Pray to Who?

[Constant]

I pray many times a day. Always in the morning and before I go to bed but often I chat with God during the day.

[darski]

I chose "Other" in your poll because "daily" seemed to imply once during the day and I try to pray without ceasing. Not that i do but I do try to keep in touch.

I pick up my crochet hook and it's time to talk to God; walk out the door to go someplace, time to talk to God... and so on and so on.

Regarding how to pray or to whom; Jesus was rather specific on that one.

BTW, could you fix that in your original post. It drives me crazy when peole miss something that simple. Pray to Whom? that's the ticket.

[darski]

I would like to recommend the

A.C.T.S prayer format for newbies

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

If you are just beginning your prayer life it is a good way to begin. It helps you to think of all you want to say to Abba.

[Floatingaxe]

Excellent!

That is the same thing I use! sometimes I get a little bogged down with the pattern and just worship and pray as the Spirit leads, but mostly this is the pattern we use at our church for personal devotions. It is based on the Lord's Prayer.

[RustyAngeL]

Great question. You should pray to those in heaven, who are part of the Body of Christ, who can help you in your struggles, or for whatever reason. Saints do not have the power to grant your prayers by themselves, only God can grant our prayers, but the Bible tells us to pray for each other. If you were to ask me to pray for you, I would. I wouldn't say, no, dont ask me to pray for you, just pray directly to God. Of course I wouldn't, I dont think any Christian would. It is a good thing to ask people to pray for you. That's why we should ask the Saints to pray for us. They bring our prayers to God. It's really about a great community.

This can be seen, for example, in Revelation 5:8, where John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." But if the saints in heaven are offering our prayers to God, then they must be aware of our prayers. They are aware of our petitions and present them to God by interceding for us.

So pray to Jesus Christ, pray to God, and pray to the Holy Spirit, but it's also a great idea to ask others who make up the Body of Christ, including friends on Earth and Saints in Heaven to pray for you as well.

Help me I'm a little confused. You pray to people who are in Heaven? So in other words your praying to people who have died? Those people can't help you nor do they hear your prayers. I pray in Jesus name. The bible says that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. No praying to people in my mind is going nowhere. You have to go to the source and that is God through Christ. Worshiping saints and praying to anyone other then God through Christ is idol worship.

[Iryssa]

I pray whenever it crosses my mind to pray, which is fairly often, recently. But have periods (*sigh*) where it takes me FOREVER to approach God in prayer...it happens. I do pray every Sunday. The Anglican services are set up so that there is a lot of prayer throughout the service. I've gone through the ACTS acronym (really handy tool), and things like that.

Ideally, we are to "pray continually" (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

We are to pray to God...throughout the Bible there is evidence for that...and really, do we NEED more than God?? Why would we, if He is All-Sufficient? (and He is!)

[BibleIdiot]

Thanks to everyone's replies. I now have a better understanding of how I should pray and to whom I should do so. Thanks for everyone's comments and concerns on the issue.

[53Christian]

What's "other"? That is interesting!

I chose "other" because I find myself praying many times in a day, and just thanking our Saviour for His Love and always being right there with us in guidance. As the Bible does say "Pray without ceasing."

[irishcowboy]

I pray daily, several times aday, set times as well as times that i am drawn to pray for people or situations that may arise.... there are also times i pray and have no clue as to why, or who, or what i am praying for.

who I pray to? I pray as Christ taught us..... to our Heavenly Father.......GOD...... I pray with the covering of the Holy Spirit in the Name of Christ, Jesus..... this is the only time i have found that name dropping works.... and no name will work except Jesus.

Christ told us to call upon the Father, and to use His Name.....

mike

[Guest lovinghim4ever]

I pray to God in the name of Jesus as I am lead by the Holy Spirit.