1. Helplessness and Hopelessness

When you feel helpless and hopeless, there is a realization that you do not have the control over your life (and the lives of others) that you thought you had and that there is a force (God) much larger then you that call the shots. You can continue to believe you have control or that you can get control and live a life of hell or you can give up realizing how helpless and hopeless your situation is, that is a life without God. Christ is after you. They do not call him the “hound of heaven” for nothing. Once you realize that you say, OK, God you take over, and then you go to step two.

2. Surrender

At this point, you surrender to God. You say, “I am not sure what is going on here, but I have a general belief that you can get me where I need to go and be better than I can. So I surrender to you. Please forgive me all my sins and take me into your trust” Now the next step.

3. Trust

It is essential to realize that you surrender before you trust. Surrendering without fully trusting or knowing where you are going with Christ is a massive act of faith. You know that all you have done in life has led you to be helpless and hopeless in your being and to surrender it over to God begins the act of trust. But will He come through? Can you trust Him? He will soon show you that you can as he brings goodness and greatness to you. However, this is a process that usually cannot go too far unless you get to the next step which is forgiveness.

4. Forgiveness

With the step of Forgiveness, you must start with you. Forgiveness is a vast step in empowering yourself. If you cannot forgive yourself, you will never begin to forgive others. While dying on the cross, Christ asks God to forgive those who tortured Him and crucified Him. Now if Christ can do that with his dying breath, certainly, you can forgive the infractions of family members, friends, and foe alike. It is not easy but it is an essential step to complete will all the love you can muster. Forgiveness of self and others will set you free. Unforgiveness corrupts the soul and bonds you with the chains of misery. The only way the chains of misery can be broken is by having a forgiving heart. Forgiveness does not come from feeling like forgiving for it is not a feeling but a decision. In this step that decision is made. You must realize the forgiveness is a process and not a one time effort. Forgiveness needs to be given again and again.

5. Christian Study

Begin to read about spirituality and the life of Christ. The Bible is a great help, but it does not have to be just the Bible it can be contemporary books about Christian spirituality in life. It is important for you to see how other people live with Christ in their life and then figure out how you will do it. Christian Study is important because the more you know about Christ the more you love Him. To know Him is to love Him

6. Christian Community & Direction

Get into a Christian Community that will help you and support you. Followers of Christ were not meant to go it alone. Being with others helps you with your Christian Study and will place people in your path sent by the Lord. You also should find in Christian Community spiritual direction either in the form of a group or an individual counselor or spiritual director. These counselors or directors do not have to be professionals. They can be members of the Christian Community with a mature spirituality that they can share with you.

7. Change

Your walk with God is made of Change. Realize these changes happen because of your relationship with God and the unconditional love he gives, For the first time you have received unconditional love that had nothing to do with what you accomplished or what you did for others. When you realize that you have a love that surpasses all explanation, you slowly but surely know you are in the world but not of it.

8. Christian Love

For the first time because you felt helpless and hopeless, because you surrendered to God, because you trusted God, because you forgave yourself and others, because you regularly study Christianity to know God better, because you got involved in a Christian Community where you received spiritual direction and all this caused beautiful eternal changes to the very essence of your being. At this point in the Ten Steps to Full Faith, you are basking in your love for God and His love for you. You now realize life is about love. Love of God and His people. To that end, you are committed.

9. Christian Service

You cannot love God nor be loved by Him without wanting to serve Him. Your desire to serve the Lord does not and should not come out of a sense of duty but rather an irresistible urge to show your love for God by showing His love to others. You cannot do anything about it. You cannot love God and not want to love and serve others.

10. Full Faith

The nine previous steps lead to full faith for the Christian. A belief in which you understand you have received a gift of the “power of the ages.” You realize you have complete trust and confidence in God that He will bring good from all things (Roman 18:28) even though you may be standing in what feels like the fires of hell. And so it is for all Christians in full faith, all good things are coming your way. It may not be what you think is good for you but you will get to a point where you do not care anymore. You will realize that all you have sought and fought for is just “stuff” and it never brought you the happiness which you thought it would. With these Ten Steps of Full Faith, happiness is yours, a pleasure that can never be found anywhere except in an intimate, loving relationship with God.