Daily Devotion for 05 March 2025 (Ash Wednesday)

• Psalm 136
• Psalm 90
• Psalm 6
• Genesis 1:1–19
• Mark 1:1–13
• Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration, Introduction

Day of Fasting

Today we observe Ash Wednesday. During the forty days of Lent, the baptized children of God cleanse their hearts through repentance, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and the like. During Lent, we prepare our hearts for the Paschal Feast — Easter. Traditional Christian denominations will hold services that include the imposition of ashes. The ashes remind us of the wages of sin, of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and of our mortality:

“[F]or dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”