You don’t see what is hidden in plain sight when your beliefs get in the way. “But I have looked a hundred times,” you say. Fully believing your story that it cannot possibly be there, you will not look again. You will send someone else in search somewhere else, and when they tell you, “I’m sorry, but it must be there with you,” then finally you ask for help from above. When shown the answer and you find what you are looking for, there is surprise and delight.
Why did you not ask in the first place? For you want to do it your way, and your beliefs impede you. What if you were to skip the steps in between and simply ask your higher self? Life would be a bit easier, we daresay. We are here, just waiting to be asked.
Yet isn’t it true that “God helps those that help themselves”? If we fail to first give effort, then isn’t that like a student asking his/her parents for help with their homework before actually trying to do the work themself? Self-reliance is a wonderful virtue, but it cannot be developed if we always ask others for help. So we learn to find the balance between doing the required work ourselves and asking for help when we have made the proper effort.