There’s strategy to this combination of the Word and
prayer. From Scripture we receive written proof of what God
has done for us, what He’s created us and called us and
empowered us into becoming. Then in prayer we cooperate
with Him to stamp these truths repeatedly into our hearts. And
then, more than that, we access them and engage them and
draw down their power into our everyday experience.
In prayer we watch words on a page turn a new leaf in us,
both in our hearts and in our day-to-day living. In prayer we
feel a bolstering that energizes us with holy confidence. In
prayer we set off like trailblazers, carving fresh neural pathways
within our brains, transforming the way we think of ourselves,
receiving and believing our true identity—the one that was
stamped on us the moment we ran to the foot of the cross. Pray
long and hard enough, and not only do we realize we’re indeed
alive, but we become angry—furious!—that we’ve been in
mourning for so long, saddened by a tragedy whose outcome
was totally misreported to us.
As adopted daughters of the living God, if we’re not
strategically praying in accordance with who our Maker and
Redeemer says we are, if we aren’t calling ourselves by name
according to that list from Ephesians, serving the devil notice