Here are people who spent all their lives – even the generations before them – waiting for the promised Messiah to come. When He did come they didn’t recognize Him, because their eyes were veiled to the truth. Many of the religious rulers were so consumed in keeping regulations and rules out of habit and duty, that their hearts and minds become insensitive to the One they were serving.
Rules and disciplines are often used as safeguards to protect us from making mistakes or heresy; but unless discipline is birthed out of a love relationship with the Lord, it kills our passion for Him and hardens our minds and hearts to experience Him. We may be expecting so many things to come to pass concerning what the Lord has promised us. But, we’ve got so caught up in prayer formulas and chasing after doing the right things that we’ve neglected to pursue the Presence of the One Who made those promises. Just one word from the heart of God that we receive in the quiet place of His Presence can change everything.
The wisdom He imparts, the peace He instils, and the transformation His power works inside us opens the doors and paves the way for His blessing and promises to flow into our lives. Knowing, through experience, the Person of Jesus Christ is the prize hidden in plain sight for us to find. To place anything else, no matter how noble, above this will result in us missing out on what truly satisfies us.