{"id":15714,"date":"2026-03-10T12:03:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/the-fourth-watch-listening-for-god-at-night\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:00:05","slug":"the-fourth-watch-listening-for-god-at-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/angels-and-miracles\/miracles\/gods-grace\/the-fourth-watch-listening-for-god-at-night\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fourth Watch: Listening for God at Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

My alarm went off at 3 a.m. I sat on the edge of my bed and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark, then crept out of my bedroom. On a mis\u00adsion. To encounter the divine in the deep of the night.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a fan of the dark. As a kid, I rarely slept without a night-light. That\u2019s one reason I love living in New York City\u2014there\u2019s always a light on somewhere. The darkness holds unknown terrors, nightmares, end\u00adless tossing and turning. I never thought of the nighttime as sacred. Until I came across something on\u00adline. All about how some believe God works most actively under the cover of darkness, particularly between the hours of 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.\u2014\u201cthe fourth watch of the night,\u201d so called be\u00adcause the ancient Romans divided the night into four watches of the military guard.<\/p>\n

The term shows up in one Biblical story referenced in both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark: \u201cNow in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea…. Jesus spoke to them, saying, \u2018Be of good cheer! It is I\u2014do not be afraid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

BROWSE OUR SELECTION OF BOOKS ON MIRACLES<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

However, the predawn hours show up just about everywhere else in Scripture. Jacob wrestled with an angel until the breaking of day. Peter was fast asleep, in chains, when he was miraculously freed from prison. Samuel heard his name called not once, but four times, in the middle of the night. Many of the Bible\u2019s heroes seemed to be partial to the dark. Did they know something our modern, light-filled society doesn\u2019t? Could it be that the dead of night is not something to be feared but rather embraced?<\/p>\n

I called Clark Strand, author of Waking Up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age. <\/em>Strand is a former Zen Buddhist monk who frequently writes about the world\u2019s spiritual traditions. The nighttime, he says, is important to just about every major religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great visionary experiences in religion have occurred in the night,\u201d Strand says. \u201cJesus would rise be\u00adfore sunrise. David hung a special harp over his bed to wake him in the middle of the night to write the Psalms. The Buddha saw the morn\u00ading star and became enlightened. The list goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dawn of artificial light changed mankind\u2019s relationship with the night, Strand says. Days got longer. Our sleep patterns changed too. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, it\u2019s thought that humans slept for four hours, woke up for two, and then slept for another four hours.<\/p>\n

This theory is supported by re\u00adsearch conducted by psychiatrist Thomas Wehr. In one sleep study, Wehr exposed volunteers to a world without artificial light, i.e., 14 hours of darkness every day. After a month, study participants began to sleep in about two four-hour stretches with a period of wakefulness in between. What\u2019s more, during that time of wakefulness, participants had higher levels of the hormone prolactin, which is associated with greater tranquility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWehr\u2019s subjects reported feeling more alert, happy, confident and at peace during those two hours in the middle of the night,\u201d Strand says. \u201cHis subjects were neither awake nor asleep. They seemed to occupy a state of mind all its own. A state of mind that experiences ordinary reality in a very different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

That in-between state is what Strand calls the \u201cHour of God,\u201d a time thought to have been one of great creativity and mysticism in the pre-Industrial age. Strand has been willingly waking up in the middle of the night since he was a child and has experienced great moments of sacredness and inspiration in the dark. He\u2019s not alone. Strand points to the nineteenth-century meditative practice of hitbodedut, <\/em>originated by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, who encouraged his followers to talk aloud to God for an hour in the middle of the night in a field or secluded place.<\/p>\n

Then there are the great monastic traditions of keeping vigil and praying through the night. Brother Aidan Owen, a Benedictine monk and vo\u00adcations minister at Holy Cross Mon\u00adastery, in West Park, New York, regularly rises around 4 a.m. to spend time alone with God in the silence. He\u2019s occasionally been awakened from sleep after vivid dreams and has heard God speak in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Celts talk about thin places in the world\u2014physical places where the boundary between heaven and earth is very thin,\u201d Brother Owen says. \u201cI think of the early morning and late night as thin times of day.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is it about the middle of the night that\u2019s \u201cthin\u201d? It could be that we\u2019re simply more receptive at night, Brother Owen says. Less bombarded by the worries and endless to-do lists of the day. More vulnerable and maybe more ourselves in the way God truly sees us. \u201cThe world has quieted down, it\u2019s dark, and there are fewer distractions,\u201d says Brother Owen. \u201cWe are, in a sense, defense\u00adless. We haven\u2019t put on the persona that we are during the day. We\u2019re more likely to hear God call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark Strand notes that our night\u00adtime senses are on high alert too. \u201cBy daylight, everything is clearly defined and the visual part of our brain is acti\u00advated,\u201d he says. \u201cBut in the darkness, a different part of the psyche comes to the floor. Your senses of touch, smell and hearing are much more acute. There\u2019s something very close and intimate about the dark. There\u2019s a relaxing of normal rules that govern our reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baptist pastor David R. Smith, who has led early-morning and 24-hour prayer services at his church in In\u00adverness, Florida, agrees that the odd hours of the day can be a great time to encounter God. \u201cGod hears us perfectly at all hours of the day. But we can\u2019t so easily dismiss him at 3 o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d Smith says. \u201cHe\u2019s okay with calling you out of a comfortable sleep. He doesn\u2019t oper\u00adate on our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say you actually have to be awake for the night to be fruitful. Reverend Masud Ibn Syedullah, an Episcopalian priest in Hyde Park, New York, stresses the necessity of rest in the spiritual life. Dreams can also be God\u2019s way of speaking to us. \u201cWhat am I doing between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.?\u201d Syedullah says. \u201cI\u2019m sleeping. But God is working on me even in my unconscious state.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the darkness is so illuminating, then why do many of us fear it? According to Syedullah, the terrors of the night are closely tied to the fears of the day. \u201cWe often have our masks on during the day,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s at night, when no on else is around and we\u2019re out of the public sphere, that our fears and troubles surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the prospect of getting up close and personal with the divine in the middle of the night can be for\u00adbidding. \u201cWe all have psychological defenses we put in place to maintain our sense of being in charge,\u201d Brother Owen says. \u201cSo it\u2019s frightening to let those defenses down and con\u00adsciously move into a relationship where God is in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s one reason Jesus told his disciples \u201cdo not be afraid\u201d during his visitation in the fourth watch of the night. In fact, a key line in that story may shed light on the significance of the dark, Smith says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Mark\u2019s telling of the story, Je\u00adsus was going to pass them by,<\/em>\u201d says Smith. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean Jesus was going to walk around the boat and avoid them. The best under\u00adstanding of the Greek word means he was going to reveal <\/em>himself. Jesus was revealing himself to them in the middle of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could it be that Jesus was reas\u00adsuring his followers not to fear this time of revelation? After speaking to the experts, I had to find out for myself. I challenged myself to wake up in the middle of the night for a whole week, even if just for a few minutes to pray.<\/p>\n

After the first night, I wasn\u2019t sure who was waking me up\u2014my alarm clock or God. Then I started to crave our time together. On the last night of my experiment, I woke up at 3 a.m. to talk aloud to God and, inspired by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, left the comfort of my bed\u00adroom to sit in my kitchen, staring out the window at the cityscape. Then I spoke into the darkness.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure where the tears came from, but I couldn\u2019t stop them. The words too bubbled up from places unknown. I didn\u2019t see a vision; I didn\u2019t hear a voice. An hour passed in no time. Afterward, I felt strangely serene. There was no doubt in my mind. I\u2019d experienced the Hour of God myself. I tiptoed back to my room and fell fast asleep, one of the deep\u00adest sleeps I\u2019ve ever known.<\/p>\n

5 Tips for Making the Most of the Nighttime<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My alarm went off at 3 a.m. I sat on the edge of my bed and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark, then crept out of my bedroom. On a mis\u00adsion. To encounter the divine in the deep of the night. I\u2019m not a fan of the dark. 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