"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life." (John 4:13-14 NCV) Like the woman at the well, we recognize our need for living water. We need moisture, a swallow of water, a long, quenching drink. But where do we find water for the soul? We find it at the W-E-L-L . Since entering the ministry in 1978, Max Lucado has served churches in Miami, Florida; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and San Antonio, Texas. He currently serves as the teaching minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He is the recipient of the 2021 ECPA Pinnacle Award for his outstanding contribution to the publishing industry and society at large. He is America's bestselling inspirational author with more than 150 million products in print. Visit his website at MaxLucado.com Facebook.com/MaxLucado Instagram.com/MaxLucado X.com/MaxLucado Youtube.com/MaxLucadoOfficial The Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast COME THIRSTY By Max Lucado Thomas Nelson Copyright © 2007 Max Lucado All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4185-0029-0 Contents Foreword..................................................xiiiAcknowledgments...........................................xvMeagan....................................................11. The Dehydrated Heart...................................11Part One Accept His Work2. Sin Vaccination........................................193. When Grace Goes Deep...................................294. When Death Becomes Birth...............................395. With Heart Headed Home.................................47Part Two Rely on His Energy6. Hope for Tuckered Town.................................557. Waiting for Power......................................638. God's Body Glove.......................................719. It's Not Up to You.....................................79Part Three Trust His Lordship10. In God We (Nearly) Trust..............................8911. Worry? You Don't Have To..............................9912. Angels Watching over You..............................10713. With God as Your Guardian.............................115Part Four Receive His Love14. Going Deep............................................12515. Have You Heard the Clanging Door?.....................13316. Fearlessly Facing Eternity............................14317. If God Wrote You a Letter.............................149Reader's Guide............................................157Notes.....................................................213 Chapter One The Dehydrated Heart You're acquainted with physical thirst. Your body, according to some estimates, is 80 percent fluid. That means a man my size lugs around 160 pounds of water. Apart from brains, bones, and a few organs, we're walking water balloons. We need to be. Stop drinking and see what happens. Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs wrinkle. Your eyes need fluid to cry; your mouth needs moisture to swallow; your glands need sweat to keep your body cool; your cells need blood to carry them; your joints need fluid to lubricate them. Your body needs water the same way a tire needs air. In fact, your Maker wired you with thirst-a "low-fluid indicator." Let your fluid level grow low, and watch the signals flare. Dry mouth. Thick tongue. Achy head. Weak knees. Deprive your body of necessary fluid, and your body will tell you. Deprive your soul of spiritual water, and your soul will tell you. Dehydrated hearts send desperate messages. Snarling tempers. Waves of worry. Growling mastodons of guilt and fear. You think God wants you to live with these? Hopelessness. Sleeplessness. Loneliness. Resentment. Irritability. Insecurity. These are warnings. Symptoms of a dryness deep within. Perhaps you've never seen them as such. You've thought they, like speed bumps, are a necessary part of the journey. Anxiety, you assume, runs in your genes like eye color. Some people have bad ankles; others, high cholesterol or receding hairlines. And you? You fret. And moodiness? Everyone has gloomy days, sad Saturdays. Aren't such emotions inevitable? Absolutely. But unquenchable? No way. View the pains of your heart, not as struggles to endure, but as an inner thirst to slake-proof that something within you is starting to shrivel. Treat your soul as you treat your thirst. Take a gulp. Imbibe moisture. Flood your heart with a good swallow of water. 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. In honor of their nomadic ancestors, they slept in tents. In tribute to the desert stream, they poured out water. 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. Announced by t