Seven Powerful Words

by Jim Egli

All of us everyday encounter needs. We interact with people at work, at school, and in our neighborhoods who are sick, discouraged, or struggling in other ways with the challenges of life. We are called to make Jesus’ love and power real to them in caring, powerful and personal ways. But how do we do that? Where do we begin?

I’ve found that the most effective way to do that is to show genuine care to people and then to say these seven powerful words: “Can I pray for you right now?” Maybe someone’s back is hurting. Maybe their marriage or family is struggling. Or, perhaps they are facing a big problem or deadline.

If you have never or seldom done this before it probably feels like you are taking a big risk to ask this because you don’t know just how people might respond, but over and over again I have found that people appreciate our concern and an offer to pray. Let me share a story about this from my own life.

One Sunday evening last spring my wife Vicki and I decided to walk to the Dairy Queen near our home for Blizzards. On the way a friend who lives in the neighborhood stopped her car as she drove by us and asked us if we needed a ride, and we said, “no.” After she drove a way, we texted her and invited her and her husband to join us at DQ.

She also walked there and joined us in about ten minutes but her husband wasn’t with her. When we ask why he didn’t come, she said, “About three weeks ago he experienced Bell’s Palsy and the left side of his face is paralyzed and he doesn’t like to do things in public anymore.”

After enjoying our Blizzards, we walked her home and asked, “Could we go into your home with you and pray for your husband right now?” She called him and he said that that would be great, so we did.

Her husband told us that he was very discouraged. In slurred speech he said his father and brother had both had Bell’s Palsy and that for both of them it had gone away in two weeks but that he had seen no change in the three weeks since he experienced it and that his doctor said that it might never go away.

We told him that God really loved him and that because of that we would pray with expectation. We asked if we could lay hands on him which he said was fine. So we prayed and thanked God for him and invited God’s healing presence to bring full healing. After praying a short while, we asked him if he felt anything when we prayed or if he could detect any difference. He said he didn’t sense anything or see any difference. So we asked if we might pray again. We again prayed a while and asked if anything was different and he said, “no.”

It was a relaxed atmosphere and we sat down and talked about family and life for another twenty minutes or so. Before we left we asked if we might pray for him one more time, which we did and then said “good night.”

On Monday afternoon the husband called me and said, “Jim, when I woke up this morning I was significantly better. For the first time in three weeks, I could close my left eye and smile with both sides of my mouth!” I saw him two weeks l later and his dimples were back. Within a month he was totally healed.

Every time you and I pray for people, God’s kingdom comes. We don’t know in exactly what way it will come. We don’t know if it will crash in at the moment or seep in over the days ahead. We don’t know if God will bring healing or peace or a deep sense of his love, but we don’t need to worry about the exact timetable or results, we just need to be faithful to care enough about people to reach out and take risks of love.

What I am saying to you is simply this: There are seven powerful words that you should say to others often and that you should teach every follower of Jesus in your small group or your church to say. Those words are: “Can I pray for you right now?”

Jim Egli 🙂