In all of my years in the church, one of the things that was always a bit confusing to me was the deal with the Trinity. The Trinity is God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I really can’t fully explain it how that are three separate yet all in one.
Say what now?
God is the Heavenly Father who is the creator of all things. Then there is Jesus who is His son who came to Earth in human form to die for our sins. Finally, the Holy Spirit who is here with us on Earth after Jesus ascended back into heaven.
So who are we supposed to pray to?
The Bible says that no man can go to the father (God) unless they go through Jesus who is our mediator. (Romans 8:34)
So do we pray to God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit when we pray?
I think we get stuck in overthinking it. Just pray. I think your prayers will get to the right place regardless who you address it to. If you pray to God, your prayer won’t be ignored and it will get to the right place. No need to worry about your prayers being returned to sender.
This week as I was thinking about this, I was reminded of the book and movie “The Shack”. Although it wasn’t entirely scriptural it did present an interesting perspective of the Trinity as each should up in a different form. We all have our image of what God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit looks like but you can’t really put them into a human form because they aren’t human. C.S. Lewis used a talking lion named Aslan as God in his Narnia books. It is very hard to picture the Trinity which sometimes makes it difficult to pray or maintain any consistency in praying.
Yep, it can make your head hurt.
Just pray.
So what do I do? I pray to God. That’s usually who I address it to but I realize that they are all one so I don’t worry about what name I am using. As long as my heart is in the right place, I think God/Jesus/Holy Spirit can probably figure out what to do with my prayer. I don’t get caught up in the formalities like some do. I have known people who are very eccentric in regards to how they address their prayer and even praying in the King James English thinking that their prayers are more legit that way.
I have a secret. It’s not!
Just pray.
When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, He taught them what we call “The Lord’s Prayer”. (Luke 11:1-4). So if you get lost about how to pray, the Lord’s Prayer is a good template to use.
Just pray. Talk to God. You don’t have to yell and scream at God (or whoever). Just talk to Him like you do to your friends. He can even hear a thought. Pray in the way that works for you. The Trinity hears you. They aren’t confused by how you pray.
