I recently learned that an acquaintance had begun “praying” to God using ChatGPT. He’s not alone according to this article, where more and more people have begun turning to AI as a stand in for God when they want comfort, guidance, or even something that feels like prayer.
But let me say this gently and clearly: please don’t pray to AI. Claude is not God, and it cannot take his place. No matter how advanced it seems, the ‘A’ in AI still stands for “artificial.”
For many, AI has become a conversation partner. It is reported that 75% of teens use AI companions, and for some, those AI companions are beginning to function like mentors. I regularly hear from congregants who have turned to AI for help with spiritual struggles such as asking how to fight an addiction, navigate difficult conversations, or make wise decisions.
It’s easy to understand why. There’s something incredibly convenient about opening up an app and receiving an immediate, articulate response. If it can diagnose an issue with your car, why not allow it to speak into your spiritual life?
But even if AI could give a perfect answer (and that is far from guaranteed), we should be careful not to replace human beings or God with a screen. We need enfleshed friendships. We need real people to walk with us.
Here are a few things we begin to lose when we shift our spiritual lives away from people and toward AI:
1. Prayer
One of the most powerful gifts in any relationship is prayer. The early church was devoted to this shared life with God: “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. (Acts 1:14). James calls us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (Jms. 5:16). AI cannot receive your confession. You need brothers and sisters who will bring your needs into the throne room and place them before the Lord on your behalf. That kind of intercession which is personal, loving, and faith-filled is something no technology can offer.
2. Care
AI can sound warm, but it does not genuinely care. Only a human being made in God’s image can do that. Scripture calls us to “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2), and be “kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving” (Eph. 4:32), and “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess. 5:11). Paul reminds us that the church is meant to be a living, breathing body: “if one member of the body suffers, all suffer with it; if one is honored, all rejoice” (1 Cor. 12:26). When you turn to AI for your spiritual struggles rather than a fellow believer, the body of Christ is missing out in its call to walk alongside you in your pain.
3. Wisdom
AI can provide information, but wisdom is not just knowing facts—it’s knowing how to contextually and faithfully apply biblical truth to real life. Even at the level of information, AI is fallible. It can sound confident and still be wrong. We’ve heard the reports of how frequently self-confident AI systems produce errors. Last year BBC produced a detailed study showing that 45% of AI queries produce errors. Wisdom, of course, is far more than mere knowledge. Wisdom requires life experience. Wisdom applies truth to one’s situation, one’s heart, and one’s story. Ultimately, wisdom comes from God alone for it is “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3). James tells us that God is the first one to seek when we need wisdom, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (Jms. 1:5).
Wisdom is not merely about solving one’s problems. It’s about walking in the way of Jesus. True wisdom leads to Christlikeness: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere" (Jms 3:17).
4. Embodiment
In God’s kindness and creativity, he gave us bodies: arms that embrace, eyes that weep, hands that hold. Presence matters. AI cannot sit quietly with you in your grief, hold you close, or cry with you. But a friend can. When Job was crushed under the weight of grief and loss, his friends initially responded in the best possible way: not with answers, but with presence:
And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. (Job 2:12-13)
For seven days they were wise. They wept. They were silent. They stayed. Later, they spoke, and for 35 chapters they became what Job called “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2), unending fonts of explanations and accusations.
Let us not confuse having answers with offering wisdom. And we must not confuse AI with godly counsel let alone with God himself.
Risk sharing your heart, your hurt, and your questions with friends. Solomon reminds us that, “"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Prov. 17:17). AI is not born for adversity. But your brothers and sisters in Christ are.
Above all, cry out to God. Learn to wait for him. The Psalms remind us that trust often looks like patient waiting: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” (Ps. 37:7). AI might offer fast answers, but it cannot replace God’s good path of patience, prayer, and people.
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