Dr. Peale tells us that the first thing to do if we want a life that is wonderful is to affirm that it is wonderful. We ought to thank God every day for life, not that we won’t have trouble, you’ll have trouble till the day you die. But if we put our troubles in God’s hands and trust Him, He will see us through and take care of us. NVP says he has known people in their nineties like J.C. Penny who loved life to the very end, because they practiced the principles of Jesus.

Dr. Peale shares the stories of several people whose faith helped them become champions in several areas of life. Sports,business and sales are some of the many places where faith can make you a champion. NVP says, “How do you get this faith? You get it out of desire. You want to be more than you seem to be. You want to do all you can do.”

Dr. Peale recalls a cyclone he saw as a boy in Kansas. It cut a swath of destruction through town with a terrible force that it drew from a calm center. He compares this with people who have great power and have within them a calm center of peace from which they draw energy. NVP says, “If you are going to be what you are capable of being you’ve got to be a powerhouse and you can’t do that without having peace at the center. Remember: “Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.”

Dr. Peale reminds us that we are living in a world of stress and strain. It is a mark of a sophisticated individual to maintain an outward facade of calm and peace, but many of us experience inward turmoil. This message tells us how to shake strain and stress and live and work with competent control. NVP says, “Never forget that God, our Father is always there and remember the words of Isaiah, ‘Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.’ This is one of the greatest passages in the Bible. Get your mind off anxieties and concentrate on God.”

Dr. Peale says that many people say by their expression, “I haven’t got any possibilities in my life.” He says, “Bring your possibility to the forefront of your mind. Affirm it, believe it, pray it and get out and bring it to pass.” He tells us to become dreamers. If there are no dreams there are no possibilities. Before we were born the Creator took a pinch of dreams and dashed them into our nature. The basic element in releasing our possibilities is to get back to the One Who can extract them from us, because He first put them into us.

Dr. Peale shares the stories of four people who handled misfortunes in their lives through faith in God. He says he saw a picture of a young man flooded area who had returned to his home to rescue what he thought most important. Under one are he had a pile of clothes, under the other a large Bible. His head was held high, it gave him the idea for this sermon. With God you can handle whatever happens.

Dr. Peale tells us that we can have deep within us a profound and basic joy despite all the pain and trouble that life might bring us. We can have a wonderful state of well being, mentally, spiritually and physically. These wonderful results can be brought to pass by developing faith in depth. Become a great believer and great things will happen to you.

In this Easter sermon Dr. Peale says, “The greatest speech in U.S. history was the Gettysburg Address. And the greatest speech in history was by Jesus, spoken to one person. ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.’”

Dr. Peale tells us that wonderful things can happen to a human being when that person is truly centered in Jesus Christ. Such a person has a revolutionary process take place in their mind. Dr. Peale shares several incidents from his personal life to illustrate this fact.

Dr. Peale says, “There is one thing needed by everybody and that one thing is courage. To quote an ad used by a credit card company, ‘You should never leave home without it.’” NVP shares two things necessary to have courage. One is to think big, pray big, believe big and act big. The second is to forget yourself.