Who Are We To Pray To?

I think its so sad people of certain faiths belive that interceding is ok and God will get the message, why can they not see the truth and cut out the middle man? (like they do in that travel agents ad)

MISSY.

All prayer should be directed to our triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that we can pray to one or all three, because all three are One. To the Father we pray with the psalmist, “Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray” (Psalm 5:2). To the Lord Jesus, we pray as to the Father because they are equal. Prayer to one member of the Trinity is prayer to all. Stephen, as he was being martyred, prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). We are also to pray in the name of Christ. Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to always give “thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). Jesus assured His disciples that whatever they asked in His name—meaning in His will—would be granted (John 15:16; 16:23). Similarly, we are told to pray to the Holy Spirit and in His power. Paul asked the Spirit to join the hearts of the Corinthian believers together (2 Corinthians 13:14). In addition, the Spirit helps us to pray, even when we don’t know how or what to ask for (Romans 8:26; Jude 1:20). Perhaps the best way to understand the role of the Trinity in prayer is that we pray to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. All three are active participants in the believer’s prayer.

Equally important is whom we are not to pray to. Some non-Christian religions encourage their adherents to pray to a pantheon of gods, dead relatives, saints, and spirits. Roman Catholics are taught to pray to Mary and various saints such as Peter. Such prayers are not scriptural and are, in fact, an insult to our heavenly Father and against His expressed will. To understand why, we need only look at the nature of prayer. Prayer has several elements, and if we look at just two of them—praise and thanksgiving—we can see that prayer is, at its very core, worship. When we praise God, we are worshipping Him for His attributes and His work in our lives and in the world. When we offer prayers of thanksgiving, we are worshipping His goodness, mercy, and loving-kindness to us. Worship gives glory to God, the only One who deserves to be glorified. The problem with praying to anyone other than God is that He is a jealous God who has declared He will share His glory with no one. In fact, to do so is nothing less than idolatry. "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8).