Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS)

A Guide for Daily Prayer and Meditation: Feb 23-March 2, 2025

Pray and confess out loud as much as you are able or based on your family size and ages. (Alternative orders in LSB pp295-8)

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The sign of the cross + may be made by all in remembrance of their baptism.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Hymn of the Month for February LSB 430 My Song Is Love Unknown

Hymn of the Month for March LSB 921 Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

One or more verses from the hymn of the month are sung, or another hymn may be chosen.

Verse of the Week: Luke 6:36

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Daily Lectionary

The Third Article Part 2:  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Amen.

What does this mean?

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.

(Go to bottom of next page for related Bible verses and/or excerpts from Large Catechism.)

The Apostles’ Creed is confessed † Lord’s Prayer † Prayers for Others and Ourselves (see LSB 305-318 for prayers)

In Our Prayers: Those who are suffering:  Shirley Arndt, Anita Dommer, Dan Drinkman, JoAnn Ehlers, Lois Eichinger, Louis and Mary Gettler, Harold Grunwald (Susan’s father), Richard Hanson, Marlys Jones, Pastor Jones, Rick Lahner (Carter’s grandfather), Greg Leland, Missy Lien (Thomas family friend), Lacie Miles (Chrystal’s sister-in-law), Marlene Paulson (Dianne Schroeder’s sister), Kathy Peterson, Doris Post,  Mark Radl, Dianne Schroeder, Kara Simmons (Pastor & Susan Thomas’ goddaughter), Leah Sparks (Marty Swearingen’s sister), Pastor Szedlak, Jeff Thomas, Ethel Vance, Cookie Ziebarth

Collect for the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

O God, the strength of all who put their trust in You, mercifully grant that by Your power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Prayer based on the Third Article Part 2 of the Creed[1]

Holy Father, by Your Spirit You brought me to faith in Your Son and made me a member of His Body, the Church. I thank You that You daily and richly forgive my many sins, giving me comfort and peace in this life and a certain hope for the life to come. Give me joy in the promise You made to me in Baptism and a ready heart to hear and keep Your Word; through my Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Father, forever one God. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Bible Verses for Meditation on the Third Article Part 2 of the Creed

-It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. John 6:63

-“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. John 15:26

-The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to  understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14

- So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17

-Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. 1 Peter 1:22-23

-…no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20b-21

-All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

-So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22

[1] Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation. St. Louis: Concordia, 2017.