A little more this morning regarding the ladder in Jacob’s dream!

I never cease to be amazed at how earnest prayer seems to release the mind to enjoy the things of God!  How gracious and merciful He is to simple, needy people like me!

My mind was turned to a passage of Scripture this morning that helps me understand a little more of what is involved in the development of Christian character. It becomes clear to me that our development in “growing up into Christ” is a progressive thing, just like climbing a ladder!  We begin at the bottom rung of the ladder and step by step, as we learn of Jesus, we become more like Him.

The first step on this ladder is when we place our faith in Jesus for salvation. The natural, step by step advancement from that point is found in the first chapter of 2 Peter and it says:

“…add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. ⁸For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (2 Peter 1:5-9)

So there are the progressive steps of becoming like Jesus who is the ladder from earth to heaven!

• Faith
• Virtue
• Knowledge
• Self-control
• Perseverance
• Godliness
• Brotherly kindness
• Love

Peter admonishes us to add one to the other day by day so that we might become like Jesus and develop a character that will fit right into the atmosphere of Heaven.

The Bible tells me that FAITH is a GIFT of God and it is the bottom rung of the ladder; the starting place of godly character development! The good news is that each of the other steps are also gifts. They come to us freely as we are connected with Jesus. Let’s not just stand idly on the bottom rung today but advance toward the top rung which is loving God and others more than ourselves!

Have a great day!