Brainstorm – He Scatters the Proud in the Imaginations of their Own Hearts

We are taught at an early age how to brainstorm – an exercise of collecting ideas and generating solutions.  In January of last year, I journaled about the definition of brainstorm, understanding that the Lord was trying to show me something with this word, but not yet sure of the meaning.  Here is what I recorded:

“Brainstorm – sudden impulse or idea, a fit of mental confusion or excitement”

Today, as I turned to this old page in my journal, I received a scripture immediately from the Lord:

Luke 1:51 “He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their own hearts.”

When I used to think of the word proud, I associated this word with egotistical or narcissist… someone who is arrogant.  But through the transformation process of the Lord revealing my own sicknesses to me, this word “proud” cut through my heart like a sword.  Pride is self-reliant, a person who can research, fact-find and yes BRAINSTORM to find a fix to every problem they face.  This was me.  In fact, that very word brainstorm played a significant role particularly in my professional life throughout my 16+ years working in marketing.  Give me a challenge and I will brainstorm through ideas and information to come up with solutions.  The gift of creative thinking is beautiful, right?  Maybe, but in this context, dangerous.  This tool poured out into my personal life and I became the woman that could find a solution anything and everything.  At least I thought this was true until I was shown otherwise in an earth shaking, paradigm shifting revelation of truth – brought down to my knees in complete surrender God.  I learned that I was the proud.  And, even though the Lord removed this boulder that was lodged deep into my heart, I’m still struggling now to rid of the remnant – the little splinters that continue to surface from time to time.

Think about a storm…  Can you see that storm with the winds swirling and roaring in Luke’s remark “He scattered the proud in the imagination of their own hearts” – the imagination spinning as fast as your brain can go, searching through dark, chaotic clouds for the answer we seek…  The heart speaks of what we desire and the imagination is the vehicle of thoughts and ideas that aim to lead us to these desires.  So what are we desiring and why do we often find ourselves scattered in our thoughts – desperately seeking solutions and strategies to achieve what we want?

When the disciples were in the boat in the middle of a raging storm, they became worried and fearful.  They woke up Jesus, who was sleeping peacefully and they screamed out, “Lord, Do you not even care that we will perish?”  Here they are in the middle of this horrific storm, feeling like their boat was about to be overtaken by the roaring waves and worried about how to save themselves.  Jesus woke and simply rebuked the storm.  He did away with it – calmed the waves and the wind and the rain.

Instead of BRAINSTORMING for solutions when we feel like we need an answer, what if we just hand the wind and rain to Jesus and ask HIM to handle it for us?

Instead of searching our hearts for the desires that we THINK we need to obtain, what if we just lay down our pride at the feet of our Father and trust HIM to determine what we need?

I was taught how to brainstorm in group projects as early as I can remember, (elementary school).  The Lord continues to un-teach me the ways of the world and seek HIM to be my teacher.  If your thoughts feel like a scattered mess of images and ideas, maybe you can join me in handing over these splinters to God and asking him to heal them with the blood of the lamb.

God Bless you All <333