Prayer was never meant to be something extra that you merely add to your life. Instead, the Christian life should be soaked in prayer. For many older Christian thinkers, prayer was the great purpose of life. After all, Paul called us to “pray without ceasing” and to “pray about everything” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Philippians 4:6). That means prayer is not something you add to what you’re already doing, but is the foundation for everything that you do. If you were to obey Paul’s teaching literally, not a moment of your life would go by without praying.

But who should we pray to?

As Christians, we believe in the Trinity—in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A congregant asked, “Do we pray to all three? Or just to the Father? Or Jesus?”

It was a good question, so I dug into the New Testament looking for answers. Here’s what I found.

The standard model of prayer is to pray to God the Father. For example, the Lord’s Prayer begins:

“Our Father in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9)

And in Jesus’ high priestly prayer, He says,

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you…” (John 17:1).

And when Paul prayed, it was usually to the Father:

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you (Colossians 1:3).

The vast majority of prayers are addressed to God, the Father.

I was surprised to find there are not very many examples of praying to Jesus. But there are a few. For example, when Stephen was being stoned to death, He saw a vision of Jesus in heaven and cried out:

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59).

That can be considered a prayer to Jesus.

And at the end of the Book of Revelation, we find this simple prayer:

“Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

Praying to Jesus is not as popular as I expected, but it does have precedent.

More popular is the idea that we should pray, asking for the prayer in Jesus’ name, which is what Jesus Himself told us to do:


And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13).

Paul also taught that we should do all things, including pray, in Jesus’ name:

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17).

…always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20)


As I examined the evidence, I could find no examples of anyone praying to the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Spirit intercedes for us and helps us to pray when we don’t know what to ask for:

 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans (Romans 8:26)

To answer the question with which we began: if you’re going to imitate Biblical examples of prayer, then you can pray to the Father or the Son. Prayer is basically Trinitarian. It is addressed to the Father, done through the Spirit, and asked in the name of the Son.

_______________________
Send your questions or comments to shawn@freegrace.in.

Read his latest book, The Myth of Tithing and the Joy of Grace Giving by getting it from us or from Amazon.