Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!
Psalm 3:8, ESV
“Jesus saves!” The downtown homeless mission in my hometown of Grand Forks had this on their sign. This is the calling for the hopeless, and the sign is put out for those with nowhere else to go. In the middle of a cold winter night, these words in neon meant a warm place to rest one’s head and a warm meal, and where I grew up, that could be the difference between life and death. The reality of these words is true even for us when we may not even realize our needs. For all of us, it is a life-and-death reality that these words can bring us out of a cold place and offer us security and hope. There is nothing we can do to deserve the salvation that Jesus offers us. We are all beggars with nothing to offer our Lord but a broken and contrite heart.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.