Midnight Miracle
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.” - Acts 16:25-26 NIV
Have you ever been afraid of the dark? I know it’s something that most children fear, but I’m here to tell you that it’s something some adults fear - and one of those adults would be me.
I’ve always had a terrible fear of nighttime. My favorite time is morning because the sun comes out, and everything has shape, color, and meaning. However, the night is when things get dark, lonely, still, and quiet. My disdain for nighttime comes from the chronic nightmares I had as a child. I was so afraid to sleep in my own room that I slept in a recliner in my parents’ room for a few months. Being married now, I can understand how much they LOVED having a child with them at night… not.
As I grew older, my fear of the dark got better. I noticed a change when we moved from Mississippi to Alabama when I was in high school. I was no longer scared of the dark or having nightmares. There were still some times when I’d have a dream so bad that I’d have to get my mom to hold me to stop the shaking, but all-in-all, the nightmares were few and far between.
Even so, the thought and fear of even having nightmares still followed me. I was afraid to sleep in an empty house because I would have a bad dream, and no one would be there to comfort me. I was afraid to be alone, especially alone in the dark.
I’ve heard it said that the darkness is scary because things get deformed, and shadows make objects appear much bigger than they appear. In the dark, our minds play tricks on us out of a desperate attempt to piece together some version of reality when its ability to see, think, smell, feel, and touch goes out the window. Often in the dark, our minds try to overcompensate for what we cannot know by giving us fantasies, and unfortunately, these fantasies 9/10 times tend to be wrong.
Maybe you don’t struggle with nightmares or bad dreams or a fear of the dark. In Jesus’ Name, I am overcoming it! But I think we’ve all had moments where we’ve felt the midnight hour. Maybe it was in the middle of the day. Perhaps it was early morning. But we’ve all felt the moment where everything seems dark, scary, unknown, and lonely.
Recently, this happened to me. I felt the midnight hour, and it just so happened to be at midnight. Austin was away on a work trip, and it was my first time being in a house alone since we got married. Everything in me so desperately wanted to get someone to come to stay the night with me, but I knew in my spirit that God wanted me to do this on my own. I knew God wanted me to conquer this fear of the dark, and I couldn’t do it unless it was just Him and me. So, reluctantly, I kept to myself and dreaded that Sunday night where Austin would leave and I’d be forced to lock up and spend the night by myself. It just so happened that this was also the first night our temperatures would be down in the thirties, so I wasn’t looking forward to having my built-in-heater of a husband not with me!
I stayed awake for as long as I could. I cooked, cleaned, did work, and did anything to keep myself awake for as long as possible, so I didn’t have to go to bed alone. Finally, around 11:00 PM (yes… that’s late for me…), I got in bed. I had locked every door and checked it twice. I had turned the heat on and prayed that it would work, as we’d been having issues with it the past few days. I talked to Austin on the phone for a bit, and then it was time. It was time to go to sleep.
Immediately as I turned off the light, I began to shake, partially from fear and partially from being so cold. I began to pray, as that’s what I knew I needed to do. After you go through moments like this enough, you develop a game plan for what to do. So, I prayed for my situation, that God would bring me peace and keep me safe and warm. Then, I prayed for others. I prayed for Austin and the trip he was on. I prayed for our family members and friends. Then, I turned on the Bible App and allowed it to read scripture to me for 15 minutes. 15 minutes passed, and I still didn’t feel at peace, so I turned on worship music, and I lay and focused on the words that the artists were singing. In my shuffle, “Jireh” by Maverick City came on. As I listened to the words, “forever enough, always enough, more than enough,” I finally felt faith rise within me. I started praying out loud, “God, you are more than enough! You are more than enough to keep me safe tonight. You are more than enough to keep me company tonight. You are more than enough to keep me warm tonight!”
And there, in my midnight moment, I experienced a midnight miracle.
I remember because something changed. I looked at the clock, and it was 11:57 PM. Just like Paul and Silas, at about midnight, I was praying and worshiping, and God showed up.
I felt heat on my face from the heater that hadn’t worked in two days. I felt peace rush over me, and the shaking stopped. I wasn’t petrified but moved about freely. I turned off the music, turned over, and immediately went to sleep, and I didn’t wake up until the morning, right before my alarm clock went off. Glory to God!
The thing about midnight miracles, or miracles in general, is that everyone wants them. We all want miracles, right? We pray for them and believe for them - but we often forget to realize that to experience a midnight miracle, we have to be in a midnight moment.
So, friends, I don’t know what your “midnight” is, but I do know that we all have one. I know this because Jesus promised us that we would have troubles in this world, but He also said that He had already overcome the trouble (John 16:33). Therefore, when you’re in your midnight moment, find faith in the fact that your midnight miracle has already been won! This doesn’t mean that you’ll experience the miracle immediately every time, but it does mean that, eventually, you will feel the peace of God because Jesus promised you would.
As you find yourself in your midnight moment, praying and waiting for your midnight miracle, be encouraged with these three things:
Have a plan of action.
Then the Lord replied “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.” - Habakkuk 2:2 NIV
The worst time to develop a plan is when you need one. This verse in Habakkuk 2 clarifies that God wants us to write down our revelations, vision, and plans plainly so we can run with them. If we know that we are to expect trouble, we should prepare for it. Here are a few components of a plan of action you can take:
Read or listen to your Bible
Pray
Worship
Call or text a friend to pray with you
Spend time with godly community
As you recall from what I said earlier, I have a plan to take when the midnight moments come. I know ahead of time that my Bible will be with me, worship music will be on, and I’ll be praying. I have a list of people I can call or text with my most personal prayer requests. It may not be the perfect plan for everyone, but it’s the plan that I need to get through those moments, and I believe that there’s a plan of action for you to take as well.
In our theme story for this post, we find Paul and Silas in a situation they most likely had been in before. We know from other writings that Paul was imprisoned and beaten multiple times (2 Corinthians 11:16-33), so he knew what to do when he was imprisoned again; he prayed and worshiped.
When midnight comes, stay the course.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV
When the midnight moments come, stay the course. Put the plan you built into action, and stick with it. Don’t be knocked off course by the “shock” of struggles. Take every attack with the mindset that the enemy is angry that you’re making progress with God. See every attack as a compliment that you’re doing something right. Know that the enemy only has as much authority as you’re willing to give him. Stick the course, and stay to the plan. As Hebrews 12 says, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus!
Let your prayers and worship be heard.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. - Acts 16:25 NIV
Paul and Silas weren’t afraid to let others hear their prayers and worship in their midnight moment. Paul and Silas weren’t scared to make noise, speak, move, or shout in their midnight moment. In our midnight moments, we must let our prayers and worship be heard!
This doesn’t mean that you should immediately go live on Instagram or broadcast your prayers and worship on Facebook Live all the time. It doesn’t mean that you should post every detail about your struggle. It does mean that you let the enemy hear your prayers and worship, and you let others hear the goodness of God. John 1:5 says that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it” (NIV). What good is a light if it’s hidden? In the darkest hours, we must let our light shine the brightest.
Pray out loud. Worship loudly. Shout for joy. Testify the goodness of God. Serve. Share your story with others. Let your prayers and worship be heard - and others’ chains just might fall off as a result of your praise.
I hope these words have encouraged and equipped you today. I pray that whenever you find yourself in a midnight moment, you will experience the most incredible midnight miracle. May we continue to pursue all God has for us today through His goodness and grace!
