Can We Pray to Jesus?

I was at a youth…gathering…get together…thing…and a young man got up to lead the closing prayer. He started the prayer, not with “Dear Father in heaven,” or, “Our gracious God,” et cetera, but rather with, “Dear Jesus,”. I paused at the unorthodoxy of the opening statement and wondered: is that scriptural? Let’s take a gander…First of all, and maybe most obviously, it is important how we pray seeing as it is a commandment (1 Thessalonians 5:17), the apostles apparently saw it’s importance (Luke 11:1), and Jesus in turn gave them some…well, restrictions (Matthew 6:5-7). For lack of time and space and on account of it being extremely axiomatic, I will not go into any Old Testament examples. Every prayer was to God, for the time had not been appointed for Jesus to come (Galatians 4:4). So, New Testament examples: the most indubitable one would of course be Jesus Himself (Matthew 26:39,42,44). Then, there are the apostles all through the book of Acts praying (Acts 1:24; 4:31; 6:6; 8:15; 9:40; et cetera). In all of these, and other, passages, it is merely said that the apostles “prayed”. While it doesn’t say to whom they prayed, we must infer that it was in fact to God. Jesus said, “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” He gave them instruction to pray to God. So in the question “Is it wrong to pray to Jesus?” one might choose to argue either way. Those for the side of praying to Jesus might use the example of Paul (2Corinthians 12:8), or that of Stephen (Acts 7:59). One arguing this point may also use the fact that God and Jesus are the same person. In fact, Acts 7:59 begins by saying that Stephen prayed to God and then Stephen says, “Lord Jesus”. If Luke made no distinction between praying to God but saying “Lord Jesus”, why should we? The other side: it is wrong. The person who argues this may point out the seemingly limitless amount of times that a person in the Bible prays to God, compared with the two measly accounts of persons praying to Jesus. It would be important for one arguing this to again go back to the model prayer in Matthew 6, “Our Father in heaven…” Confronted with the point made on Acts 7:59, the person debating the case against praying to Jesus might make the point that although the Son and the Father are one in the same, they play different roles: God as the Father (Matthew 6 again) and Jesus as the Mediator (1Timothy 2:5). What do you think?. Mmmmmmm…something to ponder…