Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS)

A Guide for Daily Prayer and Meditation: December 21-28, 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 December LSB 394 Songs of Thankfulness and Praise

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

Verse of the Week: Psalm 40:17b

You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!

Daily Lectionary

The Lord’s Prayer: The Sixth Petition

And lead us not into temptation.

What does this mean?

God tempts no one.  We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.  Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.

(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: Members: Vicki Bellore, Anita Dommer, Lois Eichinger, Louis Gettler, Chuck Hull, Marlys Jones, Pastor Jones, Greg Leland, Kathy Peterson, Doris Post, Matthew Potts, Mark Radl, Ethel Vance

Family &Friends:  Bob (Linda Hull’s brother), Gabby Arnquist (Lyn Brace’s sister’s granddaughter), Fred Burkart (Tiffany Drinkman’s father), Harold & Joan Grunwald (Susan’s parents), Greg Hamlet (Rosa Blake’s niece’s step-father) Linda Hull, Jahyden Justice (Linda Murillo’s grandson), Rick Lahner (Carter’s grandfather), Lacie Miles (Chrystal’s sister-in-law), Marilyn Norton (Rev Norton’s wife), Marlene Paulson (Dianne Schroeder’s sister), Pastor Szedlak, George Taylor (Rosa Blake’s nephew), Ann Thomas (Carol Gale’s mother), Jeff Thomas (Pastor’s brother)

Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Advent

Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come and help us by Your might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly lifted by Your grace and mercy; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Prayer based on The Lord’s Prayer: The Sixth Petition[1]

Heavenly Father, guard and keep us from the assaults of the devil, the deception of the world, and the desires of our sinful nature. Protect us that we may not be deceived or misled by lies about You, be overcome by despair of Your mercy, or be seduced into a way of life that leads only to death. Shield us by Your grace and strengthen us by Your Word and Spirit that we may withstand every attack and finally win the victory; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Excerpts from the Large Catechism on the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

-Temptation…is of three kinds: of the flesh, of the world, and of the devil. For we dwell in the flesh and carry the Old Adam about our neck. He exerts himself and encourages us daily to unchastity, laziness, gluttony and drunkenness, greed and deception, to defraud our neighbor and to overcharge him. In short, the old Adam encourages us to have all kinds of evil lusts, which cling to us by nature and to which we are moved by the society, the example, and what we hear and see of other people. They often wound and inflame even an innocent heart. (420:101-102)

-Next comes the world, which offends us in word and deed. It drives us to anger and impatience…No one is willing to be the least. Everyone desires to sit at the head of the group and to be seen before all. (420:103)

-Then comes the devil, pushing and provoking in all directions. But he especially agitates matters that concern the conscience and spiritual affairs. He leads us to despise and disregard both God’s Word and works. He tears us away from faith, hope, and love, and he brings us into misbelief, false security, and stubbornness. Or, on the other hand, he leads us to despair, denial of God, blasphemy, and innumerable other shocking things. (420-421:104)

-So every hour that we are in this vile life, we are attacked on all sides, chased and hunted down. We are moved to cry out and to pray that God would not allow us to become weary and faint and to fall again into sin, shame, and unbelief. For otherwise it is impossible to overcome even the least temptation. (421:105)

-This, then, is what “lead us not into temptation” means. It refers to times when God gives us power and strength to resist the temptation. However, the temptation is not taken away or removed. While we live in the flesh and have the devil around us, no one can escape his temptation and lures. It can only mean that we must endure trials—indeed, be engulfed in them. But we pray this prayer so that we may not fall and be drowned in them. (421:106)

Bible verses for meditation on the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

- Mark 4:38; Matthew 24:27, 44; James 1:13-14; 1 Peter 5:8-9; and Galatians 5:17

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