Rise and Shine with a Morning Prayer Devotional to Energize Your Spirit

If you were blessed by this message, type the word "amen" in the comment section below. Devotional: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint." Psalm 22:14 Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our Lord felt himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all his bones. Burdened with his own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to his own consciousness he became nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he thus describes his sensations, "There remained no strength in me, for my vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:" how much more faint must have been our greater Prophet when he saw the dread vision of the wrath of God, and felt it in his own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in his case, he was wounded, and felt the sword; he drained the cup and tasted every drop. "O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet true To thee of all kings only due) O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for thee, Who in all grief preventest me!" As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour's throne, let us remember well the way by which he prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of his cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it may come. In his natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; but as out of all his griefs and woes his body came forth uninjured to glory and power, even so shall his mystical body come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon it. Prayer: O Lord, our Refuge and Strength, in the depths of Your unimaginable suffering, You became the embodiment of boundless love and incomprehensible sacrifice. As I contemplate the agony of Your crucifixion, the vivid image of You being poured out like water, with every bone out of joint, overwhelms my heart with a profound sense of sorrow and gratitude. Your physical torment on the cross, where every ligament was strained, every nerve pained, speaks volumes of the depth of Your anguish for the redemption of humanity. Heavenly Father, in the garden of Gethsemane and upon the hill of Calvary, You bore not only the physical weight of the cross but also the immeasurable burden of our sins. You, the King of Grief, drank fully from the cup of suffering, tasted every bitter drop of the wrath of God, so that we might drink from the cup of salvation. How deep was Your darkness, that through it might come our eternal light! How profound Your weakness, that in it we might find our strength! O Divine Sufferer, who endured the sword and felt every wound, enable us, by Your grace, to bear our own crosses with the courage and hope that You exemplify. May the remembrance of Your sacrifice inspire us to endure our trials with faith, knowing that just as You emerged from Your sufferings glorified and victorious, so too shall we, if we remain faithful, emerge refined and strengthened, with not even the scent of fire upon us. Lord, teach us to unite our sufferings with Yours, to see in our own pains a participation in the redemptive agony You embraced for our sake. Let the knowledge of Your complete surrender on the cross motivate us to live lives that honor Your sacrifice, lives marked by self-giving love, compassion, and service to others. In our moments of weakness, when we feel poured out and broken, remind us that You are close to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit. May Your Spirit comfort us, strengthen us, and empower us to rise above our afflictions, bearing witness to the hope and healing found in You alone. We bow before You, O King of Wounds, in awe of the mystery of Your pain, which brought about our peace and reconciliation. With hearts full of thanksgiving, we offer our lives to You, asking that through our own trials and tribulations, Your love and grace may be manifested to the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who suffered and died that we might live, we pray. Amen.