I was in a Bible study last week and a close friend of ours indicated that she never prays to Jesus. Instead, she only prays to God. I found this confusing. How can one be intimate with Jesus and not pray to Him? Can someone have this attitude and still be saved?
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 that these denominations don’t really believe in the deity of Jesus. Some non-orthodox groups don’t believe in His deity either.
Maybe your friend is from one of these backgrounds, so here’s one way to find out. You should gently ask her what she thinks it means to be saved and how she knows she is going to heaven. If she gives any other answer than believing that Jesus died for her sins and rose again, you will know she isn’t born again and can begin to show her what the Bible says about salvation.
If by her answer you believe she is born again, you can ask her who she thinks Jesus is. If she’s been taught He is not God in human form, you can show her where John taught that Jesus is God (John 1:1-2), Paul taught that Jesus is God (Colossians 1:15-16), Jesus claimed to be God (John 10:27-30, John 14:9) and God addressed Jesus as God (Hebrews 1:8).
In this way you could help her see that by praying to God, she already is praying to Jesus. It sounds like you could have quite an interesting conversation.