Dear Jesus?

My university department has focused on prayer this past semester through seminars, book studies, and just the overall focus. We are reading through Paul Miller’s book A Praying Life. The book has been such an encouragement not only to pray more, but just to change how I approach prayer. I’m not sure about you, but when I pray, I know that I shouldn’t just be asking for things, so I make a conscious effort to thank God for blessings, praise Him for His character, and confess sins. That is all fantastic, but Miller’s book has taken a weight off my shoulder by making “asking” not a selfish thing. His basis for this is Jesus’ instruction to the disciples to come to him as a little child. Childlike faith is heralded as great and essential throughout the New Testament, and what do we know to be true about children? They just ask. They don’t really think about social norms. If they have a need, they ask. Plain and simple. Ever been in a car with a hungry kid? You don’t have to wonder what they are thinking or what they are in the mood for. You will learn REAL quick. So come to God like a little child and just ask! He wants to know.

In all honesty, that wasn’t the purpose of this blog post. Slight rabbit trail… ok I’m back now. My question for us today is, to whom do we pray? *Duh obviously we pray to God.* Yes, I know that. But specifically, to whom do we direct our prayers. How many of you have heard this prayer…

“Dear Jesus, thank you for this day.”

Or maybe this one…

“Dear Heavenly Father, we ask you to bless this meeting.”

There is also this one. “God, thank you for this team of individuals.” Or “Dear Lord, we ask for travelling mercies on this trip.”

Should there be a distinction made when we pray? Does it matter? Does Scripture even address this? Well, I believe it does. Harkening back to the “asking for stuff” comments I made earlier, the disciples wanted to learn to pray so they asked Jesus to teach them.

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)

Jesus could have said anything. He could have instructed them to pray to the Spirit, or even Himself when they prayed, but He didn’t. Read what He said. “And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:2-4)

According to Jesus, we direct our prayers to the Father, specifically. Why? I’m not entirely sure there is just one reason. This is the pattern Jesus gave (*See the High Priestly Prayer in John 17). It also followed Jesus’ pattern of submitting to the Father’s will, to which we must also submit.

Practically, what does this mean? Should you call out someone who addresses their prayer to Jesus? Well, no. Obviously not. But I do think when we teach people to pray or even pray ourselves, we should follow Jesus’ pattern and His instructions and pray to the Father. We pray in the name of Jesus and through the intercessory work of the Spirit who groans with words to deep for our understanding. However, when we direct our prayers, I do think we should direct them to the Father.

That’s all I got.

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