Prayer is a form of worship. If you pray to a deceased person you obviously think it will benefit you more than praying directly to God or you would spend that precious time with him instead of asking the deceased to talk to him for you. Why is it that Roman Catholics insist on having some mediator other than Christ? You ask priests to forgive your sins, and ask the dead to interceed with God for you. When in reality there is nothng separating the Christian from God.
We shouldn't pray to the dead instead of God himself! God is so much better than that and deserves so much more than that kind of behavior.
1 Timothy 2:5 KJV
[5] For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
The Spirit Himself is our intercessor!
Romans 8:26 KJV
[26] Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
We don't need a priest between us and Christ!
1 Peter 2:9 KJV
[9] But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Again, their souls are not dead and they are still part of the body of Christ. They are a part of who we are. Our souls are all united in Christ. It's not like they are anything less that one with us in Christ.
Eph 3
14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
We also are not asking them to mediate for us....but to share in our prayers with us.
1 Tim 2
1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone
God desires that we all be one in Spirit. To ignore the souls that are already one with Him is tantamount to ignoring a part of who He is.
John 17
2
0"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
Additionally, your assumption that I think that I will gain some greater benefit by praying to the Saints rather than God is completely incorrect. First, I don't pray simply for some personal benefit though surely I gain with each moment I am so closely united with God. Spending time with the Lord is priceless and just a small foretaste of what heaven will be like. But again, I will not be alone with God in heaven so sharing with all the saints today is no different then how it will be when my soul joins with them and Christ as my physical body remains here on earth in time.
You also make some flawed assumption that God is losing out on my prayers because I'm giving them to someone else. I have no idea how this could be asserted since we are all one body in Christ and even today, here on earth, as I pray for you, all souls that are part of the body of Christ are joined in that prayer because we are one body.
Picture a father with a son and a daughter. The kids argue with one another and taunt one another periodically but generally get along in the house. On his birthday, each child goes to their own room and makes him a present, perhaps a special hand drawn card or some craft project they put together. Then each goes to him at separate times and gives him their gift. He of course is delighted with each of them and with each of their gifts. He loves his children.
But what if the two children put aside their petty bickering for the day and went together to a room and together created a gift for him and then together presented it to him. How much more blessed is the father when his children act in accord as a family to bless him.
He doesn't love the children any more or any less if they come to him individually but he receives a special kind of wholeness in love when they are acting as family. Sharing with one another.
That's really all this is about. I spend a lot of time alone with God but I don't neglect those others that He loves equally and I appreciate the perfected unity that we will all have in heaven and enjoy having a little piece of it now.
Christ is the only mediator between us and the Father, but no where does it say that Father, Son and Holy Spirit only want to communicate with us individually and not as the body of Christ. We pray in the Spirit not in the flesh so our prayer are always united with the rest of the prayers of the body of Christ whether we acknowledge it or not.
While we live in time, our spirits are bound to God and to the Church, the whole Body of Christ, outside of time. We believe in eternal life not two lives, one on earth and one in heaven but eternal, never ending life through Christ. Our friends, relatives and the holiest of people through the ages have not died....they are alive in Christ Jesus as a the body of Christ.
I don't expect that you'll try to understand this right now. I was like you in my understanding when I was Protestant as well and it took a lot of study and prayer but once it clicked....what a difference it made in my relationship with the Lord and with other Christians.
