Can We Pray Directly to God or Must All Prayer Go Through Jesus?

It is important to make the distinction between prayer addressed to God the Father and prayer having access to the Father.

Jesus taught us to pray directly to the Father when he gave us the Our Father (Matt. 6:9). But we should understand that our prayers have access to the Father only through Jesus, for he proclaimed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).