“He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.” (Luke 10:34)
I have a friend who is a cancer survivor. She’s had a tough time and her recovery has been anything but easy. In fact, I hadn’t seen her in several years and would not have recognized her if we had met by chance. But it wasn’t due to a loss of weight or hair; she just didn’t look the same. Her mother attributes the difference in her appearance to a combination of the side effects of chemotherapy and stress.
As we caught up with each other, I realized that cancer had changed a lot more than her appearance. Understandably, her whole way of looking at life had changed, too.
It’s important to emphasize that my friend is a mature Christian whose faith is unquestionably stronger because of cancer. I say all that because it might surprise you to learn that as we talked about how she coped with the doubts and fears that inevitably come with a catastrophic disease, she told me that it was cancer that helped her to understand that prayer was not the only tool on which she could rely.
“I’m sorry,” she explained, “I appreciate every prayer that went out for me, but I just couldn’t depend on prayer alone. God has his hand in medicine, too, and I think he expects us to do something besides pray when a disease like cancer comes along.”
“I agree,” I told her.
If you stop and think about it, the Parable of the Good Samaritan supports turning to prayer and medicine when a life-threatening crisis comes or way. And while that’s not the spiritual truth that Jesus taught through the parable, Good Samaritan laws across the country underscore that quick and early responses to life-threatening injuries save lives, too.
Do you remember the parable? Jesus describes a man, who while traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, was attacked by bandits. They not only robbed him, they beat him to within an inch of his life and left him to die.
A Jewish priest and a temple assistant both happened upon the man, but neither offered any assistance, not even a prayer. In fact, the Bible records that strange as it may seem, help finally came from a Samaritan, the last person in the world that a Jew in Jesus’ day would have expected to stop and help.
Notice what the Bible says the Samaritan did: “He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.” (Luke 10:34) In other words, the Good Samaritan not only acknowledged the ability of God to heal, which is often symbolized by the use of oil, he also relied on medicine (from the alcohol in wine) to help save the life of the man whom the robbers left for dead.
My point is this: Does God expect us to pray when crisis comes? Of course, he does. That’s why the Apostle Paul instructs us at Philippians 4:6 to talk to God whenever we become anxious about our circumstances. But I also agree with my friend who realized that we must take some ownership in our problems. Just like the Good Samaritan, we can’t always stand idly by and wait on God.
Listen – When trouble comes your way, don’t you dare give up on prayer! It will always be the greatest weapon you have to fight the troubles that life will bring. But don’t forget to use the other resources that God puts in front of you, too. As my friend realized, and perhaps even the left-for-dead Jew in the Parable of the Good Samaritan realized, too, the very answer to our prayer may be staring us right in the face.
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