Who are we praying to?
Father, Son, or Spirit?
Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash
One of the things I love observing when people pray is how they start their prayers.
“Our Father”
“Dear God”
“Father”
“Jesus”
“Holy Spirit”
Or, one of my personal favorites, “Hey, God!”
You’ve probably caught on by now that I pretty much start every prayer with, “Our Father.”
This is a personal choice.
If we take The Lord’s Prayer at face value, then we should all be praying, “Our Father,” at the beginning of every prayer.
However, as I’ve explained in Pray, I’m not convinced that it matters.
It would have been awkward for Jesus to teach about praying in his own name before he was ascended. And it wouldn’t have made sense to teach that we should pray to the Spirit because…it hadn’t become accessible to all people yet.
Which always makes me wonder what Jesus would have said after Pentecost.
And, I think we get that answer in The Lord’s Prayer, in a round about way.
Jesus often refers to God as “Abba” which was more like “papa” than “father.” It was more relational.
Jesus teaches us to pray as if God is our daddy, not that the term “Father” is an actual name for God.
So I’m not convinced that who we pray to or address in our prayers is as big of a deal as some of us (myself included) tend to think.
The main concern should be…are we praying at all?
My prayer for today
Our Father, help us focus on talking with you rather than getting caught up in knowing the exact right things to say or do. Help me to give myself some grace in those moments where I don’t know what to say or do. And just speak to me in those moments of silence. Amen.
Remember
God is more concerned with your heart and the fact that you are talking with God than how you decide to address the Trinity in your prayers. Don’t let yourself get caught up in names, titles, and “the right thing to pray.” Instead, try switching it up and starting your prayers in a different way occasionally to see if there is something more comfortable for you.