Morning Watch: Prevailing Prayer

At 5 in the morning of January 2 in this new year, I was helping out at Morning Watch. When
I opened up the Tri-Rivers International House of Prayer (TRIHOP) building at 4:20 I did not
realize what a significant day it was. Exactly five years earlier, at 5 am on January 2, 2007, a
crowd of people from a variety of area churches met at a large local church to seek the Lord
and pray for God's kingdom to come to the people in this area. As many as 88 people showed
up some days during that first month five years ago. It was suppose to last only 30 days, but it
never stopped and has continued for over 1825 days without one day of morning prayer being
missed.

Morning Watch still meets from 5 to 6 every morning, seven days a week. But it was moved
from the church in which it started to the TRIHOP facility. Even though two churches call
TRIHOP home, Christian leaders in the area hope to establish TRIHOP as a place of 24/7
prayer in the near future.  Usually between 3 and 12 people participate in Morning Watch.
People come and people go. Some come just before work and others have the time to devote
to this. People sit in chairs arranged in a semi-circle facing the stage.  On the outside of the
chairs are a number of tables. Some people prefer the chairs and others always sit at tables
where they can spread out their Bibles and journals.

There is often a singer on stage who accompanies him- or herself on guitar or keyboard. A
praise and worship CD is used when a musician is not scheduled. The goal is for  the music
to complement the spontaneous prayers of the people at the mic located in the area in front
of the stage. For over five years, praise, Scripture, and prayer have been woven together at
Morning Watch. A certain routine has been established and it has stood the test of time. But
despite that, it is still very difficult to get up and go that early in the morning. There are some
people who attend for a few days or a few weeks, and then do not attend again. Others ap-
pear occasionally. Only a very few have been there since the very beginning five years ago.
It certainly is not easy to get up for Morning Watch.

I am amazed that there are Christians who even think of getting up that early in the morning
to attend to God in prayer. I have been attending Morning Watch five or six days a week
since late March of last year. There are many mornings, however, that I myself struggle to
get up in time for Morning Watch. But I can't really remember seeing any fewer than two oth-
er people in attendance. Some people are longterm attendees and others are there for a day or
two; but as far as I can tell, every day for the past five years there has always been at least one
person from the local Christian community in attendance at Morning Watch, lifting up people
in prayer to the Lord. That is truly prevailing prayer.

Blessings to you and yours,