Making the Most of the Evening Hours

Through the years I have written a number of things about making the most of the mornings. (You may read several articles about how to begin your mornings here.) In Genesis 1, we repeatedly find the phrase, “the evening and the morning.” Evening hours and morning hours serve as bookends on each day. It is vital that we learn how to both begin and end with God.

Interestingly enough, the Jewish people viewed the beginning of a new day in the evening. The Jewish day began at 6 pm. It was not just the ending of one day, it was the beginning of another.

Evenings should be a time to reflect on God’s faithfulness that day and prepare your heart for the prospect of a new day ahead. I am tempted to give a list of my own ideas on how to make the most of the evening. Instead, I thought it would be much better to allow the One who made the evenings, and made man, to give us His thoughts.

This post is full of Scripture references. I would challenge you to read slowly. Look up each verse and think about the principles found throughout the Word of God on how to make the most of the evenings…

1. Spend time with God. Jesus reserved time in the evenings to fellowship with His Father (Matthew 14:23; Luke 21:37). Gethsemane was Christ’s prayer closet. The disciples, even Judas, knew it well! Jesus went there often (John 18:2). Our prayers and praises are to be given just as the “evening sacrifice” was offered in the Old Testament (Psalm 141:2). Set aside a time and place to just enjoy the Lord. “Evening, morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17). Speak to Him and expect Him to speak to you. In Scripture, it was often in the still hours of the night that God spoke to His servants.
2. Talk about the faithfulness of God with your family. The Psalmist committed “To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night” (Psalm 92:2). Begin your day meditating on God’s love and kindness. End your day reflecting on His faithfulness. Do not allow the conversation in your home to be negative. When I am tired, I can become irritable. Guard your weariness! Concentrate your conversation on the goodness of God. Review answers to prayer and give Him praise
   

   A recent sunset overlooking our home

   (Psalm 42:8; 119:62).

3. Purposefully meditate. Remember that Isaac “went out to meditate in the field at eventide” (Genesis 24:63). Good things came to him in that field! Daytime hours are for work, but that work is to cease in the evening (Psalm 104:23). Too many evening hours are spent exhausting ourselves in yet another project. Limit the intake of media. Restrict your commitments. Refuse to schedule every waking moment. There must be time for quiet! Take a walk. Write a few lines in a journal. Sit on the porch and watch the sunset. Make time to meditate.
4. Guard your heart. Moments that should be high and holy many times are anything but. Everything God ordains, Satan opposes. The Devil loves the dark. He does his best work there. Night hours are often his playground. Perhaps it is our tiredness…or the lie that no one knows what happens in the shadows…the feeling that the dark provides anonymity. Flesh often rears its head at night. Remember that David began his downfall during the idle hours of a nighttime stroll (2 Samuel 11:2). God taught David the secret to keeping the evening hours holy. He wrote in Psalm 63:6, “When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.” Take a Scripture passage each night (Psalm 119:55, 148). Keep your attention on the Lord throughout the evening.

Worldly philosophy says, “The evenings are for me!” Evenings belong to God (Psalm 74:16). They exist for our joy and for His glory. “Thou makest the outgoing of the morning and evening to rejoice” (Psalm 65:8).

Determine today to begin making the most of the evening hours!

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