Is there such a thing as praying to the devil? Can a person do this without realizing that’s what they’re doing?
I almost wish we could delete this word called prayer and use something else. The reason being, as with many words, we can taint them through viewing them wrongly. Prayer needs a reset!
The word pray originally comes from a Latin word which means to ask earnestly, beg, or entreat. That’s not me being smart, that’s a simple google search for the etymology of the word “pray”. In old English times if you asked someone a question you might say, “I pray you, answer me this…” Can you pray to the devil? Yep! You can pray to anyone you want to! It’s more of a question of, would you want to?
With that said, I think the heart of the question is, can you accidentally do it? I am not making fun of the prayer of this questioner (see what I did there?) when I say what I’m about to say. That question is simply fear. Sure, it’s probably been perpetuated by well meaning preachers or uber spiritual Christians.
I want you to consider a scripture, which has to do with prayer. Luke 11:11-13 (NIV) says, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Do you really think a loving Father, who wants to commune with us, hears us “praying wrong” and says, “too bad they screwed that up!” No, again I say no!
If your heart is to talk with God, then it is God you are praying to! He is not so nit-picky that He refuses someone who is trying to communicate the best they know how. Further more, God isn’t so fickle that if you get it wrong He just steps aside and lets a devil come in.
Now that I’ve said all that, what if one is praying to Buddha or Allah or some other non-God, god? That is a different case. These are people who are not seeking God as in the Bible God, they are seeking some other god altogether. In this case, they may get a devil, mostly because those other gods are not actually gods.
There is of course a chance that in His mercy, because of His ability to know what is in their hearts, He may lead them right out of that, but only He truly knows. For the believer on the other hand, we can know who we pray to if we know who God is. Look what Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4:22 (NIV). “You Samaritans worship (which is a form of prayer) what you do not know; we worship (still a form of prayer) what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” Here is an example of someone who thought they knew, and God met them because He knew their heart. He led her right, even in the midst of her wrong thinking. We also see Paul deal with this with the people of Athens as recorded in Acts 17:23. If someone is lost but truly has a heart for God, He will send somebody to them to help them get on the right path.
As believers we cannot fear such things. If we are seeking God then we must have faith that we will find Him. Why? Because this is exactly what His word tells us. Seek and you will find, ask and you will receive. Bible truths will always set us free! Man’s burdens on the other hand, well they burden us!
James 1:5-7 (NIV) If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff
