Have you ever heard this question?
In a popular video, LilyJay says, “Did you know in Luke 6:12, Jesus prays all night to God? But if Jesus is God, why would He pray all night to Himself? How does that work?”
This is a clever question that atheists, Muslim apologists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses ask, as if it’s the ideal question to dismantle all the study and teaching on the deity of Jesus Christ. This question isn’t the perfect mic drop some people think it is.
But it is a legitimate question that some people may have. Perhaps we shouldn’t have high hopes that those who use this question as a mic drop will listen, but maybe you are truly curious. If Jesus is God, who did He pray to? Let’s study the Bible to find out.
We will not take the space here to make the case for the deity of Christ. We already have several studies on this site that will help you study that subject. Check them out here.
If Jesus is God, who did He pray to? This question comes from a misunderstanding of this fundamental fact: There is one God whose name is Yahweh, and He exists eternally in three distinct persons—specifically, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. It is impossible to wrap our heads around this completely. Unfortunately, some people have tried to make this “simpler” to understand by teaching Modalism, or Oneness, which teaches that God is one person who simply appears in different forms—as Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit—rather than being three distinct persons sharing one divine nature. If that were true, then the question about who Jesus was praying to really is a stumper that the Bible would have no answer to.
But we are not speaking of three gods, and we are certainly not speaking of Modalism. We are speaking of one God who exists in three persons. This distinction is the foundation to understanding who God is and the answer to our question.
Consider what Jesus said to His apostles before ascending to heaven:
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:18–20
Jesus used the definite article three times—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are three distinct persons in the Godhead. But baptism happens in one singular name, one singular authority. The three are distinct, and yet they are one.
We see the same thing at Jesus’ baptism. All three persons are present and active at the same moment:
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:16–17
The Son is in the water, the Spirit descends from above, and the Father speaks from heaven. This is not Modalism. God did not switch costumes to complete this scene. All three were there simultaneously.
This truth did not originate in the New Testament. Go back to the very first chapter of your Bible:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
Genesis 1:26
God did not say, “Let Me make man in My image.” He said “Us” and “Our.” From the beginning, God has spoken of Himself not merely as “I” but also as “We.” Now, I sometimes find myself talking to myself. Maybe you do too. But this is different. God is not talking to Himself. He is, instead, speaking with Himself, within the fellowship of the Godhead.
John’s gospel opens by pulling the reader back to this moment.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:1
The “Word” here is Jesus Himself, who later took on flesh and dwelt among His creation. He was with God. He was God. Both were true at the same time.
So now, back to the original question: If Jesus is God, who did He pray to? Simply put, He prayed to the Father.
One of the reasons Jesus came was to show us what a healthy relationship with God looks like. As the Son of God, Jesus spent significant time in prayer—and those prayers were not God talking to Himself in some incoherent monologue. They were the Son in communion with the Father. That is a true relationship between two distinct persons within the one God.
His prayers also reflected His humanity. Jesus took on human flesh, and as a man, He depended on the Father.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Philippians 2:5–8
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus:
…fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Matthew 26:39
The Son submitted His will to the Father’s will through prayer. Wait, think about that again. Jesus had a will, and so did the Father. Although there is one God, we see two wills.
In John 17, we get a wonderful glimpse into the fellowship of the Godhead. In the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible, He:
…lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. … I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
John 17:1–5
Clearly, this isn’t Jesus praying to Himself. In this prayer, the pronoun “I” refers to God the Son. The pronoun “You” refers to God the Father. This is the Son speaking to the Father, person-to-person, within the eternal relationship they have shared before the world ever existed.
So is it strange that Jesus prayed? Only if you misunderstand who He is. Jesus is not a man pretending to be God, and He is not God pretending to be a man. He is the Son of God who took on human flesh—fully God and fully man—praying to the Father, by the power of the Spirit.
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth…”
Luke 10:21
Now that we’ve learned the answer to this question, here’s another one: If Jesus is God, how could God die? Ready to find out? Grab your Bible and check out this study.