I just wanted to say that I appreciate the speakers so far and got a lot of help. Like I said yesterday, just try to get one thing that you can take home and make a difference. Ms. Sheila helped me last night to learn how to spell my name. I did spell it G-O-D. I didn't know that. I'm going to work on that. I guess I'm a control freak. You don't think about it, but I do like to be in charge. I do like to see things done and see them done right and all that. And so that puts me in a place where I can, you know, really get ahead of the Lord and all that. So I enjoyed that. I didn't enjoy it, but anyway, it helped. And then Miss Lisa, I believe missions is God's heartbeat. Really, everybody's a missionary, and if it weren't for missions, none of us would be saved. All it's simply spreading the gospel. And I appreciate people like Her and Brother Linton. They'll go to a foreign country and, you know, just change their whole life. And I told the girls this morning, I love Chinese, and I said, man, when I go to a Chinese place this week, I'm going to hug them and thank them for not putting grub worms or whale worms on the bar. My husband was excited in Alabama when they had fried okra on the bar. So I'll sing the Lord for the, what do you call it, the food control health department or whatever. And then Ms. Sherless, she's just an example of peace and trusting God. And I've talked to her some and her life hasn't been easy to get where she's at. These older ladies, you have to go through some things. You don't just get that. That's something that is a choice that you have to make early in life. for the Lord to be able to be like that when you get older. I appreciate all their testimonies and devotions. If you will, turn to the text, read it one more time. I know a lot of this, I was reading this last night, I thought, wow, I said a lot of this today, got ahead of myself. Then the Lord reminded me, He speaketh once, yea, twice, yet may I perceive it not. So you might hear some things again. I was telling somebody online yesterday that Ms. Meyer ought to do the same theme next year and see if anybody remembers. I do that with my ladies. We have devotions every Wednesday night. We have devotions and then I'll have somebody come in and speak and I'll think, wow, I've said that, you know, and then they'll come up and they're all excited, wow, that's very neat. OK. OK. You've heard it before, but OK. Anyway, Isaiah 26, 3 and 4, Thou wilt keep him a perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. And I mentioned yesterday that we had all the pieces that we've tried to put together, and I wanted to zero in on the piece that was mentioned in this verse, perfect peace. Of course, you know, perfect is, you know, you can't add to it. I mean, it's there, it's what it is, and that's the kind of peace that we would like to get to. I was talking to my husband about this chapter. Like I said, he kind of helped me a little bit. And this is a millennial passage that praises God for the great day when Jerusalem will be at peace and the redeemed sons and daughters of Israel will walk in through the gates singing songs of victory. If you read the chapter, that's what it's looking forward to. Miss Wendy, is it possible to cut this down just a little bit? I feel like it's ringing in my head. Alright, because there's nothing there. Something hasn't said. All in the hair there. Anyway, it's looking forward to the day when Israel will have peace. And that's one thing we can be doing to help ourselves is pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The Lord will notice that. We thought of as a church sending packets over to Israel so the Lord would see that we were on your side. But Israel is looking for peace too and that's what this chapter is talking about exactly. The text offers a word of hope and help to our hearts as well. You can take anything from the Bible and apply it to yourself. It's talking about peace. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom and it means completeness, soundness, wellness, which kind of jumped off the page to me. You have peace that helps us physically, spiritually, mentally, all those different ways of overall wellness. Prosperity, again, not worldly prosperity, prosperity in what the Lord wants us to prosper in. Tranquility and quiet. 1 Thessalonians 4 says that we have to study to be quiet. We don't know how to be quiet. We are always running to and fro, but that's what that piece speaks of is just a quietness. A lot of y'all might have got up this morning. It was very quiet in our room. I brought a good crew this year. Very quiet in our room, and I just noticed the peace in the room. It was just quiet. And that's what you want to, you know, attain in your heart amidst all this going on. I've been struggling with, I told you I've been struggling with peace. That's why I really appreciate this theme. It's really made me have to think about, you know, what I was going to say, which makes me have to get something out of it first. And I tend to worry. I'm one of those people, if I don't have something to worry about, I worry about that. You know, things are going too good, something's wrong. My husband says I'm an absolute pessimist, but I told him he looks at the world through rose-colored glasses. I'm a realist, is what I call myself. But you can be too real to where you put yourself in an early grave. So we want to have peace and quiet. We need peace today. We're living in an hour that desperately needs peace. That's what everybody's looking for. Of course, we know there won't be until the Lord comes back, but he's kind enough to give it a little bit at a time here. Just some facets that need peace. The world needs peace. There's some statistics. Between 1496 BC and 1861 AD, which is a period of about 3,300 years, there were 227 years of peace and 3,100 years of war. So there were 13 years of war to every year of peace. But in the last three centuries, there have been over 286 wars in Europe alone. So this tells us that the world's getting worse. There's no peace. All these peace talks and all this, you know, trying to make friends with everybody, it's not paying off. 1 Thessalonians 5.3 says there's the cry for peace, but there's going to be destruction. So the world needs peace. Sinners need peace. They seek for peace in their souls in every vice and device that humanity can imagine. Galatians 5 illustrates the works of the flesh, and that's why they are so prevalent nowadays, because people are looking for peace. They're looking for something to lose themselves in, or build themselves up, or whatever, make themselves feel good, and all that kind of stuff. But there's no peace. That's why, you know, tomorrow churches will be full of people, but then tomorrow afternoon, or tonight even, You know, the bars will be full. The world will be full. The church will be full tomorrow. It's like we're all missing it all together. And that's why there's no peace. There's no peace outside the Lord. And then probably the biggest thing to us is that our homes need peace. The home ought to be a place of tranquility and quiet, wholeness, soundness. It should be a bastion of peace. That should be somewhere that we can come, or as mothers, we stay there all the time. And it shouldn't be a war zone. A lot of homes are a war zone. Some of them war zone all the time, some of them just different times, you know, you have problems going on. I heard a story about a little girl, her mom was reading her Snow White, and she got to the end of the story and she said, they lived happily ever after, and she closed the book. And the little girl said, Mama, that's not right. She said, why? She said, they didn't live happily ever after, they got married. Marriage kills a good friendship. So just like the question, are you married or happy? But we can be both. We should be both. The only people that have a right to enjoy life are Christians. That's it. Everybody else, they're here to get saved. That's why we're here and honor the Lord. So we're the only ones that have a right to enjoy life, but a lot of times we're the ones that don't. And I put a little note here to the young girls, you need to wait on the Lord, or you will just be married. You won't be happy. You need to wait on the Lord, don't get ahead of Him. You'd rather be, I mean, there's worse things than being alone. Or even, and you can be married and be lonely. So all these arguments, you know, you need to wait on God for whatever His choice is, because you don't want to get ahead of Him. You will regret every minute of it. And then another thing I thought of in the home, You know, we as wives, we want to take control and lead. And my mom told me one day, she said, has it ever occurred to you that sometimes husbands don't want to lead? No, they don't want to be in charge, you know. And I thought of that a lot. You know, you think you want to be in charge, but the flesh don't go against whatever, you know. If the Lord says you're in charge and you follow, then you want to be in charge and you want to follow. That's just the way we are. And I've learned that as a pastor's wife. Some days I'm glad to be there and take charge, and another day, I don't want to be in charge. Somebody else tell me what to do. So we need to pray for our husbands, that they will lead us right. And the young people need to pray for parents. We've never done this before. And you only get one chance. I have eight children, but I'm still only getting one chance to raise each one, and they're all different. We need, you know, the young people need to pray for parents for wisdom, and we need to pray for our husbands and do whatever we can to make our homes full of peace. And then our churches need peace. Psalm 133 one says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brother Joel together in unity. So that is the Lord giving us a little hint how good this would be, you know, if y'all would do this. But a lot of our churches, maybe not our particular church here, but a lot of churches are torn by sin and bitterness, jealousy, and, you know, egos and And, you know, I didn't get recognized, or, you know, Sister So-and-so's not talking to me, and, you know, well, did you talk to her? I mean, you know, it's the same thing. And I know how women are. I mean, I am one. I know how women can be very, very vindictive, very cruel, very destructive. So we need, like, Miss Sheila was talking about last night. We need to find our place, and we need to get at it. Again, pray for your pastor, you know? I mean, he's never been this strong. This right here, you've never been there before, so whatever's going on in your church, pray for your pastor. And then remember the little poem, what kind of church would this church be if every lady was just like me? What kind of church would we have? Would we have faithfulness? Would we have harmony? What would we have? And then our hearts need peace. Many are troubled by life and as far as Luke 21, 26, in the last days, men's hearts will sell them for fear. People are afraid, need peace, and blessed is the heart that has that peace. Okay, this passage in Isaiah talks about peace, but it's not just any peace, it's the perfect peace. The one right in the middle of all the others, and it's perfection. So, just a couple things to talk about perfect peace. Let's talk about the source of this perfect peace, where it comes from. And number one of that, it's found in a relationship. You'll never know peace of soul until you know Jesus. We talked about that a little bit yesterday. Romans 5.1, we're justified by faith. Romans 8, 7. I wrote some of these down, but I didn't get to write them all out. Romans 8, 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can be. So again, we can't emphasize enough at this retreat that if you're not saved, if this is not making sense to you, then you need to pull somebody aside. and get that settled before you go home. We talk about laying our head on our pillow at night and not being saved, but the Lord could come back any minute. Something could happen on the way home, you just never know, so do not play around with that. 2 Corinthians 5.18, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. So the Lord reconciles you to himself through his Son. And so this peace is found in that relationship. You have to have that first. And then number two, it's found in resting. The verse says his mind is stayed on thee. And that word stayed means to lean upon for rest or support if you're stayed on something. So the Lord gives peace to those who lean on him. We have to lean on him. And you know, I know a lot of it, we don't see him, so it's easy to, you know, go through your day and sometimes not pay attention or whatever. So you need to, like I said, you need to choose. You need to get up in the morning and, not physically, but in your mind, put that armor on. Envision that armor. Throughout the day, check the armor. I mean, whatever you've got to do. Like I said, when we were little, we had little imaginary friends, you know. We didn't let mom slam the door on the friend, and if we got a snack, the friend got a snack. And, you know, if we got in trouble, the friend got in trouble and all that. That's the way the Lord is. He's right there the whole time. And we need to think that way. Does that make us peculiar? Yes, it does. That's what the Bible says we're supposed to be. We're supposed to be peculiar. I wouldn't have a full-blown conversation at Walmart or anything like that. But we need to consider Him. And know that He's with us, not pretend to know He's with us everywhere we're at. Philippians 4, 6, and 7 is again talking about being careful for nothing. And we talked about it yesterday, not being You know, carefree, just not being careful. Full of care. Don't worry about things so much. And then I had a little note. I've learned over the years that the physical and spiritual kind of work together. If your spiritual side is out of control, then the physical is going to be. And if your physical side is out of control, the spiritual is going to be. Because it's two different factions working together. So we as ladies need to stand on top of that and take care of ourselves. Take care of that physical side and then be sure we're taking care of the spiritual side and leaning on the Lord and all that kind of stuff. Just don't worry so much. So we've got a relationship and resting and then number three is found in relying. The word trust has the idea of confidence. When you trust, you've got two kinds of people. You've got people over here that worry about everything. I mean, we have them in our church. We've got people that worry about everything, and of course, talking about the ladies. And then we've got ladies that are just flipping. You know, whatever happens, it's God's fault, and I don't know why this is happening, and you know, whatever. I'm going to do, you know, kind of the attitude. I'm going to do what I want to do, and whatever happens, case or else, we're off. And that's two extremes. The Lord wants to be in the middle. We don't be full of care, but we don't be careless either. So relying just means that we have confidence, we feel safe, we feel careless. When y'all came in this morning, you sat down in that chair, you didn't check the chair out, you didn't turn it upside down, you didn't call the manufacturer or whatever. But at the same time, you didn't just flop down in the chair. You look at the chair, it looks sturdy, so I'm going to sit down. You know, you have faith in the chair. And that's the way we are with the Lord. He's made all these promises, so we feel safe with Him so we can be careless and not worry about things. It's not the idea of being foolish. It communicates the idea of absolute confidence in the power and promises of God. True peace is simply knowing that God has it covered. He has it covered. You don't understand what He's doing at the moment, but you know He's there and He will take care of it. If you will, turn to Psalm 121. This is one of my favorite psalms that describes the Lord. Of course, you know the psalms were really the hymn book for Israel. This is a song they sang, so when you read the songs, try to envision what they were going through or what they were trying to say in them. Psalm 121, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. My mom used to tell me when I was little, I don't know, I was always scared at night. you know, insomnia and all that, and she'd tell me, you know, why are you going to stay up? The Lord's up. There's no sense in everybody being up, you know? And that's true. He's up. Verse 4, Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall not slumber nor sleep. He doesn't get tired, he doesn't get bored, he doesn't get wore out. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. Who's on his right hand? His son's on his right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. And we trust Him to take us to heaven. We trust Him to pull us out of a burning hell, but then He can't handle our finances. He can't handle our marriage problems. He can't handle our children. You know? I mean, when you think about it in contrast, it really doesn't even make sense. We should be able to trust Him every minute of every day. Matthew 6, 25-34, y'all are familiar with those verses where he says, talking about the lilies being clothed and taking care of the sparrows and all that kind of stuff. He takes time to take care of all that stuff. Every now and then you'll see a little bird fall out of his nest. You'll see a little squirrel getting his breakfast in the morning. That's Laura Tinkerman. I thought of it yesterday. Driving, I almost hit a buzzard or whatever they are, and I was watching the River of Mirror, and he'd run out there in the car, come and run back. You know, he's trying to eat what's on the road, and I thought, goodnight, Lord. Stress him out eating, but I thought of that. I thought the Lord even takes care of those kind of birds. They really have to work for their supper, but anyway. But if he takes care of that stuff, then how much more will he take care of? He died for us, you know, so how much more is he going to take care of us? And then Philippians 4, 19. My God shall supply all your needs. And I don't know if y'all know, but that chapter has to do with missions. That's the direct thing of the church is taking care of Paul. So missionaries are very important. You know, I mean, I know we're ladies under our husbands or whatever, but your husband wants to support a missionary. Don't get in the way of that. That's what the Lord intended. That's his heartbeat. And he will bless you for taking on missions. Or, you know, Ms. Shirley was talking about tithes, offerings, things like that. The Lord will bless us. And then Psalm 139, 1 and 2. Let's read that one. Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Okay, so even when our thoughts are afar off, we don't even know what they are. He knows what they are. We were talking in our room last night about Sometimes you get so down. I mean, I've done it. You get, you get, maybe you've got trial going on, something going on. And, you know, the preaching, you go to the altar. I mean, I've done that. You go to the altar and you think, okay, Lord, pick my heart, I'm going to the altar. And then you get up there, you don't know why you're there. You don't know what you're supposed to pray about. I've done that. So you just sit there and cry. I don't know if y'all have done that. And then all of a sudden you just feel better. And you go back to your seat. Well, that's the, that's the Holy Spirit praying for us. And just like I think it was Ms. Shirley was talking about, you know, you're tired, you don't want to go to church, and then you go to church and you feel better. That's the blood running through that body and cleansing that. So, the Lord knows what we're doing even when we don't. He knows our thoughts are far off. He's searched us. He's known us. He's paid attention. And then Hebrews 13, 5, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Same promise in Matthew 28, 20, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. When he gave them, that was with him telling him to go out and witness, I'm with you. And it doesn't say always, it says always, which that word has more to do with time. He's with us always, through all time, he'll be there. Like I said, he was here before we got here, and he'll be here forever, just like we will. So that's the source of the peace, relationship, resting, and relying. And then the scope of the peace, the magnitude or the range or whatever. Number one, it's absolute. This piece is called Perfect Peace. It cannot be improved. It's absolute. There's no other thing that you can add to it. There's nothing lacking. It's complete and absolute. It's abundant and abiding. It is peace that passes all understanding. Philippians 4, 7. I like to look up old hymns and find out exactly where they came from, especially all the great hymns that we love and touch our hearts. They had to have come out of some kind of tragedy or something. I don't know if y'all know the story on It Is Well With My Soul, but I think that's everybody's favorite. I knew the part where he actually wrote the song, but I got kind of the whole story I thought was interesting. But it says this hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford's life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871 at age four, shortly followed by the great Chicago fire that ruined him. He was a lawyer. Then in 1873, he planned a trip to Europe with his family on the SS Villers du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning the Chicago fire, trying to get his business going. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship, the Loch Urn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died. His wife, Anna, survived and sent him the now famous telegram, Saved Alone. Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died. And he named that, as well as My Soul, his title for it was the name of that ship, Fille du Havre or whatever, that's what he called it. It said the staffers later had three more children, one of whom died in infancy. So they had eight children and they ended up with two daughters. And of course, that hit home with me. What would I feel like if I lost all my kids but two? So that hymn was born out of a lot of trauma, a lot of problems. And a lot of times, we were talking in our room last night, I wouldn't want it to happen, but if I went home today and my house was burned down, I could probably handle that because I can't do anything about it. Lord, you're going to have to fix this. I don't even know where to start. But it's the little problems. You know, Song of Solomon, the little foxes, you know, it's the little things, day to day to day, that it's, you know, you turn them on the Lord and you keep pulling them back, you turn them, I can handle this, you know. Like the guy sliding off of his barn and he's like, Lord, help! And by the time his belt got caught in the nail, he said, never mind, this nail caught me. And that's the way we do. We beg for the Lord's help and then something, he sends help, you know, or the town that flooded and the man was on his roof. asked the Lord for help, or I can't remember the story, or he was in his house and somebody came by in a car, come on, come on, he's like, no, I'm waiting for the Lord's help, and his house filled up with water and somebody came by in a little boat, come on, no, no, the Lord's going to help me, you know, and he gets up on the roof and a helicopter comes, come on, no, I'm waiting on the Lord to help me, so he drowns, so he gets to heaven and says, Lord, why didn't you help me? He said, I sent you a boat and a car and a helicopter, what else was I going to do? So a lot of times we just miss God. But anyway, that hymn reminded me because it was just thing after thing after thing, and then he wrote the hymn. It wasn't just one thing, and then he writes the hymn. So that's the way our lives go. It's just going to be one thing after another, and we need to have that peace. But apparently he had that peace all along. So when he lost those four daughters, then the Lord said, I want you to write this hymn. And everybody loves that hymn. So, Philippians 4-7, a path of all understanding, when you experience His peace, you will not be able to describe it. You can pass on the formula to somebody, but you can't begin to describe the peace that it brings. You can just give them, you know, go home and do this, this, and this. But when you have that peace, there's no way to give it to them. We all have to, you know, on our own, there's no way to describe it. It's just like my husband said the other day when he was preaching. He said, before you get saved, you don't understand why everybody wants to get saved. We've done under all those rules. Then after you get saved, you don't understand why everybody won't get saved. So that's the way that piece is. It will be beyond human words. There will be a tranquility and a quietness of soul that nothing can disturb or destroy. I thought about the book I like to read. I don't know how many of y'all read The Hiding Place, but there's just a piece to that whole book that the Lord is still using that book. I heard a story about a Christian man where he had tongue cancer, and he was told that he would never sing again. And his answer to the doctor was, I've had many good times singing the praises of God, and now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last, and it will be gratitude and praise to the Lord. So in the doctor's office, he used to sing an old hymn to the doctor, and that was his last words was praise to his Lord. So that shows peace in your life. So peace is absolute, and then number two, it is always. We're told that God will keep in this perfect peace. He will keep us. He said that. We need to remember the Lord doesn't withdraw first. He's not playing a game. He will keep us in this perfect peace. A lot of times you might feel like Where's God? Is He done with me? I don't know. The devil just, maybe it's just me, but he just chomps my hair off all the time, you know. But we've got to remember God will not turn His back first. If He says He'll keep us in this perfect peace, then He will. So if for some reason we don't feel the peace, or we're getting off course, it is us that has moved. We're not keeping our minds stayed on Him, and we have to get back there. It is always, it's there. It's always there. When He is the center of our world and the love of our hearts, when He is the focus of the mind and the object of our trust, He will act as a watchman, keeping guard over our soul. He will drive away doubts, fears, devils, and anything else that would seek to take away our peace. He will give us deep, settled, abiding peace. So we are the sheep inside the pole. Is that what they would put sheep in? I was about to say coop. I got chickens in it. We're the sheep inside the foal, and he's outside. And if we're getting in trouble, then somewhere we've wandered outside. And what's weird is we had to go past him to get there. So I sing a song, you don't just end up in hell, you don't just end up out of the Lord's will, you have to go over a lot of things. And a lot of times our wills are headed that direction. And we really have to fight to go against the Lord, but we're often willing to do that. So our peace is absolute, and it is always. And then the last thing, the supply of peace. Number one, it's promised by one who is abiding. The giver of this peace is none other than Jehovah. And if you study the Old Testament, you'll notice that sometimes Lord is written in Capital L, small letters, sometimes it's capital letters. All those are different names of the Lord and how they're used. And that'd be an interesting study to do. And here it says, trust ye in the Lord forever, for the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Jehovah is all capitalized. And it means the self-existent one, the abiding one, the I am. That's pretty impressive. The Lord didn't say, he didn't tell Moses, he didn't say I was. then he wouldn't be here. He didn't say, I will be, because then we'd be waiting on him. He said, I am. And that works in any dispensation, any time. He was I am then. He's I am now. He'll be I am a million years from now. And he's self-existent. I don't know if you've ever thought about where God was before you got here. It'll blow a fuse if you do. It's easy to think in the future because we're here and we think we're always going to be here, but think about before you were here, where God was and what He was doing, and that'll blow a fuse. He's the self-existent one. He's always been here. He created us simply out of His mercy, and He knew what we were going to do. That always blows my mind. He knew what we were going to do. He grew the tree. He created the hill that they were going to crucify Him on. He knew all that, and He still chose to plead with us for fellowship. Our peace is guaranteed by the one who has always existed. Psalm 90 verse 1, Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Isaiah 9 6, we hear that verse a lot around Christmas time and it says a lot of his names and one of them is Everlasting Father. So not only has he always been here, but he's a father. That's been one of his character traits. And then he never changes. Turn to Malachi 3.6. That is the last book in the Old Testament. Gets a little hairy there at the end of the Old Testament. Page 982 on a school field. Malachi 3.6. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. I'm the Lord and I change not. So I'm going to keep my word whatever it was. And then Hebrews 13 5, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. You know, a lot of times we tell people, you know, I'll help you or I'm not going to leave you or whatever. And we can't keep our promises because we don't know what's going to happen. We don't have that That foreknowledge of that strength, the Lord can say that, because He knows. He's already 20 years down the road. He knows who's going to be elected. He knows what you're going to go through before the retreat next year. So when He tells us that He'll keep us and give us peace, then He knows what He's talking about. So, supply is promised by one who's abiding, and then secondly, it's promised by one who is able. We're told that He possesses everlasting strength. The song Rock of Ages came from that verse. So for me, let me hide myself and be everlasting strength in Rock of Ages. That's where that man got that song from. The Rock of Ages is the one who guarantees our peace. You have a rock guaranteeing your peace, the rock's not going to go anywhere. He has the power to promise it, and he has the power to provide it. He has all power, Matthew 28, 18. Well, I'm with you always. All power's been given to me. Over there in Matthew, when he was talking to the disciples, He is able, turn to Ephesians 3.20. This is a very good verse. And if you've prayed for many things and trust the Lord for many things, then you know this verse is true. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that work is in us. So he uses several adjectives to describe what he can do. Exceeding, abundantly, above. He's not just going to do what we think. How many times have you had a prayer answered that way and you didn't even tell him? You didn't even get a chance to tell him and he answered it as exceedingly, abundantly above. And that's what he wants to do. He's not just trying to meet our needs or take care of us or whatever. He's trying to go above and beyond even. He can do anything he pleases. Luke 1.38, Mary said, told the angel, be it according to thy word. You know, the Lord can do anything. He sent his son in such a way as, you know, the world is hard to believe how he got here and that's the way the Lord chose to do it. So he can do whatever he wants to do. Isaiah 40 verse 12. who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the depth of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance." So we're talking about a Father that weighs the mountains in a scale. A scale, a mountain. That's how His hand spans the universe. So when you think about His size and His power, and then for Him to take an interest in us, then that's even more of a reason to Seek this peace that he offers. So that's the supply of peace by one who is abiding and one who is able. And then I looked up Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, the song that we have. I had it written out and I was looking at the verse this morning and it kind of tells a story. I guess I never, this is an old hymn you don't hear very often and I've sung it more in the last couple of weeks, you know. I guess I never really paid attention to the words, but the first verse says, take him at his word, that's believing him. And then the second verse, just to trust his cleansing blood, meet the healing, cleansing flood, that is receiving him. And then third is just from sin and self-deceit, life and rest and joy and peace. And that's when he relieves us of ourselves. You know, he saves us from ourselves, which we really need. So we believe him in verse one, and then we receive him, and then he works with us, and in the last verse we perceive who He really is. Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend, will be with me to the end. So I never noticed the song kind of flows chronologically. I didn't know if y'all knew where this song came from. I thought it was interesting. Louisa Stead wrote it, and I've kind of got a rundown of her life again, going through many things. She had always felt the calling to be a missionary and go to China. But due to fragile health, she was kept in the U.S. She married Mr. Stead and had a daughter named Lily. When Lily was four years old, the family went on vacation to a nearby beach. While there, relaxing and enjoying the vacation, they saw a young boy drowning in the ocean. Mr. Stead swam out and tried to rescue him, only he was pulled under by the boy, and both Mr. Stead and the boy drowned as Louisa and her daughter watched from the shore. Luisa was left without any means of support except for God's care. She and her daughter were in dire poverty. One day when there was no food in the house and no money to purchase any, Luisa opened the front door to find someone had left groceries and money. That same day she sat down and wrote, "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus." She later became a missionary to Africa, remarried, and once again was forced to stay in the U.S. due to health. But once recovered, she went back into the mission field in Rhodesia and later died in Zimbabwe. Her daughter Lily married and became a missionary as well. So the Lord greatly used her and then gave us a tremendous song out of her life. Again, through just different things. And when she opened the door and saw the food, then he said, okay, I want you to go write this song. But again, it was born out of trauma and tragedy and all that. So again, illustrates there's peace. She had a peace through all the storms and then was able to give us this song. So if you want to succeed in life and you want to, you know, make it to the end, be here when the Lord comes back, you know, on your deathbed or whatever, then we've got to have this peace. We've got to be able to sustain through everything that's happening and the world is getting more and more. We look around and it's scary. It really is scary. It's scary for my children. It's scary for my grandchildren. You've got to have that peace. Otherwise the devil is going to get in there and use that to just plain knock you out of the race. That's all a little illustration. My classroom is, I don't know, a couple hundred feet I guess from my house. I go out there and work on this stuff or these retreats and stuff. A couple of years ago, I was sitting out there, and you all know my husband, he's very thoughtful. He takes good care of me and does a lot of extra stuff. I don't know if this will mean anything to you all, but I thought it was neat. I was sitting out there and had a little window where I could see the house, but it was dark, real dark. I was working and getting tired, getting discouraged because I couldn't get the devotion to Jail and all that. Then it started raining. Of course, my kids and my husband are in the house, and I'm thinking, man, you don't want to be in the house with them. And so I thought, you know, okay, I'm done for tonight. So I kind of, I looked out the window. I couldn't really see because it was raining and dark. And I thought, good night. Usually, you know, he'd bring an umbrella out. I mean, it's just something he would do. He'd bring the umbrella and get me. I thought, man, you know, he must be in there having fun or whatever. And so I thought, well, and it was raining pretty hard. So I thought, well, I'll just run across to the house. So I, you know, open the door and I cut the light off and shut the door. And just before I took off the porch, I looked up and there he stood on the porch with the umbrella. And as soon as I cut the light off, here he comes. So the point is, I didn't see him until it got very dark. When it got very dark, then I could see him standing over there waiting for me. And before I could take a step off in the rain, there he was. And so he did not let me down. And that's the way the Lord is. The darker it gets, the more peace He'll give us. And if we just look for Him, the girls and I sing a song, Standing Somewhere in the Shadows, the Lord's a gentleman. He's not going to be in your face trying to make you do right. He's simply going to tell you what He wants you to do, and then when you look for Him, He'll be there. He's not the one that's moved, it's us. And then I know y'all have seen this, I like quotes and stuff, y'all have seen this, but, Lord grant me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. We've got to know where the end of our line is and where the Lord, you know, He gives us a job to do and He won't do it for us. But then He don't want us getting into His job either. And then there's a couple songs that I know. One is Peace Speaker, you know, the winds are raging and He steps up and tells the winds to knock it off. and calms the storm, and then there's another song, Sometimes He Calls Me. Sometimes He's just going to calm us, and the storm's going to rage around us. He's not always going to stop the storm. He's just going to give us peace. But in either situation, we can have His peace, His perfect peace, and that just simply comes from trusting Him. And I do appreciate this retreat. It has helped me tremendously.