In our continued series, “Delighting in the Trinity,” we have been looking at what it means to delight in God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Previously, we have looked at prayer and why to pray, including praying like Jesus. In this post, we take a deeper look at how Christ prayed and how that can relate to us as His followers.
“We can enjoy renewed meaning and power in our prayer life as we grow in our understanding of the nature of the triune God who calls us to pray and who responds to prayer. Cognizance of the doctrine of the Trinity will facilitate a consciousness of whom we address in prayer.”[1] Because God is Triune – Father, Son, and Spirit – our prayers should reflect a more theologically mature manner of praying and should be addressed to the three Trinitarian Persons in accordance with both the purpose of the specific prayer being voiced and the function of each Trinitarian Person.[2]
As humans who try to get their own way, we often move toward tritheism as opposed to Trinitarianism and have the temptation to individually address each member of the Trinity to answer our prayers. In the past ages, prayers were directed to Jesus instead of the Father because the Father was associated with judgment and wrath, rather than mercy and grace. Some have even prayed, and continue to do so today, to Mary because the Father and Son seem too intimidating.[3] In this respect, the Holy Spirit is then usurped of His divine role and forgotten altogether. Christians do not pray to the Father over the Son or to the Son and Spirit apart from the Father, for this again is to verge toward tritheism.[4] Christians pray to the Father in the Son and through the power of the Spirit. We pray to Christ who proceeds from the Father and who is made available to us by the Spirit. Christians pray to the Spirit through the intercession of Christ and by the grace given to us by the Father. Because of the perichoresis, each member of the Trinity is fully present in the being and acts of others. A prayer to Christ is also a prayer to the Father and vice versa.[5]
[1] Ibid, 74-75.
[2] Ibid, 75.
[3] Donald Bloesch, God the Almighty, 193.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.