Wdarchivebackdrop

“I Chose to Believe”

Al Weir, MD

April 30, 2019
“I Chose to Believe” Al Weir, MD April 30, 2019

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer…” (Philippians 4:6, NASB).

Paul married a girl I grew up with. They worked in Christian ministry together, and then he developed cancer and died. While he was living with cancer, Paul sent out an update to friends and supporters. Within that update he wrote, “A few weeks after finishing my radiation treatments a friend asked me what I had come to know about God through my ordeal. I had been wrestling with many thoughts that very day, and I realized that everything came down to one thing: I had to either believe God’s Word, the Bible, or not.  I chose to believe. As a result, I understood in a new way that God is really sovereign and in control of my life and I am not.”

In the introduction to her book Believing God, Beth Moore lists five statements of faith. Our entire salvation and confidence in life rests on the first two:

  1. God is who He says He is.
  2. God can do what He says He can do.

She follows her statement of faith with the responsibility these first two statements bring to us: “Most of us have no trouble believing in God. We have trouble believing the God we believe in.”

Do we believe God loves us, no matter what?

Do we believe Christ saved us, no matter what we have done or who we have been?

Do we believe we will live forever?

Do we believe those we love will live forever if they know Christ as Lord?

Do we believe God has given us a mission in our lives, a mission that is the central purpose for our lives, to share the Gospel?

Do we believe, like Paul above, that God is sovereign, that He will take whatever enters our lives and mold it into something good—so good that it is worth our pain?

Do we believe God has a great plan of redemption that is greater than our pain, a plan that will one day redeem our pain and bring us all into a new kingdom where all pain is gone forever?

Do we believe that knowing Him is worth it all?

Are we willing to refocus our lives on the things we truly believe?

If so, with total trust in God’s promises and a life focused on God’s mission, we can indeed, “Be anxious for nothing…”

Dear Father,
Help me believe You and then live my life based on that belief.
Amen

Al Weir, MD

Al Weir, MD

After leaving academic medicine, Dr. Weir served in private practice at the West Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee from 1991-2005 before joining the CMDA staff as Vice President of Campus & Community Ministries where he served for three years from 2005-2008. He is presently Professor of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Program Director for the Hematology/Oncology fellowship program. He is also President of Albanian Health Fund, an educational ministry to Albania where he has been serving for 20 years. He is the author of two books: When Your Doctor Has Bad News and Practice by the Book. Dr. Weir’s work has also been published in many medical journals and other publications. Al and his wife Becky live in Memphis, Tennessee, and they have three children and three grandchildren. Dr. Weir is currently serving on CMDA's Board of Trustees.