Dr. Blair Smith explains the pattern of prayer revealed in Scripture. While it is appropriate to pray to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit individually, the Bible shows us a pattern that mirrors redemption: we pray to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. This pattern highlights our union with Christ and the relational context of prayer.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
To whom do I pray?
When I’m teaching on the Trinity or on prayer, I often get the question: To whom should we pray? Is it okay to pray to the individual members of the Trinity? For example, on a trinitarian level, we would have to say that, of course, it’s okay to pray to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, because each of them are fully God. And so we address God in prayer. We can address the persons of the Trinity individually. We can pray to the Father. “Father, provide for me.” “Father, protect me.” We can pray to the Son, “Save me.” We can pray to the Holy Spirit, “comfort me, counsel me directly.” These are all appropriate prayers. But at the same time, Scripture gives us an underlying pattern to prayer that should shape our overall prayer life.
If you think of a piece of wood, it has a grain to it. These are long fibers. And a good woodworker is always going to want to work with that. Not against the grain, but with the grain. And Scripture teaches us a grain prayer. And that grain to prayer is revealed by Jesus himself. Because when the disciples asked Jesus, How should we pray? He says, you should pray starting with our Father. And so the pattern of prayer is first to the Father. The Father is the one to whom Jesus instructs us to pray. And that immediately gives prayer a relational context and a familial context. But we might ask, who gives us access to the Father, who directs us to the Father? And that’s the Son. The Son is the One who gives us family access. In Scripture, we learn that he is the Mediator. He is the one that mediates our relationship to God. And so it’s appropriate that we pray through the Son. We pray in the position of the Son to the Father. Isn’t it beautiful how Jesus says, pray “our Father”, he’s in a sense, welcoming us into that standing that he has before the Father. One he has by nature, but one that we gain by grace as we’re united to the Son, but who unites us to the Son, Scripture reveals to us a pattern to prayer, a pattern that mirrors the very structure of our redemption. The Father sends the Son. The Father and the Son send the Spirit. And the Spirit indwells the Church, indwells Christians, unites us to the Son. And in the Son, we cry out, “Our Father.”that is the Spirit. The Spirit is the one who unites us to the Son, gives us life in the Son. So we pray to the Father through the Son in the Spirit, the Spirit indwelling us, the Spirit giving us union with Christ, that we pray to our Father. And as I describe that pattern to prayer to the Father through the Son in the Spirit, it’s right to think that that is, in one sense, a reversal of the very pattern of redemption itself. Because in eternity past the Father intended to save a people, and he sent his Son throughout the Gospels, Jesus knows that the Father has sent him for a specific mission. And then, as the Son accomplishes his mission, as he dies, as he’s resurrected, as he ascends to the right hand of the Father, the Spirit is poured out. The Spirit is poured out in Pentecost, as we see in Acts 2. And so then the Spirit comes, and the Spirit indwells the Church. And then the Spirit prompts us, moves us to orient ourselves to the Father through the Son. And so you have a reversal there. The Father sends the Son, the Father and Son send the Spirit. The Spirit takes us up out of our fallen lives, gives us new lives, unites us to the Son, so that we can pray to the Father. So is it wrong to pray to members of the Trinity, to pray to the Father, to pray to the Son, or to pray to the Spirit? Absolutely not. All are God. All are worthy of our address. Prayer, at the same time, Scripture reveals to us a pattern to prayer, a pattern that mirrors the very structure of our redemption. The Father sends the Son. The Father and the Son send the Spirit. And the Spirit indwells the Church, indwells Christians, unites us to the Son. And in the Son, we cry out, “Our Father.”
