Daily EncouragementSample

Paul was standing on the steps of the Roman barracks in Jerusalem, addressing (with the commanders’ permission) the mob which had just been manhandling him. He motioned to the crowd, and there was silence. He began to speak in Aramaic, and the silence became almost a reverent hush. For men love their native tongue and respond to it. It is the language they began to learn at their mother’s breast. It is the language of their private prayers.

And God speaks to us in our own language: “I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions . . . and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?’” (Acts 26:13-14). Our home language is our heart language, and our Lord uses it. Mark cannot resist recording our Lord’s words, “Talitha koum!” (Mark 5:41).

And missionaries have to learn the language of the people to whom God sends them. “Getting the language” is not always as easy as the phrase suggests. Jim Elliot, pioneer to the Auca tribe, said, “Language study is a tyranny of frustration.” We should pray that missionaries will be enabled to learn the languages they must acquire.