Water for Your Soul
by Max Lucado
Where do you find water for the soul? Jesus gave an answer one October day in Jerusalem. People had packed the streets for the annual reenactment of the rock-giving-water miracle of Moses. Each morning a priest filled a golden pitcher with water from the Gihon spring and carried it down a people-lined path to the temple. He did this every day, once a day, for seven days. “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ ” (John 7:37–38).
He “stood and shouted” (NLT). The traditional rabbinic teaching posture was sitting and speaking. But Jesus stood up and shouted out. Forget a kind clearing of the throat. God was pounding his gavel on heaven’s bench. Christ demanded attention.
He shouted because his time was short. The sand in the neck of his hourglass was down to measurable grains. In six months he’d be dragging a cross through these streets. And the people? The people thirsted. They needed water, not for their throats, but for their hearts. So Jesus invited: Are your insides starting to shrivel? Drink me.
Internalize him. Ingest him. Welcome him into the inner workings of your life. Let Christ be the water of your soul.
Toward this end, I give you this tool: a prayer for the thirsty heart. Carry it just as a cyclist carries a water bottle. The prayer outlines four essential fluids for soul hydration: God’s work, God’s energy, his lordship, and his love. You’ll find the prayer easy to remember. Just think of the word W-E-L-L.
Lord, I come thirsty. I come to drink, to receive. I receive your work on the cross and in your resurrection. My sins are pardoned, and my death is defeated. I receive your energy. Empowered by your Holy Spirit, I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength. I receive your lordship. I belong to you. Nothing comes to me that hasn’t passed through you. And I receive your love. Nothing can separate me from your love.
Don’t you need regular sips from God’s reservoir? I do. I’ve offered this prayer in countless situations: stressful meetings, dull days, long drives, demanding trips, character-testing decisions. Many times a day I step to the underground spring of God and receive anew his work for my sin and death, the energy of his Spirit, his lordship, and his love.
Drink with me from his bottomless well. You don’t have to live with a dehydrated heart.
Receive Christ’s work on the cross,
the energy of his Spirit,
his lordship over your life,
his unending, unfailing love.
Drink deeply and often. And out of you will flow rivers of living water.
Thank you for this uplifting word and prayer.
I recently loss a friend to a massive heart attack, these words have comforted my soul and I intend to reflect on them during my grieving period. May everyone be blessed.
i thank you for that uplifting words of encouragment.
Water For The Soul.
From the baptismal waters of the Jordan
At the dawn of the new creation
Let my life flow like the river of life
The river bespoken by the Prophet Ezekiel [47:1-12]
Bearing good fruit along its banks
At every stage of its flow
As a perennial orchard and living monument
The regalia and testimony of the internal Jerusalem
to bless and magnify His holy name;
Withal my heart that Psalmody [Ps 113] incarnate
‘Judah became the Lord’s temple, Israel His Kingdom’
Let my life flow like the river of life
Whose waters by degrees to greater purity
To be like the waters bespoken by the Psalmist:
The waters of a river giving joy to God’s city
The holy place where the most High dwells [Ps.46].
I sing a litany in tandem with the Psalmist
‘That for you my Lord my soul is thirsting
And my body pines for you O Lord
Like a dry weary land without water’ [Ps 62].
‘Like a deer that yearns for running streams
So my soul is yearning for you my God’ [Ps.41.2]
Lord, Bequeath me therefore of the living water
The living water you promised to us all
Through the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well
Ev’n when like her, unworthy off-springs of Eve
Ev’n when like her through your eyes Lord
Our past and present lay bare to the bone
‘But believing in thee never again to thirst’ [John 6:35]
Let me in turn be living water to thee O Lord
As you thirst daily for my soul
As on the cross you beckoned: “I thirst”
Deign me Lord to quench that thirst
By a mere yes to thy knock at my door [Apoc3:29]
And through the waters that flowed at Calvary
From the one whose side was pierced
Let the waters flow for me
Let the waters flow through me
Let the waters flow with me
Like the streams of living water
As from within them – according to thy word
Who in thy spirit, by thy spirit
and with thy spirit abide.
And Lord, in whatever way the flow
Be it in stillness or in turbulence of mortification
As earthly streams to bigger streams still
To carry me safely homeward to the deep river
Of the eternal waters of the new Jordan.
The river of life bespoken in Apocalypse
‘A river rising from the sanctuary of God and the Lamb
The river adorned with trees of life on either side
Which bear fruit month by month in bursts of bounty
And whose leaves are the cure for the pagans’ [Rev 22]
For here at last safely in the sanctuary of Heaven
‘With the Lamb on the throne and also as shepherd
Leading the flock to springs of living water [Rev. 7]
So for the living water O Lord I long
Wherewith with the Psalmist I beckon:
‘A thirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?’ ~Ps. 42:2, 3 43: 3, 4
Benjamin Takavarasha
I am constantly searching for devotionals for our Outdoors Ministry to share with the “guests” on our whitewater rafting trips. This one is perfect: it is so relevant to someone after a day on the river surrounded by God’s magnificent creations in nature. Thank you!
Yes we do need water for our soul.