and the stain of sin but He sees his Son (the perfect sacrificial lamb), looks at us and sees “paid in full”.

Our sins are washed white as snow and we are welcome into His presence anytime day or night and God did all of this because He loves us and wants a restored, loving ever deepening relationship with Him. And most importantly He has been, is now and always be WITH me throughout the entire process, and forevermore.

January 23, 2025January 23, 2025

Here With Me

I feel like there should be more ways to convey that word in English, a better way to convey the depth. Like when word suffixes in other languages totally change the meaning and how they relate to the entire rest of every word in the sentence. Or how in the Bible if LORD is written in all capitol letters it is God Himself- everything He is say versus with just the L in Lord being capitalized it’s His title; but He’s still showing up in both situations.

Suffice it to say I stake my life on the fact that I have only gotten through because of His strength, His providence and the fact that He is WITH me in every way shape and form. At 3 am, when I’m too busy to think and He’s keeping me level, when there’s nothing else, no logical explanation for how I made it through the last hour (or less somedays).

Knowing He is WITH me through the pain, the tears, the struggles but also all the joys as well. Knowing He’s with me in those moments I’m either too numb or exhausted to even think more than His name, or more recently when I can’t turn my brain off and things are going 1,000 miles a minute in 20 different directions.

He’s with me in the silence and the chaos .

He watches the sunrises with me.
He helps me through the countless kindnesses of others and watches with me how their actions affect my life for the better, help my own faith grow or even stabilize.

He is WITH me as I’m too tired to go on and says, “Heather, stop trying to push through and keep doing it on your own or how someone else laid it out. I know every single thing about you, I love you, I’m listening, I am HERE. Put it all down and let Me take over. Trust Me, I will never leave you or forsake you, I will guide you with my eyes upon you, I know your needs even before you do and am already working on them, I know your heartache and am close to the broken hearted, I will be WITH you in your coming and going. I will supply all your needs, I am WITH YOU as you walk through yet another shadow of the valley of death, but we’re walking through it because there is something better on the other side – but we needed to go this way for a reason because the next mountain top I’m leading you can only be found this way. I am the Good Shepard who will protect you. I am closer than the breath in your lungs and spirit and soul. I am WITH you and watch over you as you sleep and when you are awake.

Let me carry that. I’m here WITH you, waiting to fulfill my promise that my yoke is easy and my burden light. Let me pull the weight you were never meant to try and pull yourself but society and people and experiences have told you otherwise. Let Me handle this; I’m here WITH you, lovingly waiting to take it because I care too much about you to force you to do it. That’s why there’s free will- I love you too much to take anything from you without your consent.

I’m here. I’m with you. Let me take that so you can rest.

Once you do, and as you rest and be still You will actively know that I AM God because of what I will do and show you and work all things out for your good”.

He’s with me when there’s only so much compartmentalization I can do until my brain becomes The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. But at least there are underground, aqueducts, and wells of Living Water that can get both me and you through.