The Fingers of Your Mind

In high school, it was required to take a foreign language. So I took Spanish and did very well. In fact, after the two required years, I was a class aide for a third year.

 

Also, in high school, the church I attended gave campers a chance to earn half of their camp fee by memorizing verses and repeating them to a sponsor. So I did. I actually needed to in order to offset the cost of camp.

 

I was pretty much an A student in Spanish and I always had half my camp fee paid for, but…what you don’t use, you lose. Or, in other words, what you don’t use, you don’t really “own.” It slips from the fingers of your mind.

 

Today, I can understand verbally some Spanish (if a person speaks slowly) and I can get the gist of something written in Spanish, sometimes. Many of the verses I memorized I can recall, but more often than not, especially with all of the modern day translations, I have to admit there are few that I can actually recite if asked (being put on the spot nerves play into that, too).

 

However, since being in Moms in Prayer and praising the Lord using His own words as well as praying scripturally for my children, I am more and more able to bring to mind certain scriptures. I can’t always say I remember the passage address exactly, but I can usually find it in my Bible.  I “owned” them in prayer. In fact, I find myself more and more not just praying an asked request but working that request into praying Scripture.

 

I think, in some way, this ownership makes us more like Jeremiah who said (20:9) that he could not help but speak God’s powerful word, which was like a fire burning in his heart. Owned Scripture is something hidden in our hearts that the Holy Spirit brings to our minds and lips at the appropriate time so we can speak it or pray as He desires. As Henry M. Morris wrote, “The word of fire in the burning heart cannot be contained, but must be proclaimed.”

 

I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate Your ways.

I will delight myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.

Psalm 119:15-16 (NKJ)

 

Father, I pray for your daughters that we will meditate on Your precepts and contemplate Your ways.  May we delight ourselves in Your statutes and not forget Your Word—may it not slip from the fingers of our minds. Father, may each of us “own” Your Word so that Your Spirit bring Your “fire” to our minds and to our lips so we can speak it in prayer as You desire. In the Name above all names, Jesus, so be it.