Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS)

A Guide for Daily Prayer and Meditation

                                                                           March 12-19, 2023

Pray and confess out loud as much as you are able or based on your family size and ages. You may follow the “Morning” or the “Close of the Day” according to time of day. (Alternative orders are in the LSB hymnal pp. 295-298)

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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 March: LSB 425 When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

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

Verse of the Week: John 4:23a

The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Daily Lectionary

The Creed: The Third Article 

      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.

The Apostles’ Creed is confessed

Lord’s Prayer

Prayers for Others and Ourselves

Collect for the Third Sunday in Lent

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; 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 of the Creed

Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, grant us Your Holy Spirit who writes the preached Word into our hearts. May we receive and believe it and be cheered and comforted by it in eternity. Glorify Your Word in our hearts and make it so bright and warm that we may find pleasure in it, through Your holy inspiration think what is right, and by Your power fulfill the Word, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord.. Amen. (Martin Luther, 1483-1546)

Let us bless the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Excerpts from the Large Catechism on the Third Article

• Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe on Him, and have Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. The work of redemption is done and accomplished. Christ has acquired and gained the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, and so on. But if the work remained concealed so that no one knew about it, then it would be useless and lost. So that this treasure might not stay buried, but received and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed. In the Word He has the Holy Spirit bring this treasure home and make it our own. Therefore, sanctifying is just brining us to Christ so we receive this good, which we could not get ourselves. (403:38-39)
• We further believe that in this Christian Church we have forgiveness of sin, which is wrought through the holy Sacraments and Absolution and through all kinds of comforting promises from the entire Gospel. Therefore, whatever ought to be preached about the Sacraments belong here. In short, the whole Gospel and all the offices of Christianity belong here, which also must be preached and taught without ceasing. God’s grace is secured through Christ, and sanctification is wrought by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word in the unity of the Christian Church. Yet because of our flesh, which we bear about with us, we are never without sin. (405:54)
• Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. So even though we have sins, the grace of the Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us. For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but continuous, uninterrupted forgiveness of sin. This is because God forgives us and because we forgive, bear with, and help one another. (405:55)