One church says, "We don't need medicines. We have faith." Another says, "We don't need psychology. We have the Bible." "We don't need counsellors. We have prayer." I have yet to hear someone say, "We don't need bridges. We can walk on water!" These people choose some area of life where they think God is sufficient for them, without thinking about thousands of other areas where they are using the spiritual and the earthly things God has provided for us. The list goes on. "We don't need to read the Bible. We have the Holy Spirit!" "We don't need any church. We have Jesus."
For people who take this attitude, one common factor is a sense of superiority in comparison to 'ordinary' people, even if they won't say it. Because of this pride, they are unable to see their error or to receive all that God has prepared for them.
Before God created man, He created everything that man needed for life, everything in the heavens and the earth. Each part of God's creation has something to contribute to our life on earth. Even now, with the advancement of technology and knowledge, it is still God who meets all our needs from day to day (Mt.6:33;Php.4:19). For example, it is still God who heals even when we take medicines. It is wise to recognise that many times God meets our needs through other people. It is He who has given scientists intelligence and insight to understand more about what He has done in His creation and to bring out new ideas that can help man. On one side we can see His increasing provisions for meeting our material needs. But we can also see His provisions for our social, psychological and spiritual aspects in the way He gives different people insight into such aspects. When Satan is trying to cause more damage in every direction, God is also providing help in different ways to meet our needs.
Some people go astray when they give attention only to the spiritual aspect of life thinking that other things will be automatically be taken care of, misunderstanding Mt.6:33. Do we take from this verse that we don't need to do any work, for example? No. As we set our heart on knowing God more and doing His will, one way He helps us is by guiding us to do our earthly job better! He sends doctors to treat us when our body becomes ill, psychologists to tell us how to deal with our mental issues and to have better inter-personal relationships, psychiatrists to help us if medicines are needed to deal with problems affecting our mind, counsellors to help us to understand what is going wrong with the way we live and to guide us about what we need to do, etc. How foolish it is to ignore all such help that God is providing for us, under a foolish assumption that we need only God!
When everything is going well, people seem to get away with sitting around with such wrong concepts about God's sufficiency. But when calamity strikes, as when someone falls critically ill, it would be tragic to neglect what God has already provided for us!