What is a prayer vigil?
A prayer vigil is a time that is set aside for prayer, where the people who are praying stay up all night for a specific cause. The fact that you give up sleep to commit yourself to pray causes the time spent in prayer to be more intense.
What happens to your body, mind, and spirit during a prayer vigil?
Your body begins to feel tired because you are used to sleeping. You have to fight distracting thoughts in your mind to focus yourself on continuous prayer throughout the night. You realize how undisciplined your mind is when you are fighting just to maintain mind alertness. But the spiritual benefits are worth it. Your spirit is more awake and more focused on the Lord.
How are prayer vigils different from fasting, and yet similar?
If you have ever fasted from food, you know that going without food causes you to feel physically weak and empty. That emptiness causes you to cry out to God and pray in a much more intense way. God says that when we seek Him with ALL our hearts, we will find Him. (Jeremiah 29:13) Often while fasting for a family member or friend going through a crisis, my pounding on the doors of heaven through fasting has caused me to find God in a deeper way.
The weakness I feel during a fast from food is physical, and the weakness I feel during a fast of sleep is also physical. The first is a physical weakness caused by hunger radiating out of the stomach and weakening the whole body. The second is a physical weakness caused by exhaustion and the fight against wanting to fall asleep. The mind then starts shutting down during the prayer vigil, making it harder to pray than during fasting. You are fighting against the flesh and the mind, rather than just the flesh.
The body doesn’t hurt physically during the prayer vigil if you are eating, whereas the body does hurt physically during fasting, however.
If you have gained discipline and mastery over your mind in different areas of mental sin, you will probably find the prayer vigil not as hard as fasting. If you have no mental discipline, a prayer vigil is harder than fasting.
Are prayer vigils Scriptural?
Jesus stayed up praying all night before He chose His disciples:
“It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles.” Luke 6:12-13 NASB
In the book of Acts, when the early church was devoted to prayer, they were conducting a prayer vigil for Peter, who was in prison. In the middle of the night, an angel let Peter out of prison, and Peter walked through the dark streets until he came to the house where the believers were praying. When he knocked on the door, Rhoda the servant girl couldn’t believe that Peter was standing there! Because of her joy, she didn’t open the door but ran back into the house, and no one believed her that Peter was at the door. Finally after knocking for a long time, the believers let Peter into the house, and they rejoiced. (Acts 12:5-16)
In the instance with Jesus, there was a specific reason for His prayer vigil: the choosing of the disciples. This was a crucial decision, and He wanted to make sure that He was fully submitted to the will of the Father in making this decision.
In the same way, when the early church was going though a crisis with Christians being killed and imprisoned, the church conducted a prayer vigil to pray for Peter to be saved from being put to death. Herod had already put James the brother of John to death with a sword a couple of verses before, and now he intended to deliver Peter to the angry mob. The early church was highly concerned about this situation, deciding to pray all night together, that God would somehow deliver Peter.
Stay tuned for part 2: My First Prayer Vigil
Tags: Christian Living, prayer
There are also 24 hour vigils where people sign up for a specific block of time. To keep a situation bathed in prayer, without keeping the same people up the whole time.
Yes, what you’re describing is exactly what my church did. I will be talking about that in my next blog post. It has several drawbacks, but it was still effective.
Thanks for sharing about these, Susan. I’ve heard of prayer vigils, but I have never had the opportunity to be part of one. The women’s ministry at my church hosts a prayer night once a year, but that’s about it.
Very few churches do prayer vigils nowadays.
This is soo good and very informational. As someone who is a firm believer in prayer, I am going to bring this wonderful idea to our intercessory class.
You have an intercessory class? Cool! Prayer is the most vital component to our walk with God.
I love this Susan! I’ve been working through fasting – for our church and for our personal life. Praying is so powerful. Giving up sleep is also such a powerful sacrifice as we draw near to God!
It’s a unique way to gather with other believers to intercede for breakthrough in a certain area.
Thank you for walking us through all of the details of a prayer vigil. You’re right, not many churches do these and it’s an area unfamiliar for most.
One of my favorite stories from the book of Acts was when Peter knocked on the door of a prayer vigil house in the middle of the night, and at first nobody believed the girl at the door, that Peter had gotten out of prison miraculously. God heard the cries of His people in the middle of the night.
I’ve never done a prayer vigil! How often do you do these, Susan? Thanks for sharing!
Not very often. It would be nice if people would host them in their homes, since the church has to have security if it’s open all night.
I set up my first prayer vigil in high school with my youth group. It was a very good experience in being faithful.
A youth group is perfect for this because many of them already like to stay up all night. 🙂
I love prayer vigils! There is nothing like gathering with like minded believers to pray. I’m excited to see your experience at your first prayer vigil!
Glad to find someone familiar with prayer vigils!
I have been a part of night vigil almost eight years now and I have seen how blessed my soul has been through it.
Wow, that’s wonderful!