But obviously, we should give thanks to God in our prayers ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17–18). We would also need to eliminate thanksgiving from our prayers, since that does not show up in the Lord’s Prayer. Otherwise, we would need to eliminate using the words “in Jesus’ name,” since they do not appear in the Lord’s Prayer. By giving us a model prayer, Jesus did not limit our prayers to a certain structure or verbiage. The Lord’s Prayer 2ĭoes the fact that this model prayer addresses the Father and not the Son mean that we are never to address the Son (or the Spirit) in prayer? No. Other students have asked in one way or another: “Is it wrong to pray to Jesus?” This article will respond to that question. My student wanted to know what I thought about the issue. But this family practice gradually lapsed into prayers to both the Father and the Son since praying to both seemed so natural for the kids-and the parents. One of the students I taught at that weekend seminar shared with me that for years she had taught her children only to pray to the Father, since that is what she was taught by an influential evangelical teacher. However, it is precisely because Jesus is a divine Person that we can (and should) pray to Him. 1 One argument made for this position is that the Lord’s Prayer is addressed to the Father and not to the Son. I have also heard a few evangelical Christians argue that we should not pray to Jesus. It is not just Jehovah’s Witnesses that argue for only praying to the Father. He said that it was because “ Jesus is not Almighty God, and only God is to be worshipped.” Of course, I reject that reason for not praying to Jesus, as would all evangelicals, since Jesus is God. Jehovah has reserved prayer only for himself.” After the service, I asked the leader to explain why we should only pray to the Father, and not to Jesus. One of his major points was that “Jehovah has not delegated prayer to the angels or to Jesus. That Sunday morning, a Jehovah’s Witness leader gave the Bible lesson on prayer. Once while doing a weekend seminar on the cults, I took a few students on a field trip to a Kingdom Hall.
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