 | Reverend Terry G. Fox is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. He is Chairman of the North American Mission Board, member of its Executive Committee and the FamilyNet Broadcast Communications Committee, as well as numerous other subcommittees. He's listed on the Who's Who Among Outstanding Corporate Executives. He is a sought after speaker and has traveled and ministered in many places in the United States, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Rev. Fox and his wife Barbara have three children. You may contact him at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 South Topeka, Wichita, Kansas, 67211; phone (316) 262-1452; or Fax (316) 262-4704. |
Religion
2004-05-01 08:19:00
Who should one pray to... God... Jesus... The Holy Spirit... the Saints?
: Who should one pray to…God…Jesus…The Holy Spirit…the Saints?
ANSWER: I remember how embarrassed I was when I was first asked this. I had been praying for years and I didn't know! I had never thought about it. But soon I realized that I had no reason to be embarrassed. One cannot pray exclusively to One or the Other. When I pray, I am looking up to the Father, with my prayer mediated through the Son while the Spirit within me is bringing thoughts to mind and helping me to find the words. I pray TO God, THROUGH God and BY God. Somehow, even the newest Christian seems to grasp this unconsciously when he prays.In my early attempts to understand the Trinity I thought that God had various roles, just as my father was a son of his father, a father to me, and a husband to my mother. He was also an employee, a citizen, etc. The Trinity, I thought, must be a method of recognizing God's various functions. So the next time I read through the Bible I decided to list the functions and their related three names for God. Well, it didn't work.I found that all three were creators, teachers, judges, etc. Each of them were even credited with raising Jesus from the dead! Except for dying on the cross, I couldn't find anything that was exclusively done by one of the members of the Godhead...including being prayed to. So your question is a starting place for knowing The Trinity. However, you included "the Saints". Praying to Saints is an idea introduced centuries after the Bible was written. I believe this was added because Christ was considered to be so high and holy that He could not truly understand and sympathize with us in our sins and troubles.But the Bible says that He came as a man and lived in obscurity for 30 years precisely so that He can know our feelings. See how this is said in Hebrews 2:17-18 "He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because He Himself suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted." Hebrews 4:15-16 "For we do not have a high priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we have -- yet without sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." I Timothy 2:5-6 "For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all men.
