If Jesus was God, how could He pray to God? Was Jesus praying to Himself?

To separate the Son of man and Son of God is to dissolve Christ. See John 3:14-16. See again, 1 John 5:20, "We know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This [He, οὖτος] is the true God and eternal life." But Jesus is the name of Him who was born of the virgin Mary, and Christ is the anointed Man. And the apostle emphatically adds in contrast, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." There is a most striking passage in 1 John 2:28-29 and 3:1-2. The inseparableness of personality and the distinction of nature is very striking - "Before him at his coming," "is born of him" in verse 29, so that we are "sons of God" (3:1), and yet the world "knew him not" - "sons of God" (ver. 2), but we like Him when He shall appear. All this blessed truth is lost if we dissolve, as I have called it, Christ. And yet I must know Him as a man: that is the distinctness of the nature, for He prayed to God and died, and yet He "was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death" - when in the form of God, "made Himself of no reputation (ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν), yet, being thus, could say, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "No man knows the Son but the Father." But he who loses these things loses the Son. Speaking of worshipping a man is losing the Person of Christ. And if the angels are to worship Him [Heb. 1:6], worship is a just service as to what is - for it is not our being exempt which is in question, but His being entitled to it. And there it is Christ, though His Godhead is brought out, yet as incarnate; for it is said, "when he had by himself purged our sins," and He is "the first begotten" (not the "only begotten"), and Psalm 2 is quoted where He is distinctly celebrated as Messiah - Christ, or, as in English, "His anointed."

It is common to say Jesus prayed as a man, but this is exceedingly incorrect language, and much calculated to mislead. "You do not imagine that the humanity of Jesus ever prayed of itself?" No, but it was not God prayed.

233 But we come to a new point here, verses 7-16. Besides the life of Christ, there is the dwelling of God in us and of us in God. This was fully manifested in Christ, and the more we think of that, the more we shall see that the new life we have is a dependent life. Our Lord Himself said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live." Therefore we see He was a man praying always - leaning on His Father. For though He was God, He never used this to take a false position as man; but He took the place of dependence. And it is where He puts us - in the place of dependence, and therefore the place of power from above. It is not a question of sincerity, but of that lowliness which is the sense of dependence and looks for help and power from another.

We distinguish, therefore, between what the Lord Jesus was and is essentially — equal with God, and what He became relatively — subordinate to the Father's will.

Thus the great prayer is brought before us. Throughout the Gospel of John, the Lord's glory as a Divine Person is ever kept before us. He is the Son, but ever viewed in the place that He had taken as Man. Thus it is He stands on earth and looks up to heaven as becomes the dependent Man. In all His perfect pathway, while proving by many a word and deed that He was a Divine Person – the Son, yet as the perfect servant in Manhood heaven was always His resource. When meeting the needs of the Five Thousand, "He looked up to heaven" (Mark 6:41). When healing the deaf and dumb, and relieving our sicknesses, He did so "looking up to heaven" (Mark 7:34). When meeting our sorrows He "lifted up His eyes" to the Father (John 11:41). And now, in expressing His desires to the Father, He still lifts up His eyes to heaven. Never ceasing to be the Son, yet, having become flesh, He never leaves the place of subjection and dependence, that becomes Him as Man. Thus, throughout the prayer, as indeed throughout the Gospel, He looks to the Father as the Giver, while He, Himself, ever takes the place of the reciever.

The blessed Son of God, when becoming a man, though not Himself a creature, took so fully man's place of dependence that we find He prayed habitually.

Surely the most deeply touching example of prayer is given in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. Here we stand in the presence of an inscrutable mystery. He, who was God, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and never ceasing to be this, became a true Man, dependent and prayerful, doing the will of His Father in heaven.

He now turns from speaking to them, to speaking about them to the Father. They are brought within the innermost circle, where they are privileged to hear the Son speaking to the Father concerning themselves and those like them who would hear the word of the Father and believe. How near to Himself and to the Father He brings His own!

The Lord addresses the Father as the Son who became Man, who in Himself made the Father fully known in this world, and then went into death in love to the Father. Now He prays as having completed the work which the Father had given him to do, and taken a position beyond the cross. He is here a Man risen from the dead, yet in His own right the Son. Because He is a Man His own have an abiding, living relationship with Him for ever. The character of His Manhood is that of subjection and obedience, and as still upon earth so He prays, yet in the consciousness of His own personal dignity.

There are many Scriptures which bring the Lord Jesus before us as a dependent Man. We read of Him rising up a great while before day in order to go out and pray (Mark 1:35). We read of Him on a mountain, continuing all night in prayer (Luke 6:12). On another occasion, having cast out the demon which the disciples were unable to cast out, He taught them that mighty works are only achieved through prayer and fasting (Matt. 17:21).

In John 17 we learn something of the quality of the prayer life of the Lord Jesus. It was the Man who was here who prays while at the same time the chapter shows that this Man is the Son. In verse 9 He says: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine.” If we study the word “pray” in this verse we will see that it has the force of someone desiring or demanding something of another who is His equal. In the prayer of this chapter we are listening to a Divine Person, the Son, addressing the Father. Here the Lord is interested solely in His own, those who also belong to the Father, and not in the world in general.

There are many Scriptures which bring the Lord Jesus before us as a dependent Man. We read of Him rising up a great while before day in order to go out and pray (Mark 1: 35). We read of Him on a mountain, continuing all night in prayer (Luke 6: 12). On another occasion, having cast out the demon which the disciples were unable to cast out, He taught them that mighty works are only achieved through prayer and fasting (Matt. 17: 21).

In John 17 we learn something of the quality of the prayer life of the Lord Jesus. It was the Man who was here who prays while at the same time the chapter shows that this Man is the Son. In verse 9 He says: "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine." If we study the word "pray" in this verse we will see that it has the force of someone desiring or demanding something of another who is His equal. In the prayer of this chapter we are listening to a Divine Person, the Son, addressing the Father. Here the Lord is interested solely in His own, those who also belong to the Father, and not in the world in general.