HOW IS YOUR VISION?

Mark 14:1-2

¹ It would be the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread in just two days, and the chief priests and the scribes were trying to find a way to covertly arrest Jesus and kill him. ² Because they said, “Not during the festival, or the people might riot.

religiously blind

The chief priests and scribes stood so close to the truth and yet could not see it. They were preparing for two great feasts—festivals woven through with symbols pointing straight to Jesus—while the very One those feasts anticipated walked among them. But fear hardened them. Hatred blinded them. Their religious activity kept moving, yet their hearts stayed closed. They missed the meaning of their own worship because they could not bear the implications of His presence.

And that warning lands close to home. Deeply religious people are not automatically spiritually perceptive. We can attend services, read Scripture, lead ministries, and still fail to notice what God is doing right in front of us. Instead of listening for His voice in the ordinary moments of our days, we often react out of habit, anxiety, or self‑protection. We interpret circumstances only at the surface level and miss the invitation beneath them. Opportunities to serve, to encourage, to speak life, to show compassion slip past us because we are preoccupied with our own concerns.

Spiritual blindness is not always dramatic. Sometimes it looks like busyness. Sometimes it looks like defensiveness. Sometimes it looks like assuming we already know what God is doing. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day were not ignorant; they were unwilling. And that is the danger for us as well. The God who speaks through Scripture also speaks through people, interruptions, disappointments, and unexpected blessings. He is present in the very places we are tempted to overlook.

So we pray for eyes that stay open—eyes that recognize His nearness, eyes that notice His nudges, eyes that see beyond the surface of our routines. We ask for hearts soft enough to receive what He is showing us, even when it disrupts our expectations.

LORD, open our eyes to the reality You bring into our lives every day. Do not allow us to overlook You.