A Prayer for the Middle of the Night
By: Kelly Balarie
Bible Reading: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” - John 15:5 (NIV)
Read or Listen Below:
On the hour, almost every hour throughout the night, I woke up. A million little pestering thoughts like pinballs were released in my mind, invading my sacred sleep time. They demanded attention, as if the wheels of rumination must keep turning so everything could be handled... as if anything could be fixed at midnight.
Have you ever experienced this?
Have you ever felt the pressing problems of the world hit you at unforeseen hours of the night?
When we wake in the night, I’ve learned, after nearly one-hundred sleepless nights, it is not a call to worry, but a call to prayer. Of course, the last thing we may feel like doing is speaking aloud or interrupting our hazy, incoherent mind with the alertness of spoken words, but if we do, it can be powerful.
Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5 NIV)
Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
I’ve learned that apart from Jesus, I can hardly get back to sleep, no more than I can fix all my problems at midnight. Only He can. Only He will. Only He is able.
On these sorts of nights, I call out to Jesus and say, “Jesus, let me fall asleep again.” Sometimes, I go through what I call the A-B-C’s of God. I recite names of God that correspond with each alphabet letter.
However, I only do this after I have prayed prayers like:
“Father, save me, and I will be saved!”
“Father, heal me, and I will be healed.”
“Father, redeem me, and I will be redeemed.”
“You alone save, so save me.”
If you are restless in the depths of night, let out the cry of your soul! When that cry goes out, I assure you, God hears. When everyone else is sleeping, God is paying attention! When you only have a whisper, God has a listening ear.
Dark nights of the soul can absolutely be illuminated by the Light of the World, as we humbly come, breathing our restless prayers.
Maybe God doesn’t wake us up to put on us the weight of the world but to call us to deep and intimate prayer. Meet Him there. Meet Him with the weight of your world, meet Him with the problems of your day, meet Him with the guilt you feel, meet Him with the dreams of your heart, meet Him with cries for your family. Meet Him, and He will meet you.
Abide with Him, even at midnight.
Let’s Pray:
Father, I want to seek You and find You. Give me strength to pray when I am tired, weary, or worried. Give me greater faith to trust you and to lean on you in all my ways. May I call out to You and know You hear my prayer. May I abide in You. Thank you, Father. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Viacheslav Peretiatko
Listen to the Your Nightly Prayer Podcast
We're proud to announce we've just launched a new nighttime companion to Your Daily Prayer: the Your Nightly Prayer devotional. You can find it on the website at crosswalk.com/devotionals/your-nightly-prayer, where you can sign up to receive it every evening in your inbox. We hope it's a relaxing and soothing way to wind down your day with rich meditations on God. Check out an episode below:
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Originally published Saturday, 15 March 2025.
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