Peace of Mind: Part 3 Kathryn Kuhlman Isaiah 26:3

For a few minutes, we're going to discuss something that I feel is mighty important and something that I'm so grateful for and something that I realize is so lacking in the lives of literally thousands and... thousands of people today. And that is peace of mind. Do you realize that there are comparatively few people who have honest to goodness peace of mind? After a day's work, they can go home. Lie down, go to sleep without a sedative, without a sleeping pill, without something to put them to sleep. And then sleep all night without being disturbed by a mental torment of some kind. Peace of mind. I'm telling you, it's the most important possession an individual can have outside of his own salvation. He's like that. Even if one has health, love, beauty, talent, power, fame, money, prestige, steel, If one lacks peace of mind, life is a hideous torment and an intolerable burden. Now, there are several basic reasons why so many people do not have this blessed inner peace. And we're going to be very practical about the whole thing today. Very practical. As Papa used to say, we're not going to spare the horses. First of all, let's talk about something that is very prevalent in most lives. We worry about things we do not have. And then we become dissatisfied with what we have. I believe this is... One of the most dissatisfied generations that ever existed. I mean that. I always remember the old Missourian. One day he was talking to me. He lived in the lake of the Ozarks. Oh, that's beautiful country. That's beautiful country. The scenery is gorgeous. And he was telling me about the days when they had very little. His folks were poor. Their relatives were poor. The neighbors were all poor. Their neighbors had no more than they had. And so, they were just happy poor people, you know. They were all in the same boat. But they never complained. There was no dissatisfaction, not really. They had their cornbread. They had their black -eyed peas. Oh, sure. In the summertime, the kids went barefooted. They didn't worry about shoes until it was time to go to school. Then he said, you know, we were all... all so contented. It seemed we were all so happy and everybody got along so well. There was no complaining and no troubles and nobody had real problems until the day that the mail carrier left a mail order catalog at the neighbor's house. That did it. That did it. He said after that first mail -order catalog arrived, nobody has been happy since. He said that disrupted his family, the neighbor's family, the families of in -laws. Even the outlaws were unhappy. everything was serene until that day the mail carrier left that mail order catalogue at the neighbor's house he said everybody in the neighborhood began looking at it first wonderingly and then longingly and then he said Nobody has ever been satisfied since. Said it wasn't long before the people forgot the beauty of the lakes. They forgot the beauty of the trees that surrounded them. Instead of sitting outdoors at night for two or three hours, marveling at God's wonders in the heavens, he said they all stayed in the house with the kerosene lamps burning. going through the mail -order house catalogs, making themselves miserable at the thoughts of the many things that they did not possess. Oh, he said, my wife began nagging me. She saw something she wanted. He said the kids began begging for things. He said... It was never the same. And he said, I tell you, we never had peace at our house after that. Well, the other day going down the street, I saw a mother pulling her crying youngster out of a five and ten cent store. She had the kid by the hand and he was yelling bloody murder. I stopped. I thought the youngster was suffering. I thought, my goodness, the life. This youngster must be in great pain. You could have heard him two blocks away. I turned around and looked. His face was red. Oh, the look on that youngster's face. One would have thought he had an amputation. In his hand, he was catching a small toy, just a little tiny car, little toy. But do you want to know what was wrong with that youngster? Why he was screaming and yelling and kicking the way he was? He was making himself miserable because he couldn't have all of the other toys in the store that he had seen, and his mother wouldn't let him buy them. And because he couldn't have all of them, he wasn't satisfied with the cute little toy car that she had just purchased for him. Yeah, it's like that. You bring a child a little toy home, he'll be thrilled with it. He'll love it. He'll play with it for hours, days. But let him go into the store and see all the other toys. No matter what you buy, he'll be unhappy because he can't forget about the toys that you didn't buy him. And the toys he couldn't have. It's human nature. A young man thinks he's in love. He's sure. He's in love with two young ladies. Oh, I've seen this over and over again. No matter which one he marries. And more than one young man has come into the office and asked my advice and has said, Now, Miss Kuhlman, would you please help me? I... I need a little advice. Here's Martha. She's lovely, so -and -so. I'm sure I love her. And then there's Anna. She has such sterling qualities. I think I'm in love with both of them. And I don't know which one. I love the better. What do you think I should do? Would you pray with me about it? I'll say, I know I'm terribly practical about some of these things, but they're just some things you use your good common sense about. No matter which one he marries, no matter what advice I give him or anyone else gives him, invariably, he'll go through life making himself miserable and... The wife, the woman that he married, miserable too. Because he'll keep thinking that he should have married the other one. Every time the one that he married does something he doesn't like or crosses him in any way, he'll think about the one that got away. The one that he didn't marry. Oh, you know what I'm talking about. That's human nature. We always want the one that got away. We're always wanting something we don't have. If you are a part of humanity, this includes you too. Someone asked one of our great... the secret of his serene spirit. And he replied, as I grow older, life becomes simpler because I see the essentials more clearly in the evening light of my life. Mm -hmm. All right. Let's go back to Mama. I guess this is one reason why all these things are very real and vivid to me. And why I become so practical about the whole thing. We usually had a crisis at our house when I was a youngster. Well, at least once every two years. And it got so that I usually... Look forward to it because... And I think Papa did too. Papa was expecting it, sure. And the crisis always came every time our furniture company in Concordia got in a new type of china closet. Now, Mama just loved her china. Mama just loved... loved fine china because Aunt Belle would order it from France and Aunt Belle painted china. And she and Mama had about the nicest china collection in the state of Missouri. Mama thought a lot of her china. And that is one reason why she doted so on china closets. I think they called them buffets or whatever they were. Each year, I got a little more ritzy about what they called him. But every time there was a new model, Mama started on Papa. Easy at first, but it wasn't long before she was nagging him. And we'd sit down to the dinner table, and Mama would start on Papa. There was no peace until Mama got the new model at the furniture store. I was thinking, I think, Freaking's Furniture Store. And they always got the biggest and best in because they knew that Joe Kuman would have to buy it for Mrs. Kuman. But do you want to know something? In Mama's later years of life, she never even saw china closets. Buffets didn't mean anything to her. It made no difference whether she had one or not. Even her beautiful china didn't mean too much. Not really. In her later years, it meant more to her to have my brother come home and just sit down by her side on the sofa and talk with her for an hour or so. Mm -hmm. If she could have, she would have still held him on her lap. Sure, that meant more to Mama. than all the China classes in the world. It's like that. That was what the bishop meant when he said, as I grow older, life becomes simpler because I see the essentials more clearly in the evening light. We must learn not to make a crisis out of every unhappy experience, out of everything that we want and cannot have. We make ourselves miserable. You make yourself miserable. And you make everybody around you miserable. These things are not the essential things. It's far more essential that you have peace of soul. And after you have peace of soul, you have peace of mind. If you aren't careful, it won't be long before you develop a crisis psychology. Some crisis is always coming along. We are a part of the human race. There'll be sickness, financial difficulties, more than a thousand things. Taxes going up. Crisis in the family with the children. And when these things happen, be careful. It won't be long until you find out that your outer conflicts will destroy your inner peace. other people that destroy our peace. Our feelings are hurt. We carry a grudge. One woman said recently that when she entered the quiet time of her day to pray, the only thing she could do when she became quiet was to chew on her resentments. The time of prayer simply brought to the surface a nursed grievance. You will never, never in a thousand years have peace of mind as long as there is a grievance, a grudge, an unforgiving spirit in your own heart. The other person may not know one thing about it, but as long as you are carrying it in your own heart, as long as it has become an issue of the mind, you will never have peace. peace of mind. There's a scripture that's marvelous. It's found in 26th chapter of Isaiah, the third verse. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Why? Because he trusteth in thee. Did you know that the mind rules the body? In fact, the world in which a man lives is created out of his own thoughts. That's right. The kind of world that you live in is created out of your own thoughts. God knew well the product of his creation. He knew that if his children will put perfect trust, perfect confidence in him, their mind stayed on him, that perfect peace would be theirs. Knowing that he will take care of every problem, every need, and... every tomorrow. If it's just this moment, somehow the Holy Spirit could get you to commit yourself completely unto Him. Your thoughts, the world in which you have created for yourself, committed all unto Him. Commit this hour unto Him. Commit yourself. Commit all of your problems, everything to him. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Tell me what is the center of your mind. Tell me the center of your thought. Tell me what governs your mind. And I will tell you what governs you. It's like that. Is there greed? Is there jealousy? If you're being mastered by greed, you're the unhappiest person living this very hour. If you are being governed by jealousy, you're the most unhappy person that lives and breathes. If you're jealous of everything your neighbor gets new, if you're jealous of your friends, you're being mastered by jealousy. You're unhappy. If you want real peace, peace of mind, then, beloved, here's the secret. Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, on the Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the one who gives you peace of mind and peace of soul.