Despite your challenges and doubts, if you trust God and cultivate confidence in Him, you will have the assurance of His love. Reference: E.G. White, "The Upward Look," p. 256.

Full text of the devotional: “Christ the Ladder,” August 30

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the Lord is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. Psalm 94:21, 22.

Planted firmly upon the earth, and reaching heavenward to the throne of God, is a ladder of shining brightness. God is above the ladder, and His light is shining along its whole length. This ladder is Christ. Every round that you climb, you are coming step after step into fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, and are becoming fashioned after His divine similitude. The angels of God are constantly ascending and descending this glorious ladder. They will not let you fall, if you keep your eye fixed upon the glory of God which is at the top of the ladder...

Satan is seeking to cast his hellish shadow across your pathway, that he may hinder your journey heavenward. Act as though you had within you a power from above, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth you may resist that power which is working intensely from beneath. To have in the heart the sweet, mellow Spirit of Jesus Christ is of more consequence than any amount of self-sufficiency and self-exaltation, which separate you from Christ.

Christ teaches humanity never to be self-sufficient. He says, “Learn of me... I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Learn of the One who was meek and lowly in heart—the One who has promised, “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” This glorious experience will come, and you can say, “I know Him! I know Him! I have tested Him; I have proved Him, and He has never failed me.” ...

If you send up your petition to God, He says He hears you. What is your evidence? Do you feel any better than before? Do you think of and examine your feelings to see if some great change has taken place within? You should step out on the Word of God, and go straight forward, knowing that He answers your prayers, because He has promised to give, if you ask. Thus by exercising faith, [you] bring about the answer to your petitions. As you work to answer your own prayers, you will find that God will reveal Himself unto you... Begin now to reach higher and still higher. Prize the things of heaven above earthly attractions and inducements... Learn how to pray; learn how to bear a clear and intelligent testimony, and God will be glorified in you. If you trust God, if you commit the keeping of your souls unto Him as unto a faithful Creator, you will have the sweet assurance of His love.—Manuscript 85, August 30, 1901, “Teachers to Have an Abiding Christ,” talk given at a church school teachers’ institute, Healdsburg, California.