Je n' parle pas francais

When I was in high school I was required to take a foreign language course. I thought it would be neat to learn Spanish because I have some Spanish speaking family members and it is a rather commonly used language in California where I was going to school. But the class was full and I was unable to register for it. So I ended up in French. I was disappointed. I struggled my way through french for two years and found no delight in learning it. A few nights ago my children and I were talking about foreign languages and I shared with them the only phrase I could remember from my two years of study.... Je n' parle pas francais... "I don't speak french."  I had retained so little because I found no joy in it. On the other hand my children began laughing at the joy they had found in speaking 'pig latin' to one another a few years ago. They found so much delight and laughter in conversing in such a silly way and they got to be quite good at it. They would hold entire conversations with each other in 'pig latin' and thoroughly confuse their momma. They began to converse again and found that the "language" had not escaped their memory. They still found delight in it. I however, found frustration in 'pig latin' and could never seem to decipher it. What a difference delight can make in our understanding and retention of a language!

Blessed is the man whose... "delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night."  Psalm 1:2

 The law of the Lord, His Word, is the language of God. It is God's Word that His Holy Spirit uses to speak to our hearts. Our understanding and retention of what the Holy Spirit speaks to us, depends greatly on the delight we find in learning His language. Do you wonder why some people seem to understand and retain His Word so much better than others? What does your time in His Word look like? Has it become a chore, a time of frustration or drudgery, just another item on your to-do list? Do you often say with a sigh... I need to do my Bible study? Or do you look forward with eagerness to your time with the Holy Spirit as He teaches you His language? Do you delight in the law of the Lord, and meditate on it day and night?  I pray that each of us will draw closer and closer to our Lord as we delight in learning His language and that His language becomes so deeply written on our hearts that our conversations with the Lord become simple, automatic, and filled with more delight.