I received another good question in the offering plate this week, “Who do we pray to? Do we pray to the Heavenly Father, to God, or to Jesus?   Or does it matter, because of the trinity?  I’ve noticed Christians vary in their prayers.”

My answer starts with the Lord’s prayer, the model that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6. He taught us to pray to “Our Father in Heaven,” so I follow Jesus’ example and I address my prayers to “Heavenly Father,” or “God.”   That is the simple answer and a good beginning point.  It is what Jesus taught us to do.

Delve a little deeper, and we see that Jesus also said (see John 14:1-14) that He and God are one, and “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”  That certainly means that is is appropriate for believers to pray to Jesus, because Jesus is God.  They are both part of the trinity, and there is One God.

The truth is that all three members of the trinity are involved in prayer.  The Holy Spirit helps us pray and works in response to our prayer.  We pray in Jesus’ Name, since He is the one who opened the way for us to have a relationship God when He died for us on the Cross.  And the Father is the ultimate provider.

Many of the early Christian prayers (see Acts 1:24, for example) addressed their prayers to “Lord,” which acknowledges both the Father and Jesus.  And Paul often included both God the Father and Jesus in the openings of his prayers.  Romans 1:6, for example, says, “First I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for all of you . . . .”  He prayed many times in similar ways.

“Father,” “Lord,” “Heavenly Father,” “Jesus,” “God,” (and other variations of the Names for God) are all appropriate ways to address God in prayer, since there is ultimately only One God, and to talk to one is to talk to all three.

So let’s take advantage of one of the greatest privileges of the believer–the privilege of going to God in prayer!