I was recently discussing with someone about whether our prayer should always be directed to the Father. Are there times when we should direct our prayers to the Son or the Holy Spirit? When Jesus taught the disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-13), the prayer that he taught them was directed toward the Father. And so many people pray in this manner, or else they will use the more generic names of God or Lord. But I still questioned if perhaps something has changed now that Jesus is in heaven acting as Mediator and the Holy Spirit is with us acting as Counselor. Inadvertently, I came across a section of a book by theologian John Owen that discusses this topic. Even though it was written over 350 years ago, I believe that it offers a helpful response to this question.
When we worship, we worship the divine nature. So it is impossible to worship any one person in the Godhead and not worship the whole Trinity. The divine nature in all its infinite excellence, dignity and majesty and as the origin and cause of all things is common to all three persons in the Godhead.
When we pray to God the Father, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet the Son is prayed to and worshipped with the Father, even though he is especially mentioned at the end of the prayer as Mediator to the whole Trinity, or to God in three persons. When we pray to God the Father, we pray to all the three persons in the Godhead, because as the Father is God, so also the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God.
Paul tells us that our worship is ‘to the Father’, that we come to the Father ‘through Christ’ and that we are helped to do this ‘by the Spirit’ (Eph. 2:18). Here each person in the Godhead is distinguished from the other two as to the works each has been appointed to do, but not as to their being the object of divine worship. The Son and the Holy Spirit are no less worshipped in our access to God than the Father himself. The grace of the Father, which we get by the mediation of the Son and the help of the Holy Spirit, is why we draw near to God. So when we worship and pray to one person of the Trinity, we worship and pray to all three.
Communion with God by John Owen
Though this might help to make things a little easier with prayer and worship, I still believe that it is important for us to recognize the works of all three persons of the Godhead in our lives. It is valuable to understand such truths as that we are reconciled to the Father through the Son and that we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. These truths and others will only facilitate our worship of God and assist in our ministry to the lost.
Adam
