More than any other practice of the Christian life, prayer reveals what we believe about God. When we labor under some illusion about prayer, the underlying cause is likely some illusion about God. Often, these misconceptions circle around God’s majesty: we don’t understand how God’s sovereignty works with human freedom and so perhaps we think we can change God’s mind, or maybe we think God is uninterested in our prayers since he knows everything in advance. Debunking these errors is worthwhile. But here I want to explore a more basic question: what do we learn about prayer from the fact that we pray to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? In other words, how does trinitarian theology shed light on prayer?
Scripture’s teaching is perhaps surprising. Though we intuitively think of prayer as something we do to God, the trinitarian dynamics of prayer tell us just the opposite; more than anything, prayer is something God does to us.
Considering a few snapshots of the New Testament’s teaching will flesh this out.
PRAYER IN THE SPIRIT, THROUGH THE SON, TO THE FATHER
Scripture talks about prayer within an order that reflects, in reverse, the order between the persons of the
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