What do you do when you're sick? Do you follow what your Bible tells you to do?
Question:
James 5:14-16
14Is any sick among you? 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.15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So what do you do? Call the Doctor or call the Elders??
If you fail to follow the Bible's instructions is it because you do not believe in the efficacy of the Bible's health plan? Do you lack faith? Do lack trust in the Bible?
When you go see your Doctor rather than your Elders are you demonstrating your lack of faith, belief, or trust? Will you miss out because of lack of trust/faith?
Answer:
The Elders are not part of my HMO
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. At my church, we do that all the time. We did that last night, people who were sick were annointed with oil and prayed over by the Elders of our church. We had a fabulous service.
yea my doctor has a bible in his office
I go to the doctor. that's what they're for. God blessed them with intelligence for that purpose.
if I have something the doctors cannot fix, or I want it to heal faster, I go to the church or I pray on my own.
God isn't against medicine. If He created the chemical possibility for all cures, why would He stop us?
It isn't demonstrating a lack of faith to go to a doctor. Luke, who wrote his gospel and the book of Acts, was a physician. Praying to the Great Physician and going to a doctor is an entirely reasonable combination. The thing to remember is that only God heals.
call you elders and let them know you are gonna need a lotof prayer after you come from seeing your doctor,and recieving the bill.
I pray and ask the church to pray for me too. But I also see my doctor because I believe that god works through him. God has given him the knowledge and skills to know what is wrong and how to cure it. God answers my prayers by leading me to my doctor.
What part of that scripture says not to go to the doctor?
The laying on of hands and praying is not meant to take the place of doctors, but is done in addition to a physicians treatment. As a matter of fact, when we pray for those who are sick, we ask that God give their doctors clear minds and that he would help the doctor in his treatment of the patient, especially in the case of surgery!
We request in intercessory prayer that God guide the hands of the physicians. Pastors offer altar call for special annointing to those that need the healing touch of God. I for one was healed of years of asthma. Praise Jesus!
Physicians alone can only go through the diagnosis protocol outlined in their medical group or by whatever is restricted by Medical and other insurance. But this doesn't diminish the obvious need of going to an MD to leverage all available medical technology to rule out terminal diseases (ie. chemotherapy to achieve remission of cancer). God can use MDs to heal the sick in many ways.
My husband always asks God to use him in his busy practice. He says most of his patients come in seeking someone to minister their broken souls rather than to their bodies. So most of the visit is occupied with interpersonal conversation rather than about the ailment. Most often, the patients walk out of the exam room feeling better without even discussing the original health complaint. I believe God is using my husband as more than an instrument of physical healing.
We trust God completely, but He also trusts us that we do what is right in His eyes.
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