Re: You Should Ask Her. I was dumbfounded by your statement, ” I know that some liberal denominations teach we should only pray to the Father in the name of the Son. That didn’t make any sense to me until I learned they don’t really believe in the deity of Jesus”. How do you balance this with the model prayer Jesus gave the disciples in Matthew 6? As a devout follower and believer in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, I always offer my prayers and petitions to the Father and conclude always in the Holy, precious, wonderful and majestic name of Jesus my Lord and Savior.
Your personal preferences are just that, and you’re entitled to them. But they don’t negate the fact that some liberal denominations don’t believe in the deity of Jesus and that’s why they only pray to the Father.
But since the Father and the Son are one (John 1:1, John 10:30, John 14:9) and since the Son would be known as the Mighty God and the Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6) when we pray to the Father we’re praying to the Son, and vice versa. If we believe that, then the words we use are a matter of preference.
As for the Lord’s prayer in Matt. 6:9-15, as you say it’s a model. In it, Jesus said we should ask our Father for His Kingdom to come, for our daily provision, to maintain or restore our fellowship with Him, to keep us from temptation, and to protect us from Satan. He wasn’t saying that’s all we can pray for, or that we can only pray in this way. He was saying these are the things we should pray for every day.