Prayer for conversion emphasizes earnest, persistent intercession for others to come to faith in Christ, often highlighting the power of prayer to soften hearts and bring about spiritual awakening (Romans 10:1; 2 Corinthians 7:10). Illustrations frequently depict fervent, sometimes unseen prayers that result in transformative salvation experiences, portraying prayer as the divine means to win souls.
Earnest roadside prayer leads to an immediate answer and spiritual relief.
A wicked Kentucky soldier, deeply convicted, prayed all night without relief. In the morning, he met his chaplain on his horse, and asked him to pray for him. He promised. "I mean now," said the man. "What! here in the road?"—"Yes, here, chaplain, now." The chaplain dismounted; and they knelt by the road to pray, and were joined by others; when the answer came to earnest prayer.
A teacher's confident prayers led to the salvation of all her students, though unseen in life.
"Do you think?" I asked, "that the Lord will let me see in this life the salvation of the souls for whom I pray?"—"I cannot say as to that. When I was a child in the sabbath school in the old country," she continued, "my faithful teacher used to say, 'I have prayed too much for my class for one of them to be lost.' I was a thoughtless girl at the time, and remember wondering at it, and thinking it a very self-confident remark. She was so sure: 'I shall have them all,' she would say. 'I shall say to Christ at the judgment, Here am I and the class thou hast given me.'"—"And were they all converted?" I asked. "Yes. She did not live to see it; but my eyes have seen it,—the last of the sixteen gathered into the fold."
Witnessing for Jesus.
Persistent prayer, not argument, wins the conversion of a skeptical infidel.
In the time of a great revival in a certain church and congregation, the pastor urged one of his brethren, an able, skilful lawyer, to go and converse with a scoffing infidel of their acquaintance. "You know," said he, "that Mr. R. comprehends an able argument as well as any of us; and you and I have often seen how his eye will kindle under a compact and well-drawn argument. Now can you not go over, with him, the proofs on which the Christian system rests?"
"I have done that already," said the lawyer, "and he heard me through patiently and then pounced upon my arguments like a tiger on his prey. Then he wound up with bitter reproaches, which made me dread to encounter him again."
One of the elders of the same church had been also to visit the infidel, and met with a like reception, and he had made similar objections to his pastor to visiting the infidel again. But on a subsequent evening he was led by the Spirit of God, to wrestle before the throne with most agonizing prayer in that Infidel's behalf. At intervals he continued all night presenting his case before God, and praying for his conversion and salvation, as a man would pray for a friend's life on the eve of his execution.
Prayer was followed by corresponding effort, and not long after, in the crowded church, Mr. R. stood up, a changed man, to relate his Christian experience!
"I am as a brand," said he, "plucked out of the burning. The change in my views and feelings is astonishing to myself; and all brought about by the grace of God and that unanswerable argument.
"It was a cold morning in January, and I had just begun my labor at the anvil in my shop, when I looked out and saw Elder B—approaching. As he drew near I saw he was agitated—his look was full of earnestness. His eyes were bedimmed with tears. He took me by the hand. His breast heaved with emotion, and with indescribable tenderness, he said, 'Mr. R—, I am greatly concerned for your salvation—greatly concerned for your salvation!' and he burst into tears. He often essayed to speak, but not a word could he utter, and finding that he could say no more, he turned, went out of the shop, mounted his horse, and rode slowly away.
"'Greatly concerned for my salvation,' said I audibly, and I stood and forgot to bring my hammer down! 'Greatly concerned for my salvation.' Here is a new argument, thought I, for religion, which I never heard before, and I know not how to answer it. Had the Elder reasoned with me, I could have confounded him; but here is no threadbare argument for the truth of religion. Religion must move the soul with benevolent, holy, mighty impulses, or this man would not feel as he does. 'GREATLY CONCERNED FOR MY SALVATION'—it rung through my ears like a thunder clap in a clear sky. 'Greatly concerned ought I to be for my own salvation,' said I; 'What shall I do to be saved?'
"I went into my house. My poor pious wife, whom I had so often ridiculed for her religion, exclaimed, 'Why Mr. R—, what is the matter with you?' 'Matter enough,' said I, filled with agony—'Matter enough. Elder B. has rode two miles this cold morning to tell me he was greatly concerned for my salvation. What shall I do?' She advised me to go and see him. No sooner said than done. I mounted my horse and pursued after him. I found him alone in that same little room where he had spent the whole night in prayer for my poor soul. 'I am come,' said I to him, 'to tell you I am greatly concerned for my own salvation.'
"'Praised be God,' said the Elder. 'It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the very chief;' and he began at that same Scripture and preached unto me Jesus. On that same floor we knelt, and together we prayed, and we did not separate that day till God spoke peace to my soul. And here permit me to say, if you would reach the heart of such a poor sinner as I, you must get your qualification where the good Elder did his, in your closet and on your knees." That converted infidel long outlived the Elder, and was the means of the conversion of many.
A mother’s prayers were answered in her son’s salvation before her death.
During the last illness of a pious mother, when she was near death, her only remaining child, the subject of many agonizing and believing prayers, who had been roving on the sea, returned to pay his parent a visit. After a very affecting meeting, "You are near port, mother," said the hardy-looking sailor, "and I hope you will have an abundant entrance."
"Yes, my child, the fair haven is in sight, and soon, very soon I shall be landed
'On that peaceful shore,
Where pilgrims meet to part no more.'"
"You have weathered many a storm in your passage, mother; but now God is dealing very graciously with you, by causing the winds to cease, and by giving you a calm at the end of your voyage."
"God has always dealt graciously with me, my son: but this last expression of his kindness, in permitting me to see you before I die, is so unexpected; that it is like a miracle wrought in answer to prayer."
"O mother!" replied the sailor, weeping as he spoke, "your prayers have been the means of my salvation, and I am thankful that your life has been spared till I could tell you of it."
She listened with devout composure to the account of his conversion, and at last, taking his hand, she pressed it to her dying lips, and said, "Yes, thou art a faithful God! and as it hath pleased thee to bring back my long-lost child, and adopt him into thy family, I will say, 'Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.'"
A mother's persistent prayer led to her son's conviction and conversion at a ball.
A gay, dissipated young man, went one day to his pious mother, and said, "Mother, let me have my best clothes, I am going to a ball tonight." She expostulated with him, and urged him not to go, by every argument in her power. He answered, "Mother, let me have my clothes, I will go, and it is useless to say anything about it." She brought his clothes; he put them on, and was going out. She stopped him, and said, "My child, do not go." He said he would; she then said to him, "My son, while you are dancing with your gay companions in the ball-room, I shall be out in that wilderness praying to the Lord to convert your soul." He went; the ball commenced; but instead of the usual gayety, an unaccountable gloom pervaded the whole assembly. One said, "We never had such a dull meeting in our lives;" another, "I wish we had not come, we have no life, we cannot get along;" a third, "I cannot think what is the matter." The young man instantly burst into tears, and said, "I know what is the matter; my poor old mother is now praying in yonder wilderness for her ungodly son." He took his hat, and said, "I will never be found in such a place as this again," and left the company. To be short, the Lord converted his soul. He became a member of the church—was soon after taken ill—and died happy.
A wife's persistent prayer and final surrender led to her husband's repentance and faith.
In a revival that occurred some years ago in New England, several hardened men, past the meridian of life, became as little children, and were admitted to the church. The case of one excited peculiar attention. He had been moral, indeed, but ignorant of religion, while most of his family had become members of the church. He had withstood the gospel so long that Christians seemed to regard his case as hopeless, and forgot him in their efforts and supplications. But his wife had long been faithful in entreating him, and for years had made him the subject of many prayers. And now she felt moved once more to enter her closet in his behalf and submit his case, with an agonizing effort, fully and finally to God's disposal, and there lay down forever the burden of her anxiety on his account. After long wrestling, she came at length from the place of her intercessions, and finding him at the door engaged with his axe, she begged him in a farewell entreaty, for her sake if not for his own, to go immediately and pray for the salvation of his soul. He seemed amazed, like Saul of Tarsus when the voice came from Heaven. He stood a moment trembling—the axe fell from his hand—and he replied, "I will." He went to a retired place, remained till some time in the evening, and when he returned he was under deep convictions. He began from this time to attend all the meetings for prayer and worship. But his feelings were unknown to Christians, and at the close of the solemn meetings, he would linger behind, standing apart, neglected, and gazing at the group of happy converts, a lame old man waiting beside the pool and none to help him into the healing waters. His wife watched his course, and said but little. At length the light broke gradually in upon his soul. His life exhibited a marvelous change. He attended every meeting, old as he was, with the zeal of a young convert; he confessed Christ before men, and resolved to erect a family altar. After knowing such a fact what wife could cease praying for a husband's conversion?
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