When Our Patients Pray for Us

As a Christian who’s been practicing periodontics for 29 years, I’ve had numerous opportunities to share my faith and pray with my patients. A number of my patients have expressed their appreciation for having a fellow Christian responsible for their care.

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“She’s in My Hands”

The following email was sent to me as a matter of prayer: “In April, my wife was found to have a large frontal lobe GBM. Her last MRI showed diffuse recurrence despite radiation and Temodar. She has decided to enter hospice care. She is incredibly at peace. She tells everyone that very soon she will be healed when she is in Glory. I’m not near as strong as she is, and have been ‘frustrated’ at my inability to help her. I think we, as physicians, feel that we have to ‘do something’ about everything. Saturday morning, I had a sitter for her, so I could do some errands.

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This One Last Thing

This was a weekend off-duty, so I had time to visit a few patients as a friend, not a professional. I had just prayed with two for healing in very difficult situations and was traveling between hospitals. My thoughts drifted to personal needs. A child of mine desperately needs a work of great power. “Dear Father, everything else is okay in my life. Just give me this one thing, and I can manage the rest.”

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Calling 911

Calling 911 Al Weir, MD June 25, 2019

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you’” (John 17:1, ESV).

William carries the diagnosis of autism. He is a handsome and strong young man whose family loves the Lord. I have been praying daily for William, but my prayers may not have been correct. A few years ago, when William was much younger, his family was gathered with all eight of William’s siblings and cousins. As usual, there was vigorous activity throughout the house. Then someone noticed that William was missing.

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Silent Listening

Silent Listening Al Weir, MD May 7, 2019

“And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me’” (Mark 2:14a, ESV).

Arnie was retired from his orthopedic practice and helping lead the retreat for Christian doctors. He did not know it would be he who would be changed. Based on Dallas Willard’s book Hearing God, the retreat speaker challenged his audience, “I want you each to take the next five minutes and just listen to the Lord in silence.” After three minutes of silent listening, Arnie heard God ask him in the silence, “How are you spending your time?” From that moment, Arnie’s life was rearranged.

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Plain Talk

Plain Talk Al Weir, MD April 2, 2019

Sometimes God “talks plain”—usually when our ears are stuffed with the wax of the world. In my own life, these plain-speaking times have not been pleasant. When God has had to “talk plain” in my life, it has been because I was headed in the wrong direction. His words were indeed clear, but they sounded like a two-by-four striking my skull.

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Asking

Asking Al Weir, MD December 18, 2018

He had a Santa Claus beard but little hair on top. I told him, “You know, you are one of the few over 60 who has been cured of their acute leukemia.”

“Yes, I know,” he said.

“I hope you are telling folks how God has blessed you. “

“I am,” he said. “One thing I tell folks a lot is about the day my wife came in one early morning and saw the sunrise coming into the hospital. I had been having an uncontrolled fever for 10 days. She looked at the sun and prayed to God, ‘Dear God, burn it out.’ That morning after she left, I felt a deep burning inside. I fell off to sleep, harder than I had been sleeping in a long time. About 10:30 I woke up, and I was hungry, and my fever was gone and never returned.”

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Useful Prayer

I know God heals, and I often pray with those who are severely ill. But I rarely pray for the impossible in fully sincere ways, with my personal experience that God is very selective with His miracles. With Daryl I did pray sincerely, in full faith. He was at the end of our possible therapies and still worsening in his illness. I placed my hands upon his shoulder and called upon God to heal him. I did not use the escape clause, “If it is your will.” I left the room expecting the impossible. That was two weeks ago. Today, while in Albania on a mission trip, I received word of Daryl’s death.

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Praying With Patients

Dr. Autumn Dawn Galbreath explores what a variety of secular physicians have to say about praying with patients in the exam room. It’s a topic that is vastly important to Christian healthcare professionals. Not surprisingly, there was a wide range of options among secular physicians.

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Praying With Our Patients

We had completed a full workup for chronic pain for Susan, a patient of mine, and I could not find a physical or emotional etiology. Though she initially resisted discussing her social and spiritual health, she eventually became willing to talk after I questioned her again.

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