ADDRESSING DIVINE PERSONS IN PRAYER
[p. 424] ADDRESSING DIVINE PERSONS IN PRAYER
(Extracts from Correspondence)
Would you kindly give me your thoughts as to addressing divine Persons in prayer? I recognise the suitability of prayer to the Lord, as, e.g.. Paul in regard to the thorn (2 Corinthians 12: 8), but Scripture generally emphasises our place with God — “That your faith and hope might be in God”, 1 Peter 1: 21, “Christ ... suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3: 18, “We also joy in God” (Romans 5: 11); “Let your requests be made known unto God”, Philippians 4: 6, “Our Father which art in heaven”, Matthew 6: 9. Then the two prayers in Ephesians are addressed to God and to the Father.
October 4th, 1938 A.S.L.
I am quite sympathetic with the exercise conveyed in your letter ... and I hope the Lord will enable you to help the brethren as to this important matter.
For myself, I usually address God or the Father in prayer, both in meetings for prayer and those for readings, addresses and so on. I address the Lord Jesus also.
The passages you quote support this practice, and I am thankful the matter is on your mind. In teaching the disciples to pray the Lord directs them to say, “Father, thy name be hallowed” (Luke 11: 2), and this is confirmed in the epistles, as the passages you mention show. That the Lord Jesus should be addressed in prayer and thanksgiving is also warranted by Scripture, as you show — also in Acts 7: 59, 60, and John 14: 13, 14. The general position in the divine economy is seen in 1 Corinthians 8: 6, the Father being the one God, and this should surely give character to the [p. 425] public service of His people. The passages you refer to, and indeed the whole tenor of the epistles, show that God the Father should be addressed in a leading way in prayer, both privately and in public.
Peter says, “If ye invoke as Father” (1 Peter 1: 17); and Paul says, “I bow my knees to the Father”, Ephesians 3: 14. James says, “Let him ask of God”, James 1: 5. “Prayer was made by the assembly to God”. Acts 12: 5.
Of course the Son is to be honoured as the Father is honoured, and there is no question, as you point out, but that the Lord should be addressed in prayer; but Scripture is most definite that, in the economy into which God has come, the Father retains formally the position of Deity, and this should be always recognised in the assembly.
The Lord’s supper, being so designated in Scripture, has to be regarded as distinct in relation to what is said above. Being His supper, the Lord should be addressed in regard of it.