DISCLAIMER: I recognize only one true God in three persons and one essence, known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But in some cases praying to one's own idea of God is unbiblical in corporate prayer, even though I realize that God hears and answers all the prayers of the saints.
"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" (Eph. 2:18, HCSB).
Jesus didn't just give suggestions in the Sermon on the Mount on how to pray, but directives (by the way, I will mention in passing that Jesus was the first person in the Bible to teach us how to pray!). He called God the following each more than once: Father, Our Father in heaven, your Father, your heavenly Father and each is appropriate and scriptural. Note that in the Old Testament it wasn't considered "wrong" to pray to "God" because they had less light, but Jesus showed us the way to the Father.
Don't pray like an Old Testament saint, or like an angel or servant of the Lord, but like a child of God! When we address God in a nondescript, generic way such as "O God in heaven" it seems we don't really know God too well. God wants us to call Him Father (the Christian name for God, N.B. that I am primarily speaking of corporate, not private prayer). "I thought you would call Me Father" (Jer. 3:19). When Jesus felt alienated or estranged from His Father He called Him "My God."
It is the same with your parents; would you think of calling them anything but Mom or Dad? That's unheard of; well, we are in the family of God and have the privilege to address God as Father and claim our sonship and honor and accept His Fatherhood. Gal. 4:19 says: The Spirit cries out, 'Abba, Father. Christians should just naturally call God this because the Spirit leads them to, and it shows an intimacy with the Almighty. When Jesus called God His Father, the Pharisees got mad because He was making Himself equal with God, but Jesus said to Mary after His resurrection: I am going to My Father and your Father.
Jesus made the promise in John 14:14 that if we ask anything in His name He will answer it; Jesus also hears prayer, but His primary focus is on interceding and the Holy Spirit's to put our words into groaning which cannot be uttered. It is not wrong, per se, to pray to Jesus, but note that He Himself taught us to pray to His Father.
Only after Pentecost can the believer now boldly approach the throne of grace to the Head Honcho (the Most High) and get access into God's dimension, another world, as it were. We enter into God's very presence--His dimension! "Let us boldly approach the throne of grace...." (Heb. 4:16). The angels are not in the family of God like we are and are not the children of the Heavenly Father. In summation, go to the top of the Most High, as they say. No one comes to the Father, except through Jesus the Son. Soli Deo Gloria!
"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" (Eph. 2:18, HCSB).
Jesus didn't just give suggestions in the Sermon on the Mount on how to pray, but directives (by the way, I will mention in passing that Jesus was the first person in the Bible to teach us how to pray!). He called God the following each more than once: Father, Our Father in heaven, your Father, your heavenly Father and each is appropriate and scriptural. Note that in the Old Testament it wasn't considered "wrong" to pray to "God" because they had less light, but Jesus showed us the way to the Father.
Don't pray like an Old Testament saint, or like an angel or servant of the Lord, but like a child of God! When we address God in a nondescript, generic way such as "O God in heaven" it seems we don't really know God too well. God wants us to call Him Father (the Christian name for God, N.B. that I am primarily speaking of corporate, not private prayer). "I thought you would call Me Father" (Jer. 3:19). When Jesus felt alienated or estranged from His Father He called Him "My God."
It is the same with your parents; would you think of calling them anything but Mom or Dad? That's unheard of; well, we are in the family of God and have the privilege to address God as Father and claim our sonship and honor and accept His Fatherhood. Gal. 4:19 says: The Spirit cries out, 'Abba, Father. Christians should just naturally call God this because the Spirit leads them to, and it shows an intimacy with the Almighty. When Jesus called God His Father, the Pharisees got mad because He was making Himself equal with God, but Jesus said to Mary after His resurrection: I am going to My Father and your Father.
Jesus made the promise in John 14:14 that if we ask anything in His name He will answer it; Jesus also hears prayer, but His primary focus is on interceding and the Holy Spirit's to put our words into groaning which cannot be uttered. It is not wrong, per se, to pray to Jesus, but note that He Himself taught us to pray to His Father.
Only after Pentecost can the believer now boldly approach the throne of grace to the Head Honcho (the Most High) and get access into God's dimension, another world, as it were. We enter into God's very presence--His dimension! "Let us boldly approach the throne of grace...." (Heb. 4:16). The angels are not in the family of God like we are and are not the children of the Heavenly Father. In summation, go to the top of the Most High, as they say. No one comes to the Father, except through Jesus the Son. Soli Deo Gloria!