"If you were seriously ill, would you pray about it, or would you go to a doctor?" A young agnostic posed this common dilemma to me and my mother when he stayed with us for a night, apparently believing it was a "gotcha" moment. He quickly lost his composure, however, when I simply answered "both".
"Both", (or, as I now say, "yes"), is a valid answer. In fact, it is the only Biblical way to answer this "dilemma", which, in reality, is no dilemma at all. The entire point of a dilemma is to present two mutually exclusive options. Do you eat the cake now, or save it for after dinner? If you eat it now, you can't save it for after dinner. If you want to save it for after dinner, you can't eat it now.
But what is there that precludes praying and visiting a doctor? In truth, when we read Scripture, we find that it would be positively asinine to contrast the two. To begin with, Christ Himself compares Himself to a doctor. In Mark 2:17, for example, we read "When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”" This analogy simply does not work unless Jesus takes it for granted that those who are sick have need of a physician. Thus, to say that those who are sick should simply pray and not go to a doctor is to say that those who have sinned should not repent and come to Christ!
There is a saying, "God expects us to have faith, He doesn't expect us to sit on a shovel and pray for a hole." In Scripture, faith is seen as a very active thing. It is definitely not just sitting down and passively expecting God to take care of every minor detail of our lives. Rather, it is knowing that the works we do perform, God will bless. As Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain." This does not say "don't build a house, God's got it covered." Nor does it say "don't bother posting watchmen, God will not allow the city to be attacked." The premise of Scripture is, as James puts it, "faith without works is dead".
What good is it to be hungry and pray for food, while God has told us "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat"? (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Why pray for justice when the Lord has told us "Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow"? (Isaiah 1:17). If faith without works is dead, so also is prayer without action! We pray, we act, we trust God to bless those actions.
Of course, sometimes, there are things that are so out of our hands that we can only pray. Faith will always be greater than works. But it will never be contrasted with them. Even salvation, while it is by faith alone, will never fail to actually produce works. Therefore, going to a doctor does not show a lack of faith.
Interestingly, this apparent dilemma is similar to one of the temptations Satan brought to Jesus in Matthew 4: "Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”" (v5-7).
Now, could God have sent angels to catch Jesus if He was silly enough to jump off the temple? Absolutely! But Jesus showed His trust in God by knowing His word, not deliberately putting Himself in harm's way just to prove a point. It turns out, God operates according to a similar mantra of "play stupid games, win stupid prizes". You may jump off the temple, and God has all power to catch you, but because you jumped, He is more likely to let you hit the ground. In the same way, if you get sick, God may well heal you. But if you avoid the doctor, the normal means of finding healing, why shouldn't He just let you struggle?
At this point, it doesn't surprise me that this article is necessary, but it does cause me a level of distress. How I wish the critics of God would know Him. I wish they would know Him well enough not to make such shoddy arguments, of course, but it would also be amazing if they could come to know Him not as an enemy to rebel against, but a Savior to run towards. Because as we pointed out earlier, Jesus is like a doctor. And we are all very sick. Each and every one of us has sinned against our Creator, earning His everlasting wrath. But in His love for us, He provided an alternative. Jesus died on our behalf, receiving the full penalty for our sin. Just as He rose again on the third day, He has the power to raise us forever, giving us new bodies that can never get sick. The one condition is to put our faith in Him. No doctor can do what Jesus can do, and so we should put our faith in Him to do it.