It took me two years to get the screw out.
We purchased two metal music stands for our studio in 2018. Inside one of them, an important but obstinate screw stood stubbornly stuck for months. I had tried a few different times to get it out, but alas, to no avail.
One day, in a fit of determination, I tried WD-40. Hammering. Four different kind of wrenches/pliers. Pressure on the bottom. Nothing worked. The metal on the inside kept stripping and wearing away. Ugh.
Then it hit me.
I had taken 30-45 minutes on that day to take out a screw – with tools that other people had made, in a stand made from materials given by God. The same God who blanketed the plains with mountains and weaved the forests into the fabric of the earth – not to mention the icing of the oceans, all on a tiny planet in the center of a vast, endless, dizzying universe.
I thought to myself, “How often are we obsessed with the little things when God gives us everything we need?”
That’s why the psalmist writes:
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23 (LEB)
David knew that a heart is prone to anxiety and control. We worry about the future, placing so much emphasis on what we think will or will not happen. God does not want us to place our trust in events that are uncertain. He wants us to focus on Him. Jesus came to give us life, meaning we rely on Him, not good circumstances. He says in Matthew 6:25-34:
25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat, and not for your body, what you will wear. Is your life not more than food and your body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky, that they do not sow or reap or gather produce into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they are? 27 And who among you, by* being anxious, is able to add one hour to his life span? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field, how they grow: they do not toil or spin, 29 but I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. 30 But if God dresses the grass of the field in this way, although it* is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not do so much more for you, you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?,’ 32 for the pagans seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, because tomorrow will be anxious for itself. ⌊Each day has enough trouble of its own.⌋
The Lord will provide every thing we need. He is serious about us living a carefree, trusting life. As our good Father, He knows what we need, why we need it, and when we need it – all before we even ask.
So ask in expectancy.