Tag: prayer

Prayer, Physician, or Both?

The question often comes up, “Should a Christian go to a physician for a physical issue or depend wholly upon God?”  While, I can’t speak for anyone out there, this is a decision you need to make on your own through prayer and the counsel of mature Christian friends, I will give a few things to think about here.

First, I’d like to relate a personal experience that has some bearing on the issue.  I experienced a heart attack last June.  I couldn’t catch my breath.  My wife, and later my sister-in-law, recognized what was happening and rushed me to the local hospital emergency room, where doctors inserted two stents.  My life was saved. 

In the past nearly eleven months, I have grown in my walk with God and taught people several things: how to study the Bible for themselves, apologetics, basics of the faith, and such.  Yesterday, after I taught a short Bible study at a local nursing home, a woman came to me and said the message was for her specifically, that it pointed out a need in her life she needed to correct.  We praised God together.

The reason I bring these things up is that God had more for me to do.  We don’t know what would have happened if my wife had dropped to her knees and prayed for me rather than taking me to the hospital.  We do know, however, that God blessed her actions instead. My thinking is more toward the idea that God uses physicians, but mine is not the only view.

Some additional things to think about are more Biblically centered:

  • Paul calls Luke “the beloved physician.”  Paul lists very few people with their occupations.  One is Erastus (Rom 6:23), as the city treasurer, a very prestigious position indeed.  Zenas (Titus 3:13) as a lawyer.  We’re not sure if he was a Roman legal expert or a Jewish expert in the Mosaic law.  Either plays an important role.  So, the few and the significant are listed by Paul in his letters.
  • Paul tells Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach problems (1 Tim. 5:23).  This would suggest turning to a remedy, a medication, for a physical ailment rather than waiting for a miracle.  We might think, “this is just a simple thing,” but isn’t everything a simple thing to an omnipotent God?
  • Look at Mark 2:17 (ESV), And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Though the context is the need for sinners to come to Him, still Jesus speaks of the need of the sick for a physician.  Is this an endorsement of private medicine?  You decide.
  • Isa. 38:21 (ESV)  Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”  Here Isaiah used a combination of God’s promise Hezekiah would recover and a physical remedy to accomplish his healing.

In addition, God tells us to pray for the sick

  •  James 5:14-15 (ESV)  Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 

God is the ultimate Healer:

  • Ps. 103:2-3 (ESV)  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

Why is this important?

I don’t see where either going to a physician or not going to a physician is commanded.  God leaves many things up to our own choice, including the clothes we wear, what sort of car we drive, and where we go on vacation.  Perhaps going to a doctor is a matter of free will.  One person told me, “I will always pray first.  That prayer may be in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, but I’ll pray before the doctors go to work.”

My conclusion? I’m going to pray for God to strengthen the hands and minds of the physician.  If God wants to take me, nothing will keep me alive.  If He wants me to live, I see nothing that keeps me from seeking medical help.

If the need isn’t immediate, though, I would ask the elders of the church to pray for me as well as family and friends.  If I don’t improve, the next step is to see if God wants to use a physician.

Who Should We Pray To?

Recently I was engaged in a conversation about who we should pray to.  We were talking about the Trinity and how, to some degree, each Person of the one God has particular roles.  Only Jesus, for instance, died for our sins, not the Father or the Holy Spirit.  This idea led to the question: do we pray to particular Persons for particular things?  Let’s look at this:

The Father:

Jesus tells us to pray to the Father: Matt. 6:9 (ESV)  Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”  This is the “Lord’s Prayer,” of course, and in it Jesus lists some things to pray for: God’s Kingdom to come, God’s will to be done here and in heaven, for our daily needs, for forgiveness, not to be tempted, to be delivered from evil, and give praise to our God.

The Son:

Jesus says something similar, though briefly, about Himself in John 14:14 (ESV)  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.   “Anything” would certainly include the full list of the Lord’s Prayer and then some.  So, praying to the Son is as appropriate as prayers to the Father.

The Holy Spirit:

Acts 13:2-3 (ESV)  While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

This passage doesn’t directly state the disciples’ prayers and worship were directed to the Holy Spirit, but I believe it implies it strongly, especially in verse 3 after the Holy Spirit had answered their prayer and given them direction.  So prayer to the Holy Spirit is just as appropriate as to the Father and the Son.

Why is this important?

The title question stems from our misunderstanding of our God, Yahweh, and our place in His care.  Our God is one God.  God is a gracious God. There is no pride in Him and, therefore, no prideful jealousy.  Even if we could get it wrong, God looks at our hearts.  He knows what you want to say and listens intently.  He is infinite in all of His ways.  He’s infinitely benevolent so is anxious to listen and respond to our benefit.  He is infinitely knowledgeable to understand all we say and do, so He listens to our mistakes, our stumbling, our uncertainty in prayer and makes sense of those.  No matter how great we think God is, He is greater.

We as His children cannot make mistakes in our prayers to this great and gracious God.  We can’t pray to the wrong Person.  We can’t pray in a wrong way if our heart is pure toward Him.  If this is a concern for anyone you know, I suggest you point them to Romans:

Romans 8:26 (ESV)  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.