September 11, 2025

Today's Reading: Catechism: Daily Prayers: Morning & Evening Prayer

Daily Lectionary: 2 Chronicles 29:1-24; Philippians 3:1-21

“For into Your hands I commend my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.” (Luther’s Morning & Evening Prayers)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

If you are not familiar with Luther’s morning and evening prayers, I recommend you check them out and say them often. They are good prayers, and praying is good. You won’t get extra piety points for praying them, but they offer a simple and clear message about who you are (God’s child through Baptism), where you land in the grand scheme of the cosmos (redeemed sinner, whose sins were paid for by Christ Jesus’ death and resurrection), and give a good opening and closing line to your day (beginning and ending with asking for deliverance from evil and forgiveness of sins). It’s all familiar enough language to us, but it is the endings of these two prayers I want to focus on.

Both prayers end with the same two sentences, and if you can’t learn the whole of the two prayers, I encourage you to memorize this. “For into Your hands I commend my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me that the evil foe may have no power over me.” These two lines hold great weight. We often think of short little prayers like these as simple prayers for little kids, but pay attention to the words. Commending means to entrust someone with something, knowing they will care for it appropriately. We commend ourselves and everything (not just the things that affect us directly, but everything) to God. And then we ask that the evil foe may have no power over us. To tackle this, I have another “little kid prayer” to talk about. “Now I Lay Me Down,” a common kid’s prayer, ends with, “If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” At first, the two lines seem at odds. One prays that the evil foe may have no power over us. The other, apparently admitting defeat, at least asks that God take our souls to heaven when death does catch up to us. Luther’s ending lines are a profession that even in death, the evil foe has no power over you. Because rather than die eternally, you have been given life forever in Christ. Even when the evening of our life comes, we know we will wake on a new and brighter morning. So we pray these prayers (daily), knowing that we belong to God, Who has conquered the evil foe. You are commended to God, go forth in joy, knowing your sins are forgiven and you will not die eternally.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Guard us waking, guard us sleeping, and when we die, may we in Your mighty keeping all peaceful lie. When the last dread call shall wake us, then O Lord, do not forsake us, but to reign in glory take us with You on high. (LSB 877:3)

Deac. Emma Heinz, registrar for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Join author R. Reed Lessing helps with this chapter-by-chapter exploration of the Book of Numbers in Hope in the Wilderness. With helpful maps, diagrams, and connections to the rest of the Bible, you’ll be able to understand the beauty of Numbers.