Just this morning, I was praying for my wife - like I do every morning. And as I was, something hit me hard. God gave me a realization that what I was doing was absolutely amazing. I was talking to God! And when I realized this, I was fascinated! God gave us the ability to talk to him, and we should never take it for granted. Here are 3 things that make prayer so awesome:

1. Prayer is an awesome thing.

Think about it. When you pray, you talk to the Ruler of the Entire Universe. You aren't just uttering a quaint pre-dinner phrase. You are entering the throne room of heaven to lay your humble request at the feet of the Lord of All. And the thing that is really amazing is that, in Hebrews 4:16, He calls us to do this with confidence!

2. Prayer is amazing thing.

Not only is prayer a high privilege, but it is uniquely special because it opens the door for us to have a living, breathing relationship with the One who breathes stars. Psalm 33:6 says,

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And their starry hosts by the breath of His mouth.

The moment you cease to be amazed by the fact that you are known and loved by this God is the moment you have lost sight of Him altogether. You can't relate to God without having your mind blown consistently. He is infinite in His glory, splendor, and desire for you!

3. Prayer is an affecting thing.

Prayer has a great effect. Prayer affect God, ourselves, others, and our world. How cool is that??? God has specifically given us, as fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17), the ability to reach into the storehouses of heaven and affect God and his activity here on earth. THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!

Andrew Murray said in his book With Christ in The School of Prayer,

"Lord, teach us to pray." Yes, to pray. This is what we need to be taught. Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child canary, yet it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise. It is fellowship with the Unseen and Most Holy One. The powers of the eternal world have been placed at its disposal.

So I want to challenge you today to reach into the heart and hands of your heavenly Father and experience the wonder and power of prayer. This is the unique privilege and plan God has given to you in this very moment. Don't let today end without laying hold of this amazing blessing.

Recently, in our youth ministry, we went through a short series about knowing who we are and how God sees us called Identity Crisis. And even though it seems like such an obvious thing - knowing who we are - we often lose sight of our true identities in the plethora of images of everything our culture expects of us. We are called to love God and change the world, but everything in our culture says we should make our lives comfortable - all about ourselves. And the moment we begin pursuing what culture gives us instead of pursuing what God has called us to, we have settled for something far less than greatness.

But the enemy wants anything for us than to attain to what God has for us. He wants mediocrity for us. Because of this, he has waged war on us. And his target is our identity in Christ. If we can be knocked away from a healthy self-identity, then he can tempt us to do just about anything that will steal glory away from our God with relative ease. And the crazy thing is that we need to know who we are in Christ to fight against this. In order to remain close to God, we need to be confident in Him.

See, we will always fight FROM our identity. The way we perceive ourselves in this world will greatly affect how we pursue changing this world. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but we are always in a fight. The question is just what we are fighting for. Are we fighting for things that matter or things that don’t? We will always avoid the fights that matter until we are confident of the One who fights for us. And the way that we perceive God is really important because it changes how we see ourselves.

Big God --> Strong, Confident Me.

Puny God --> Weak, Scared Me.

We see this truth illustrated very beautifully in 1 Samuel 17. When David walked onto the battlefield to fight with Goliath, do you think he was worrying about how weak he was? No. He was confident in how strong his God is. And that made him realize that he was invincible! Did you catch that? The way that he perceived his God was the difference between slavery to Goliath and victory for Israel.

The way that we perceive our God, and how He lives and works in us is the difference between agitated losing and abundant living. Agitated losing. Abundant living. This is what hangs in the balance.

So we must know how God sees us. For those of us who follow Jesus, this is how God sees us:

John 1:12 - We are children of God!
Ephesians 1:5 - We are adopted children who bring him pleasure!
Romans 15:7 - We are accepted by Jesus!
Colossians 2:9-10 - We have the fulness of Christ!
1 Corinthians 6:17 - We are one with the Lord in Spirit!
Romans 6:6 - We are no longer slaves to sin!
Genesis 1:27 - We have been created in God’s image!
1 Corinthians 12:27 - We are a part of the body of Christ - the Church!
1 Peter 2:9 - We are a chosen people! We are a royal priesthood! We are a holy nation! We belong to God! We are no longer in darkness!
Galatians 3:27-28 - We are no longer identified in the way everyone else identifies us!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - We are a temple of the Holy Spirit! We have been purchased at the highest price!
Colossians 3:1-3 - Our identities are hidden with Jesus so much so that God sees us the same way he sees Jesus...as a perfect child whom he adores!

The way we perceive ourselves in this world will greatly affect how we pursue changing this world. And in order to change our world, we need continually fight to protect our identity in Christ.

My prayer for you is that you know Jesus, you know who you are, and that FROM your identity, you will be able to change your world for God's glory!