It took me 40 years to understand this truth.............

Quote from Brad Jersak's book,'Can You Hear Me'..............
"If you have an idol in your heart and you want it badly enough, when you ask God for it you will hear his answer "through" that idol as "yes." This is not because he is mean. He allows us to hear "yes," because if he says "no," the idol remains in your heart, competing with God for your loyalty and affection. It nurses resentment in you toward God for withholding it. When he allows us to hear"yes", we embrace the idol, stumble over it, and then cry out to God, who, in his grace, restores us. At that point, we will voluntarily reject the idol and reestablish our loyalty to God. This appears capricious at first, but here's the brilliance of it: it honours our free will, leaving it intact while at the same time, walking us towards repentance and relationship with God in a way that is totally our own decision. It redeems every stumble, changing it into something good in the end. It is not about "teaching us a lesson." It is about giving us what is best for us without violating our will. The whole approach is based on his lovingkindness.

So, for many folks, it is just a matter of luck or fluke that I found the entertainment centre which I want. But it sure pay to have faith in God. I have been looking for an entertainment seriously for the last half a year. Scouring all the advertisements and visiting different store. There was one at Canadian Tire which I like, but it was out of stock over the whole Vancouver area. I tried to compromise in my mind many different ones but had no peace. Even if I was willing to spend three times as much money, I still did not like the other models. I was determined to set only a certain price in my mind and pretty well give up what I saw. Then one day, with an undying but expecting nothing heart. I walked into Canadian Tire again. There was nothing in display that caught my eyes. Still I scanted through the bottom selves with packaged ones and I saw this box with a picture close to the kind of entertainment centre I was looking. So I copied down the measurement and gave it to John when I got home. I didn't think much about it anymore because I was a bit worried about its color judging from the photo on the box.

John liked our old bar shelf and had been trying to persuade me nothing could be better than it. A few days later, he told me the measurement of this entertainment centre fits perfectly in our living room. And he took the initiative to go pick it up. Only after he opened it up, I realized it was the same one that I had been after a couple month ago and the color fits our room very well. Yes, I can be old and forgetful, but the Lord is not.