Revival: Born After Midnight

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. -Luke 11:9-10

Among revival-minded Christians I have heard the saying, "Revivals are born after midnight."

This is one of those proverbs which, while not quite literally true, yet points to something very true.

If we understand the saying to mean that God does not hear our prayer for revival made in the daytime, it is of course not true. If we take it to mean that prayer offered when we are tired and worn-out has greater power than prayer made when we are rested and fresh, again it is not true....

Yet there is considerable truth in the idea that revivals are born after midnight, for revivals (or any other spiritual gifts and graces) come only to those who want them badly enough....

No, there is no merit in late hour prayers, but it requires a serious mind and a determined heart to pray past the ordinary into the unusual.

Most Christians never do. And it is more than possible that the rare soul who presses on into the unusual experience reaches there after midnight. Born After Midnight, 7-8,10.

"Lord, give me this kind of longing after revival. Give me 'a serious mind and a determined heart' to pray into the unusual. Help me to give myself this month to this serious prayer for revival. Amen."