No Spiritual Roots - Luke 8:13

For a long time, I was like the seed on the rock.
I love Jesus. I feel great joy in talking about him and studying the bible. However, my faith was an emotional response to belonging to Jesus and interacting at church. I wasn't a disciple. I was a church member.

I have always known that I belong to Jesus.
However, somewhere in my bible reading I missed that I am not a belonging, but a new creation whose life is changed by knowing Jesus as lord and savior. My life didn't change. My life didn't change because I wasn't allowing Jesus into all areas of my life. I was only allowing Jesus into one area of my life that was labelled, church.

I am a social person and I enjoy being a member of a church. 
Volunteering regularly, participating in Sunday school, and reading my bible was part of my church life. I wasn't doing any of this because I wanted to serve Jesus. I was doing this because that is what church people do. See what I am getting at? I was receiving the word with joy, but I wasn't growing any spiritual roots.

Here was my temptation, I was a housewife who KNEW she had a problem with alcohol and wanted to quit drinking.

In fact, I was leaving church buoyed up by joyfulness and telling myself I wasn't going to drink anymore alcohol. Happiness filled me from worshipping Jesus from 10:00 to noon. However within a couple of hours after I arrived at home, I found myself reaching for a drink.

I couldn't understand why the feeling I felt at church, Sunday school and bible study wasn't lasting after I reached home. 

I had no idea that the problem was that I didn't have spiritual roots. My faith wasn't rooted in Jesus. My faith was an emotional faith that was rooted in being a church member, rather than a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Today, I no longer have an emotional faith that has no spiritual roots.
During my recovery from alcohol,  I learned how to let go of living my life my way and let God take control of my life. Jesus is with me all day long, everywhere I go. He is driving the car  and I am riding in the backseat.

Church isn't a building and activities.
Church is being a member of the body of Christ. Now joy fills my heart and floods me from the inside out because I am a disciple of Jesus who is willing to share what Jesus has done for me where ever he leads me.