It is refreshing to hear more and more people talking about God and their belief in Him. The world certainly needs more of that. So why in my prayer do I resist praying to “God?” Please don’t write me off as a persnickety old-school legalist; hear me out. If your name is Horatio, when I talk to you, I wouldn’t normally say, “Human being, let’s go to the game.” I would say, “Horatio, let’s go to the game.” (Yes, I am fully aware of the familial-friendly way of addressing someone, “Hey man, let’s go to the game,” and say that myself at times, but stay with me and read on.

When we say, “God, I pray for …,” let’s think about what we are saying. “God” is not His name; it is a generic term for deity. By analogy, the terms “man” or “human being” are generic terms referring to that class of entities composed of individuals created in God’s image. The English term “God,” as it occurs in the Bible, is a translation of the Hebrew word elohim in the Old Testament, and the Greek word theos in the New Testament. In both cases, these are generic terms that are used about false gods and the true Creator God of the universe. In this sense, praying to “God” seems like addressing our God in the most general, non-personal way. We should do better than that as children of our heavenly Father, who have a greater knowledge of Him than our counterparts in the Old Testament.

We often hear people praying, “Dear Jesus …” to make their prayers more personal. To be sure, our Creator God entered His creation as a human man and now resides in both classes of being, deity and humanity. We do well to acknowledge that in how we pray. Indeed, He came to live among us and call us His brothers. He is a friend of sinners (that’s you and me). He came to make Himself highly relatable, and we call Him Jesus Christ. At His name, every knee will bow in worship. It is highly commendable that we pray to Jesus! So yes, He is our brother, but He is more than that; He is our Lord and Master. And so we see the frequent reference in the NT to the Lord Jesus Crist.

But praying to Jesus is not without some embarrassing difficulties in practice. If we pray to Jesus, then what does it mean to tell Jesus at the end of our prayer, “I pray this in Jesus’ name?” Using that ending phrase when praying to the Father is more logically consistent. That is what Jesus taught us to do. Listen to what the Lord Jesus says in that solemn teaching to the apostles in the upper room the night before He was crucified:

“In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” (John 16:23)

He was referring to the time after His death and ascension from the earth to His Father in heaven, the time us believers are living in today. He instructs us to pray to the Father in His (Jesus’) name. He has already interceded for us and opened the path to confidently enter God’s presence (as it were) and talk directly to the Father. This is possible through what Jesus did on the cross, as our high priest who keeps that pathway open for us.

Consider how the Lord answered His disciples’ query about how to pray:

One of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name.’” (Luke 11:1–2)

None other than the Lord Jesus who taught them to pray to the Father, also left His final word to the apostles:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I commanded you …” (Matt. 28:19-20)

Nowhere in the Gospel accounts do we read that Jesus’ believing followers addressed Him with his personal name, “Jesus.” Yes, the name without any qualification is used many times, but only in the narrative or historical sense of identifying the central individual of the biographical story. Unbelievers and not-yet-believers spoke to “Jesus.” But his believing followers, who understood and experienced more than anyone what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus, called him “Lord,” “Rabbi,” or “Master.”

The common theme taught in the NT is to see God as our Father and believers as His children. God’s word tells us, “You have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8:15). This in no way diminishes His lordship in our lives, for the same inspired writer also wrote:

God highly exalted Him [that is, Jesus Christ], and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9–11)

We confess not just the man Jesus but the Lord Jesus Christ with His honorific and exalted titles. When we talk to the Father, a central theme should always be about His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I would never discourage anyone from praying directly to Jesus, but if so, the first martyr, for believing in the Lord, prayed in his last breath: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). Note that he addresses Him with the title “Lord.” However, in general, it seems we should give more weight to the “Father” in our prayers and even talk to Him more about His Son, thereby providing more substantive meaning to ending our prayers, “In Jesus’ name.”

What about praying to the Holy Spirit? Delving into the relationship between the three members of the Trinity and our relationship with each of them is a subject for extensive study. At the risk of over-simplification, we note that the Scripture teaches us:

Through Him [that is, the Son] we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. (Eph 2:18)

In effect, we pray to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is not healthy spiritual thinking to write this off as theological minutiae. The Trinity is a big deal! God exists in three persons, and our relationship with Him is affected by what we know of His three persons. We may not have all the answers, but we do well to grow in our knowing Him, so that our prayer life will also develop and reflect a biblical understanding of Him. The New Testament takes the Old Testament view of God and gives it fuller definition, so that our understanding of Him, as it is progressively revealed, will result in our praying more intelligently, as He wants us to do.