See His Hand Of Mercy

Jesus said, Blessed are the persecuted, and they are suffering big time right now. This is Bible League International, and 19-year-old Aria was beaten by her own father and violated by local authorities. You know what her crime was?

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$100 sends 20. Call 800-YES-WORD, 800-YES-WORD, 800-YES-WORD, or give at truthnetwork.com. Hey, this is Peter Rosenberg, and in my three and a half decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital, sleeping in waiting rooms, on fold out cots, chairs, even the floor, sometimes on sofas and a few times in the doghouse.

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This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the program for you as a family caregiver. More than 65 million Americans right now are serving as a caregiver, taking care of somebody who has some type of chronic impairment.

It could be autism, could be addiction, could be Alzheimer's. Whatever the chronic impairment, there's always a caregiver. Sometimes they're up close living with them.

Sometimes they're far away, but they're still managing all types of day in and day out kind of stuff. Whatever it is, the caregiver is an endangered individual. And this program is designed and purposed on strengthening family caregivers to help you stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who is not. And if you want to be a part of what we're doing here, go to hopeforthecaregiver.com. Send us a message.

Send us a note. Whatever's on your mind, we'll be glad to try to discuss these things and share them with the audience and talk about them. We're not going to fix anything. We don't provide solutions here because there are no solutions for many of the things that we deal with in this life. But what we do is we point to safety. We point to assurance. We point to security. And that is in scripture through the word of God and these principles that God has laid down on how we're to live our life in this broken, fallen world. And anybody tells you they have solutions, just tread softly in that.

If you're dealing with any kind of chronic impairment, by definition, they haven't solved it. We've got to learn to deal with it. We've got to learn to live with it. We have to learn to adapt and trust Him in this. And that's what I want to bring to you right now in this opening block that are you living in the present, trusting Him with this? And are you able to see His hand of mercy? You know that old hymn, He Lives?

They've got a great... Let me go to the caregiver keyboard here. He's got a great line in here. I see His hand of mercy. I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him, He's always near. He lives. He lives. That's the great old hymn, which Jesus lives today.

He walks with me and talks with me a long life in every way. You know this hymn? I love this hymn. Salvation to in part. You ask me how I know He lives.

I'm not going to sing this high note. He lives within my heart. We've got a great old hymn. I see His hand of mercy. I hear His voice of cheer. And do you see that in your life as a caregiver?

If you don't, are you willing to take maybe a tiny leap of faith that you can? That there are moments today that you can have where it doesn't take away all the sting, it doesn't take away all the burden that you deal with, it doesn't take away the heartache, but that you're able to see His fingerprints. You're able to see a little bit more grace than you did yesterday. Matthew 634, therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble, living here in the moment. Ephesians 5, 15 through 16. Look carefully than how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of time because the days are evil. James 4, 14, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you were a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

And that's pretty much what Solomon was saying to Ecclesiastes. So what I'm saying to you is, what are you doing today? If you're waiting for something to get better or even worse, before you start living before you start living a different kind of life, you could be settling down for a miserable journey. Now I'm 36 years into this as a caregiver. I can't put my life on hold for 36 years.

I have to live life to the best of my abilities. Gracie does too. By the way, she took a walk down the driveway. We have a very long driveway out here in Montana.

And when I say driveway, it's not asphalt, it's gravel because we live 10 miles from a paved road. But her physical therapist was here. She's using elbow crutches and she walked all the way down to the driveway and back. Now she pays for it.

It's painful. It's a long journey, but that's a long ways from where she was. And she's doing it much straighter than she's been. For those who are just now joining us, Gracie had a pretty rough surgery in January to straighten her back up. She was 45 degrees bent over because of a fusion that she had 20 years ago. And they undid all of that, rebuilt her back. And now she's walking. And she walked into church Sunday too, by the way, without a wheelchair. She just took her crutches and she walked in and then went to lunch afterwards.

So she's improving, but she's making the most of where she is today. We can do that as well. And I will tell you on a personal note, for me, I did that yesterday. We have some cattle moving up here to Gracie's dad's place from down below. And the whole neighborhood comes together on horseback. And my nephew happened to be up here. We met him, met the cattle drive coming up through the sage. But it was not on a road. It was up through the sage, through the fields, coming up to this property up here.

They're going to grace for the summer. It helps keep the grass down and keeps the fire hazard low, lower. And it was a lot of fun. I mean, there's so many people. There must have been 15, 16, 17 people out there on horseback, dogs and 60 head of cattle.

And we're up here in the mountains of Montana doing that. And it was like, wow. And I could see his hand of mercy.

I could hear his voice. I looked around in this magnificent creation. I posted a picture of it on our Facebook page at Hope for the Caregiver on our Facebook page.

Go take a look at it. It's pretty cool. And then you can also, while you're there, check out our Facebook group, Hope for the Caregiver. That's a group that I started. I keep it very sequestered. And you could post things there that you may want other people to help pray for, whatever. Whatever's on your heart. But I post a lot of things in there.

But go take a look at that in our Facebook page. I think you'll like it. But it just gave me a moment just to see his hand of mercy. I hear his voice and cheer and how beautiful his creation is. And when you're hearing cows and dogs and horses and cowboys hooping and hollering, moving them, I got to tell you, it's what you call soul healing.

And for me, it was just a moment just to be able to do that. My horse was, she'd never been around cows before, and she was just pitching a fit. And so I'm going to call a local rancher friend of mine who's very, very good with horses. Used to, she and her husband, before he died, they did all kinds of rodeo together where they would partner with calving and roping and so forth. And so I'm going to call today and figure out what in the world is going on with this horse.

Because she was just difficult. But in all fairness, I'm jumping around into the sage with 60 head of cattle and a bunch of cowboys yelling. So maybe she just got nervous, but her bridle, something was the matter with it, but I'll figure it out. But those are things that I do to kind of settle my soul down. Now, we can't all do a cattle drive in Montana, I get that. But I've never done this before.

I've been riding horses all my life, I've been riding horses all my life, but I've never done this. And so I look for those things in the moment, in the moment where I can enjoy it. Every day doesn't have to be filled with misery. There is beauty around us if we're willing to see it, if we're willing to trust that He is working in all these things, if we're willing to see His hand of mercy, and hear His voice of cheer. You know, these are things that we can do as caregivers today that will improve our life and give us calmness and peace, more peace, and increasingly more peace. It's work, it's intentional, it's not accidental, okay?

You're not going to have joy accidentally, you're going to have joy purposely. Philippians 4-6, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And then Paul goes on to say, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. Now, he was in a Roman jail when he wrote that, tied up to a Roman linebacker, but he understood the peace that was available to him. How about him? How about you? Would you like that same peace? This is what we're looking for as caregivers, to calm our hearts down, settle ourselves down, and see His hand of mercy. This is Peter Rosenberger, we'll be right back.