Middle of the Night Prayers

The boy Samuel heard God calling his name in the night.  Maybe he was awake, but it seems more likely that he was sleeping and found himself brought into consciousness by the sound of a voice in his ear.  Joseph, the husband of Mary, seems to have had a nighttime caller in his bedroom as well.  The Scripture says an angel appeared to him in a dream which strongly suggests he, like Samuel, was sleeping.  Maybe there was something to folks sleeping during my preaching that I never considered!

 

However, as we think about just those two stories of God coming in the night, it makes us take a second look at those moments when we find ourselves being strangely awaken during the night and unable to fall back into sleep.  Could it be that God sometimes wakes us up because it is a moment when praying would be of greater value than sleeping?  A friend who nearly died from a gunshot in the middle of the night writes about his wife being awaken in their home to pray even as he was near death.  Not only was she awaken, but twenty other folks in their church came out of their sleep to pray.  ( "Afterlife: A Personal Journey"  by Dr. Jim Jackson)

 

Those souls who rose to prayer and intercede without even knowing for whom they were praying were not the first to be called to this ministry in the dark hours of the night and they will surely not be the last.  When we find ourselves suddenly awaken from our sleep, perhaps, instead of beating the pillow a time or two, it might be a good thing to ask the Lord if there is a reason why we have been awaken.  I heard someone recently say that being awaken each morning was something God did in his life bringing him out of the darkness of sleep into the light of conscious living.  Like a resurrection each day is the way he put it.  So, maybe this One to whom we entrust ourselves as we go to sleep and the One who wakes us up each morning might decide to disturb that sleep to share with Him in some important business.  It is something to think about when we find ourselves looking at the ceiling in the middle of the night.  It could be God instead of something we ate.