In your daily quiet moments with God, to whom do you pray? What I meant to ask is do you pray to God the Father? Or do you pray to God the Son? Or neither? Or simply, God? Somewhere, sometime, I must have learned to pray to God the Father whenever I prayed. Ever since I was a little boy, I have mainly prayed to God the Father. I say mainly because sometimes I prayed to God the Son. And if I am correct, I have prayed to God the Spirit only a handful of times. In other words, for the great majority of the time, I prayed to God the Father. I prayed to God the Son a little less. Then I prayed to God the Spirit the least.
I don’t pray to God the Father subconsciously, I think. I do it with a certain degree of intent. The reason why I pray mainly to God the Father is because I sense that most of the time in the Bible, prayers were offered to God the Father. Is this true? Were most prayers in the Bible offered to God the Father?
One day, when Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, this was what he said in Luke 11:1–2: “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father, hallowed be your name…’” If what Jesus were teaching his disciples on that day included the correct way to address a prayer, then he was teaching them they were to address their prayers to God the Father. In other words, this was to be the formula they must follow whenever they prayed. To be fair, however, Jesus never did say it was wrong to pray to him.
So the question is, do we find in the New Testament examples where people prayed prayers addressed not to God the Father, but to God the Son? And the answer is yes.
Acts 7:59
They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
And if indeed “Lord” in 2 Corinthians 12:8 refers to Jesus Christ, and not God the Father…
2 Corinthians 12:8
Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
And if Revelation 22:20 is considered a prayer…
Revelation 22:20
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
As you can see, there are examples in the Bible where prayers were offered to God the Son, although not many examples. If we were to find examples in the Bible (and we did), can we confidently say it is not wrong to pray to God the Son? I think so. Research shows that there were prayers to God the Son found in the early apocryphal Christian writings. Tradition says that by the 4th century, prayers to God the Son were very common in public and liturgical prayers.
What about praying to God the Holy Spirit? In other words, do we find any examples in the Bible where individuals addressed their prayers to the third Person of the Trinity? So far, my answer is no. I say it this way because I have not yet come across a verse in the Bible where a prayer was addressed to God the Holy Spirit. However, even if we were never to find any prayers addressed to God the Holy Spirit anywhere in the Bible, I don’t think praying to God the Holy Spirit is wrong, and this is why. If God the Holy Spirit is God, and fully God as God the Father and God the Son, then it should be no different to pray to God the Holy Spirit than to pray to God the Father or to God the Son. Although praying to God the Holy Spirit seems a little awkward to me personally, it shouldn’t. Many of my friends have prayed to God the Holy Spirit, and I do not think it was wrong for them to have done so. If I am right, and I certainly don’t know if I am, it is not wrong to pray to God the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion, while I may continue to offer my prayers mainly to God the Father, it is not wrong for you to offer your prayers to God the Son, or to God the Holy Spirit. Anyone of us may pray to any of the three Persons of the Trinity, or all three Persons of the Trinity. It is right for each Person of the Trinity to receive our prayers because each is fully God.