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Q: To whom am I supposed to pray? My dad was a
Mormon, my
older sister used to be Pentecostal but is now Lutheran, and one of my
friends who is Jehovah Witness. They caused a great confusion for me.
Also I have been reading the NIV. I do believe in Jesus and that he died
for our sins. I am not confuse about the trinity, in fact, I believe
in it, but who am I suppose to pray if I want to repent and be saved -
our heavenly Father or Jesus? or does it make any difference?
A: One of the problems of having so many different people tell you things
is
the confusion this causes. That is why the Lord gives us the Bible in
order to settle these things by a higher authority. Let me see if I can
be a help without adding to the confusion any.
First, you ask to whom we should pray. Although I am sure that God will
hear our prayer when we talk to the Son, the normal practice is to pray
to God the Father. However, we are to pray in Jesus' name. That is, we
come in the authority of the Son. I have an article called "Praying
in
Jesus Name" that might help you.
I also want to address another common problem concerning salvation and
prayer. Many people have emphasized the prayer out of proportion in
explaining the way of salvation. The Bible does say, "For whosoever
shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). But,
unfortunately, many people have taken this verse out of context and
taught that it is the saying of a prayer that saves us. I am fearful
that
many have said a prayer and count on that alone to take them to heaven.
But this is not the case.
We are saved by turning from our way and looking upon Jesus by faith
on
the basis of His death, burial, and resurrection. It is the act of
believing on Jesus or trusting in Him that truly saves us. But it is
not
just a general believing that Jesus is real or that He is the Saviour
that saves us. It is a turning totally to Him in faith, accepting Him,
and confessing Him (that is, saying it) as our Lord and Saviour. Romans
10:9-10 states, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the
dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Notice in this passage that there is an act of believing that occurs
in
the heart. (We must believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins,
that He was buried, and that He arose again from the dead.) But there
is
also an act of confessing that occurs outwardly. This is where the prayer
comes in. This is also where repentance comes in, although it is not
mentioned specifically in Romans 10:9-10. Let me explain.
-
We accept as fact that
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins,
that He was buried, that He arose from the dead the third day.
-
We make this personal by
believing that He did this for us and that
He will accept us if we come to Him.
-
We turn from our way;
that is, our sinfulness and the ways we have
tried to please God in our own strength. (Isaiah 53:6 states, "All
we
like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;
and
the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.) We repent of our sins
and turn to Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation. This explains
why
Paul preached, "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord
Jesus
Christ" (Acts 20:21).
-
We choose to trust in
Him as Saviour. We receive Him (John 1:12 says,
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the
sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name.") In other words, we
act on
our faith and choose to trust in Christ entirely.
-
We confess our choice to
God. That is, we call on His name in prayer,
ask Him to save us, and tell Him that we are trusting in Jesus to save
us
right now. (It is not really important how you word your prayer or
whether you cry out to the Father or the Son.)
-
We make our choice known
publicly. That is, we make a stand on
trusting in Christ. This may just be telling Christian friends or telling
the person who is dealing with you about salvation, but in scripture
this
is treated as important (see Romans 10:9-11). It seems that someone who
is not willing to claim Christ as their Saviour is not taking salvation
seriously and has not truly believed.
-
Finally, you need to
trust that Jesus Christ has saved you as He
promised. It is true that saved people have times of doubt. However,
since faith is taking God at His word, it difficult to think of someone
being saved who will not believe that God has saved him when He has been
asked to do so and has promised that He would.
Now that I have given you a series of points, let me give a warning.
These steps are only given to be a help to you. Salvation is not
accomplished by following a formula. We are saved by believing in a
person--the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that you will give yourself to
Him
and trust Jesus as your Saviour today if you have not already done so.
Till He comes,
Pastor David Reagan