This passage in Acts is about preparing to go. Prayers of preparation are not simply solicitations of God to bless our upcoming activities, they are moments to form our own souls into the likeness of Jesus – the One sent from God. In this sense, one of the most helpful prayers of preparation (for me) is a familiar prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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About the Author
Isaac Gaff is the Managing Director of Worship and Creative Arts at Calvary UMC