God & Jesus 

QUESTION   Are God and Jesus the same person?  If so, why would Jesus pray to Himself?

ANSWER    Yes, God and Jesus, along with the Holy Spirit are part of what's called the "Trinity".  The Trinity is basically God in 3 different forms.  I guess you could think of it like water, which can exist as a solid, liquid or gas--but it's still water.  Except that God can exist as all three at the same time.  (Whew!  How does He do that?)  Actually, you and I are kind of like three different things in one person--you have a body, a soul and a spirit, and it takes all of them to make up who you are.

While on earth, Jesus made claims that He was equal to God in every way!  And that is the thing that separates Christianity from EVERY other religion in the world.  Muhammad, who is the founder of Islam, never claimed to be God.  Neither did Buddah (Hinduism) or Joseph Smith (Mormons) or any other religious leader.  And the cool thing is that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been around FOREVER!  Jesus existed as God long before He showed up on earth.  And the Holy Spirit existed as God long before God sent Him down here to help us. 

While Jesus was here, the Bible says that He was FULLY human and FULLY God at the same time.  How could He do that?  I don't know, but He's God and He can do anything!

There are different theories about why Jesus prayed to God.  Most people believe that one of the important things Jesus did while on earth was to set an example for us of how we are to relate to God.  Jesus is often called the "Son of God", and He calls God "Father", probably so we would understand that in God's eyes we are His children, and so that we would know we could relate to God as a perfect Father--and to Jesus as a brother.

Jesus going off to be alone to pray is an example of the THE MOST IMPORTANT thing that you and I can do on a regular basis--spend time, alone, talking to God and listening to Him through His Word.