30 But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.
It is possible to reject God’s will for your life! God sent His messenger John to accomplish a particular mission. The religious leaders rejected the message and the messenger. For them the message was unacceptable. They were unwilling to drop their pride and come humbly to God. They valued their position in society, and by extension, their perceived position with God. But by rejecting God’s plan, His simple plan, they ended up with nothing. God’s plan begins with an acknowledgement that we are not in charge, we don’t have things in control, that we are not the one calling the shots. We must place ourselves in the lower position. God is the One who must be in charge in our lives. He already is, but we must submit our will to His. We have to choose to follow His instructions, even when those instructions sometimes go against our preconceived ideas of God. The religious leaders with all their status in society were unwilling to come and repent of their sins and submit to being baptized by this desert dwelling, leather wearing, locust eating prophet. They thought it was undignified to be baptized next to common people, people of inferior status. They worked their whole life to be separate from people like that. There was no way they were going to lower themselves to that level. And yet that is exactly what we must do. We must drop any pretense of self-importance and pride and come humbly to the Lord. Our hands emptied of anything we feel is of worth, and simply come. If we are not willing to come in humility, then we cannot come at all.
The Arnold Journey 