>Order The Seventh Step from Amazon.com

Several weeks ago, Sandra Foster sent me a copy of her book, The Seventh Step: Building Blocks for Spiritual and Earthly Success. Foster’s book is a story of her pilgrimage, a story that serves as an inspiration and a motivation to readers to learn how to walk with God.

The blurb of her book explains to aim of The Seventh Step:

The Seventh Step encourages Christians to take the first step in leading a more spiritual life. Based on personal experience and over a decade of teaching bible studies, Sandra Foster explores a new perspective of Old Testament text. Presented in seven easy to read chapters, the author describes what is necessary in order to be successful in this life and the next and tells us how we can overcome obstacles in our personal and financial lives by adhering to a routine prescription of offering sacrifices of praise to God as David did so long ago when he took the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.

The Seventh Step is the story of a woman of faith who learned how to believe in God through the many trials of her life. Foster acknowledges that she grew up with a father who never found his path in life and who also “engrained in his children the disposition for never finding theirs.” So, in her book, Foster relates how she discovered the building blocks that lead to spiritual and earthly success.

It was after Foster left her father’s house that she discovered herself. In order to overcome what she calls “toxic parenting,” and out of love for her daughter, Foster recognized that her life needed a radical change.

That radical change came when she read Scott Peck’s book, The Road Less Traveled. It was after reading that book that she discovered that the road less traveled leads to God. It was after she began to walk with God, when she put her trust in him that she discovered how to find spiritual peace. Foster said: “If you but seek Him, He will heal your life, plug the holes in your heart and make you whole.”

Wholeness is what God offers. God has provided everything we need to overcome our problems (p. 42), but victory comes only when we learn how to walk with God daily. To Foster, walking with God is the key that guarantees spiritual victory. She wrote:

But the great thing about walking with God is that when we become discouraged, we need only to look back and see where God has brought us from and use that encouragement to fuel us toward to even greater heights (p. 106).

Foster’s book expresses a genuine love for the people of the Old Testament, especially Abraham, Moses, and David. She applies Old Testament stories to everyday life in such a way that those stories begin to make sense to people who are going through difficult times.

The Seventh Step was written by a woman who has learned how to trust in God in the most difficult times of her life. For this reason, people of faith who are facing trials and tribulations may find in the life of this pilgrim a companion whose words can inspire and comfort for the duration of the journey.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Christian Life

var addthis_pub = ‘claude mariottini’;