The Divine Prayer Assignment

The Divine Prayer Assignment

When God prompts you to pray for someone, you’d best take heed!

ON A COOL morning in a village near Bedford, England, in the 1870s, a widow named Mrs. Symons went to the door of her little cottage to watch the hounds run by, followed by the huntsmen. She always enjoyed waving to the children as they rode by on their ponies. On this particular morning she felt herself strangely drawn to the children of Captain Polhill-Turner, a family who often rode in the hunt. As the clatter of hooves faded away, Mrs. Symons was filled with the conviction that Jesus wanted her to pray for these children. And so she did, faithfully praying for them daily.

Captain Polhill-Turner, a wealthy member of Parliament, lived in a large country house with his six children. Nanny Readshaw cared for the children, and life proceeded in a well-planned and orderly fashion. Even the future careers of the three sons were already planned. The oldest would inherit the family estate, the second would join the English cavalry, and the youngest, Arthur, would enter the ministry. Growing up, Arthur’s religious ideas were hazy. What little he knew came from Nanny Readshaw telling the children Bible stories and saying that Jesus was her friend.

Two critical events disturbed the well-ordered life of young Arthur Polhill-Turner. The first was when his oldest sister, Alice, suddenly announced that she was going to give up hunting and parties and serve Jesus. She had attended a mission service in Bedford, where she had trusted Christ as her Savior, unaware that Mrs. Symons and Nanny Readshaw had been praying for her all those years. Arthur found her subsequent efforts to evangelize him to be a nuisance.

The second event was a greater shock. In Arthur’s last year of high school, his father died. As Arthur entered Cambridge University the following year, his father’s death continued to weigh on him.

During his second year at Cambridge, Arthur was amused to read placards advertising the coming of an American evangelist, D. L. Moody, and his song leader, Ira Sankey, to Cambridge. To him it was a joke that two uneducated Americans would come to Cambridge.

The first meeting was on a Sunday, and Arthur Polhill-Turner went out of curiosity. Although many of the students attending the meeting were rowdy, Arthur tried to listen to Moody’s message in spite of the mayhem.

Arthur continued to go back every night. By Thursday the mood had changed, and at the end of the service many prominent students made their way to the inquiry room. That night Moody preached on the Prodigal Son, and Arthur realized the emptiness of his life. But back in his room Arthur was afraid of what it might mean to give himself wholeheartedly to Jesus. He returned to the meetings on Friday and Saturday, knowing he must trust Christ but afraid to do so.

On Sunday, November 12, 1882, a week after the first service, Arthur was back once again. In his sermon Moody quoted Isaiah 12:2: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation” (KJV). Suddenly Arthur understood. The words continued to ring in Arthur’s ears as he joined in singing from the heart, “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me . . . O Lamb of God, I come!”

At the close of the service Moody asked everyone who had received blessing during the week to stand as a token of their faith. Over two hundred stood, and one of them was Arthur Polhill-Turner. God led him to China, where he served as a missionary for the rest of his life.

Reflection

Do you ever find that you just can’t get someone out of your mind? Perhaps God is prompting you to pray for that person. The two women in this story who prayed were an important part of God’s plan. When you are praying and God brings someone’s name to mind, rejoice that you, too, have been given a divine prayer assignment.

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.

James 5:16