Today I’m going to share a prayer by an American preacher called Peter Marshall. I love the language and how it draws me closer to God. I hope that it’s helpful for you. 

O God, my Father in Heaven, make this experience real. May it not be a ritual. Help me to feel that I am in communion with God, and that in this sacred moment, You may commune with me, and enter into my heart, that I may feel the surge and thrill of Your power and know that You are here.  

Help me now to relax before You, to lay my burdens down, to forget all the anxieties of the week, to open my heart to receive your blessings, that the furrows may be smoothed from my brow, the lines from my face, the loads from my heart, the doubts from my mind, and the fears from my soul. Even as the sun did rise to rule the day to banish the darkness of another night, and to wipe out every shadow, so may Your love and mercy dawn upon my heart and give me new life, new light and new hope.’ 

David Lather – Creek Road