The Book's Purpose

• Show biblical examples of God confronting, enlightening, and directing individuals in “nighttime” settings
• Prepare believers to be ready to receive instruction from God during difficult times
• Demonstrate ways God uses life’s painful, dark seasons to mold and shape believers for His purposes
• Encourage followers of Christ to remain faithful and vigilant even when circumstances seem to indicate that He is not hearing or answering prayers
• Challenge believers to “call out in the night” to the Lord Jesus Christ

The Book's Message

God has a way of accomplishing amazing things in our lives and teaching us life-transforming lessons during the most difficult times we face, the “night” of our lives. He often illuminates His truth most clearly in the midst of our darkest times.

Recognizing that we often hear better in the quiet of night and see the light more clearly as it shines through the darkness, we must be poised and ready to surrender to God and take hold of His hand during our traumatic times. As we allow Him to comfort us and plant His truth deeply into us, He will show us ways to apply these nighttime lessons during the day.

Laying the Foundation: Building on the Rock

While leading a tour of the Holy Land, I met Yohanna Katanacho, a professor at a Bible school in Bethlehem. As he gave me a tour of the school, Yohanna explained how he ended up teaching there, a far cry from his university days as an arrogant atheist Palestinian who taunted Christian believers for their faith.

He recounted a frightening incident during those university days, one that changed the course of his life. In the middle of the night, Yohanna woke up and suddenly realized that he could not move. And he wasn’t able to shout. He wondered if he was dead.

After lying there completely still for two hours, Yohanna cried out to God, “If you will restore me from this paralysis, I will make an effort to know you.”

God immediately restored his body, and from that moment, Yohanna understood that God is real. It wasn’t long before God reached out to him, first through a message about salvation, and then through a series of three dreams that taught him about Christ’s grace and mercy.

Yohanna began studying the Bible eagerly and soon began teaching his friends at the university about his Christian faith. After graduation, he moved to the United States to study at Trinity Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois, where he earned a master’s degree. Yohanna returned home to teach at Bethlehem Bible College, and he continued outreach work at his university. After marrying, Yohanna decided he wanted to become even better prepared to serve his Lord, so he returned to Trinity and completed a PhD.

Today Yohanna and his wife enthusiastically teach Palestinian Arabs about the love and truth they have found in Christ.

Yohanna’s middle-of-the-night experience marked the beginning of a chain of events that changed the course of his life. Like many others through the ages, he encountered God in the quietness of night, a time when God is able to seize a person’s attention, a time when men and women are ready to hear and respond.

Like Yohanna, Abraham also had a divine nighttime experience that would chance the course of his life. Abraham’s nighttime encounter with God was one of the earliest ones recorded. After God promised Abraham that He would bless him immea-surably and that He would make Abraham’s nation great (Genesis 12:2-3), Abraham responded to God by asking how He could possibly make the nation great as long as he was childless.

responded by taking Abraham outside to give him a memorable word picture that described how many heirs and off-spring Abraham would have.

This memorable nighttime experience was a turning point for Abram, whose name would be changed to Abraham, meaning “the father of many.” It became the bedrock foundation of what God would do for him and through him. And the way Abram abandoned himself completely to God and His plan became the foundation for all who would follow him in believing that God keeps His promises.

What were the building blocks of Abraham’s faith?

• Abraham was completely persuaded that God can and will do what He has promised, even if it’s humanly impossible.

• Abraham dared to hope.

• Abraham deliberately put aside reliance on human efforts and choose instead to exercise faith and rely on God.

Likewise, when we chose to place our faith in Christ, hope in what He has promised, and receive the gift of salvation by faith we experience a spiritual rebirth.

“The action of faith opens a door for God to do a new thing in your innermost being, a spiritual rebirth in which the Holy Spirit comes to dwell with you.”

Scriptures instruct us clearly to have faith in the person, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Marginalizing or ignoring any one of these “three pillars” of the faith yields something that is simply not Christianity.

Crying Out to God: Do I Have to Go Through This?

What do we do when we’re desperate, when the bottom has fallen out, when we’re up against staggering odds, when our backs are up against a wall?

What do we do when we grieve over a city or a nation that has denied Christ, when we proclaim God’s truth to people who will not follow it, when we watch people deal with the destructive consequences of their sin?

We cry out to God.

Jeremiah

God gave the prophet Jeremiah a dirty job; he had a difficult assignment. No wonder he was called the weeping prophet. Jeremiah’s stern message to his people was that because they would not repent of their sins God’s judgment was just around the corner.

The people chose to ignore Jeremiah’s warnings and, in fact, many ridiculed him, persecuted him, and even imprisoned him.

But it wasn’t long before Jeremiah looked over the ruins of Jerusalem with his heart breaking. What had been a breathtakingly beautiful city on a hill lay wasted and smoldering, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies. As he wept over the city and its people, Jeremiah appealed to God on their behalf:

“Arise, cry out in the night as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street” (Lamentations 2:19).

A remnant of God’s people who were willing to repent cried and poured out their hearts to Him through the night, even as they looked at all the destruction surrounding them. Jeremiah encouraged them with these words: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22).

During times of despair and darkness we need to pour our hearts out to God. We need to persist in believing that God is in control.

Samuel

Samuel was another prophet to whom God entrusted a thorny job~ telling King Saul that God was going to judge him for his disobedience. Saul had not heeded the instructions that God had given him through Samuel about dealing with the Amalekites. Consequently, Samuel was troubled; so he cried out to God about it all night (I Samuel 15:11). Because Samuel had spent this concentrated time in prayer, the next day God em-powered him with the boldness he needed to tell Saul about the impending judgment.

Nehemiah

A third prophet who cried out to God night and day, Nehemiah had a heart that broke for his people as they faced the tragic consequences of their sins. “He cried out to God, asking him to let His ear be attentive and His eyes open to hear the prayer His servant was praying before Him day and night for the people of Israel (Nehemiah 1:3-11).”

Nehemiah not only wept as he witnessed what sin had done to this city; he also cried out for wisdom. He wanted God to show him how to respond. Those who had survived the exile and had returned to Israel were living in disgrace; the walls surrounding Jerusalem were destroyed.

For four long months Nehemiah prayed~and he finally received direction from God when the king agreed to allow him to lead a massive construction project~rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. God’s people under Nehemiah’s leadership completed the job in 52 days!

Scriptures reveal many more examples of people who cried out to God on behalf of others facing serious issues. And many others, like King David, cried out to God to repent and ask God to help them with their own painful situations.

I Don't Understand: Can You Help Me, God?

Several years ago when my wife, Mur, and I traveled to Africa to visit missionaries our church supported, we encountered a number of unexpected frustrations and challenges.

The first one came after we had visited with the first couple in Nigeria, when a dust storm, called a harmattan, threw us off schedule. We were delayed an extra day before the pilot of our small missionary plane was willing to take us to Fort Lamy, Chad. This was to be our stop on the way to land in southern Chad to visit with our other missionary friends.

After we landed in Fort Lamy, where the temperature was an unbearable 110 degrees and virtually no one spoke English, we discovered that our pilot was unwilling to take us south to see our friends~until a thorough checkup of the plane was completed.

We explored other ways to travel south, and we even checked in with the people at the American embassy, but there was nothing we could do except cancel our visit with these missionaries and wait in this undesirable place for the six days until our flight out of Chad.

When we phoned the airline to confirm our tickets for the next flight, we learned that there was a misunderstanding about our reservation for leaving Chad on 2/6. It was interpreted as a reservation to depart on June 2! There was no room on the 2/6 flight.

Next we discovered that our travel agent overlooked the fact that we needed a transit visa to go through Sudan on our way to Egypt. So even if we had gotten on our scheduled flight, we would not have been allowed to fly!

Perplexed, angry, and disappointed by these complications, I remember crying out to God one night under a mosquito net. God, I don’t understand this. Mur and I are here to serve and encourage our friends in this forsaken place. No one cares about our situation. We don’t even know if we can get out of here. And we have spent a lot of money that people have generously given to make all of this possible. We are wasting time and money.”

As I lay there perspiring and listening to mosquitoes buzzing, God reminded me of Paul and his travels~and the many ways he suffered during his travels (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-27). And I felt God asking me if I was on a journey that was more significant than Paul’s.

I pondered Paul’s words about contentment in Philippians 4:11-13 and had a fresh resolve to make the most of our unexpected days in Fort Lamy. At the worship service on Sunday morning, the songs were unfamiliar and we couldn’t understand anything said. But we discovered that the symbolism of communion crosses language barriers~and this was a meaningful time for us.

Following the service, a man who spoke American English greeted us and invited us to his home for Sunday dinner. He was unbelievably caring and helpful, and he helped us solve our transit visa problem the next day at the Sudan embassy. He also helped us switch our airline reservations to 6/2, that is, the sixth day of February.

Waiting for our visas to be processed, we discovered that we had time for a quick trip, by way of a commercial airline, to see our missionary friends. On our way down, we met some Peace Corp workers on the plane. They agreed to take us to the compound where our friends, Bill and Nancy, lived.

We managed to return the money to these dear friends, but we will always cherish this wonderful memory.

The remainder of this trip was not without struggles, missed flights, delays, and other frustrations, but God did give us the peace and contentment Paul talked about. And we enjoyed many opportunities to encourage people and share our faith.

For example, after Mur had headed back to the States, I had a priceless opportunity to answer a Thai teenager’s questions about the Bible. She had spotted me reading it at the airport waiting area. When we compared travel schedules, we discovered that we were on the same flight to Bombay, then on to Sri Lanka. This girl, an exchange student from Bangkok, had spent a year living with a Christian family in America. After learning about Jesus Christ, she prayed to receive Him as her Savior.

We managed to sit together on both flights, so we had all night to share about the Bible and her many concerns about answering questions from her family. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed these hours of sharing “light in the night for living in the day!”

Our Calling: Are You Really Calling Me, God?

Samuel, a boy who was living away from his family who was in the care of Eli, the high priest, had never experienced a personal encounter with God. That is, until one night when a voice awakened him by calling out his name. Samuel woke up and answered, “Here I am.” When he realized there was no one there, he went into Eli’s bedroom and said, “Here I am: You called me.”

Eli assumed Samuel was dreaming, so he sent him back to bed.

It happened a second time, and then a third time.

Realizing that this must be God calling out to the boy, Eli instructed him to go back to bed and if he heard the voice again respond, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

One more time, the Lord called out to Samuel, this time standing there beside him, saying, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Samuel heeded Eli’s instructions and responded, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

God’s message was sobering. It was a message of judgment. God was about to “judge Eli’s family forever because of the sin he knew about: his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them” (I Samuel 3:13).

For the very first time in his life, young Samuel had heard a message from God~one that was difficult to share with Eli the next morning. Summoning all of his courage, Samuel managed to share this tragic news.

I remember visiting with a friend over lunch one day. He had served as a youth pastor for a number of years while launching a successful insurance business. During our lunch, he told me about a chain of events God used to revitalize his faith~and strengthen his ministry.

Since he was financially able to do so, he decided to make plans to retire from the business and go into full-time ministry. His first step was to bring a younger friend into the business so he could mentor him for a year; he wanted to leave the agency in good hands. To spend some concentrated time praying and planning together, my friend and his wife decided to get away for a few days.

On the first night, he had a dream about leading a meeting with his agents. “I noticed there were about three to four times as many people in my dream as we currently had in our agency and all of them seemed young, college age, very enthusiastic … Gradually I realized I was not teaching insurance or sales as usual but rather I was teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Upon waking up, my friend realized that this dream was from God. In time, he felt that God had impressed on his heart that his business was his ministry and that somehow God was going to use him to minister to young people again, this time through his business. In fact, he had a sense that God was going to “bring his youth group back to him.”

So my friend talked it over with his wife and made the decision to stay with the insurance agency to be obedient to what he sensed was God’s direction.

As we continued enjoying lunch together, my friend had joy written all over his face as he told me how things were turning out. Two years after the dream, his agency had now grown to 120 people, most of them college age. He explained how passionate and teachable they were and how he was able to reach them with the gospel and disciple them. When he reflected on the ages of these employees, he realized that they would have been the age of his youth group back in the days he was ministering at church, and he thanked God for “bringing his youth group back to him!”

God has different ways of calling us~and different tasks he wishes for us to accomplish. His call is clear and distinct for some, while he impresses His call on others slowly and incrementally over a period of time. Sometimes His call is for a specific time period and task. “It is important to be open and ready to respond when the call comes.”

Diciplines for the Night: What Do I Do Now?

God often chooses to teach us lessons and to communicate with us during the night. But we need to be ready to hear His voice and respond to what He wishes to say.

How can we be ready? What disciplines do we need to cultivate in order to be ready to receive whatever God wants to teach us~even during the night?

Crave intimacy with Christ.

“Lovers want to know their sweethearts are thinking about them all the time, 24/7. That’s not practically possible, but whenever it is possible, true love craves that.” As we think about Christ and yearn for Him to think about us, we set the stage for receiving His expressions of love to us.

Look to God.

Seek your counsel from God through His Word, not from people who have a worldly perspective on life. Meditate on God’s Word day and night (Psalm 1:1-3).

Know God’s Word.

Be familiar enough with God’s Word that you’re able to reflect on its principles and mull them over whenever and wherever you are.

Pray. Cultivate the discipline of prayer. Pour out your heart to God. And realize that He wants to share His concerns, delights, and designs with you. “The more intimate your relationship with anyone, the more you will want to communicate with each another. You will want to share ideas, questions, joys, sorrows, dreams.”

Give thanks.

Weave thanksgiving into your prayer life and your mind-set. “Thanksgiving ... is an affirmation of your appreciation of what God has done in the past. It also affirms devotion to Him for Who He is.”

Sing songs of praise.

Picture Paul and Silas lifting their voices in robust praise to God at midnight while bleeding and shackled in a rat-infested prison (Acts 16:25). And recall the powerful way God used this to encourage their hearts and to bless others around them.

Confess your sins and forgive.

If you truly wish to experience God’s forgiveness and love in your life, confess your sins to Him (I John 1:9) and forgive those who have wronged you. “If we have an unforgiving heart toward someone else, we will become spiritually blind and insensitive.”

God has designed us and called us to share His light in a world full of spiritual darkness. He will do this if we’re sensitive to the light God gives, if we recognize it and receive it, and then live in the light of it before a watching world.

My heart’s desire is that the words of the popular worship song,“Shine, Jesus, Shine” by Graham Kendrick would be the cry of our hearts!