5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Maintaining A Fruitful Heart | 5 Minutes with Jesus | May 14, 2026
- We get to choose what kind of soil our heart is.
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- If health and wealth, for what my mum counted on, to be sure
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- Of the goodness of god, she would have struggled.
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- But she believed, as i do, that god is good
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- And kind and merciful and loving
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- And our best days and then our worst.
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- One of the greatest lessons i learned from my mum
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- As i was growing up
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- Was that god cares
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- About every single little detail of our lives.
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- It was nothing too small to pray about.
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- It was nothing too insignificant
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- That god didn't see and cared for.
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- She had a hard life.
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- Her father developed alzheimer's,
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- And mum had to leave school at 16 to help take care of him.
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- She was only 33 when my dad died by suicide
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- And she was left with three children, seven and under.
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- I know we didn't have a lot of money growing up,
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- But i also remember the piece that she lived out in
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- Front of me.
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- She never remarried, devoting herself
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- To raising us to love and serve god.
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- As i've reflected back in her life, there's a few things
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- That are crystal clear to me that i'd love to share with you.
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- I don't know what your circumstances are.
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- I don't know what kind of season you're in,
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- But what i saw lived out in my mum's life
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- Has left a permanent impact on mine.
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- Number one, she never missed church.
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- Things weren't always convenient for her.
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- We didn't have a car, so every sunday we had to wait
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- On the public bus service to take us to and from church.
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- Number two, she read our bible every single day.
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- I have the bible.
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- She was given that as a 12 year old,
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- And you could tell by its well-worn and marked pages
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- That it mattered to her.
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- Number three,
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- The tuesday night prayer meeting was important to her
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- As she believes in the power of prayer.
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- And what happens when god's
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- People get together to worship and pray.
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- Number four she always gave out of the little she had.
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- She believed with all her heart
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- That god had promised
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- To take care of the widow and the fatherless.
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- Even though her budget was very tight,
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- She gave not just to our church,
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- But to some of the missionaries who were serving overseas.
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- Number five mum believed in the importance of community.
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- She had a small circle of what i call safe sisters
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- That she shared her life with.
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- I can only
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- Imagine how hard life must have been for her at times,
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- But she didn't walk through it alone.
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- When i think back today on her life,
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- I'm reminded of the final seed that jesus talks about
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- In the parable of the sower.
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- Luke chapter eight, verse 15 we read, and the seeds that
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- Fell on the good soil represent honest, good hearted
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- People who hear god's word cling to it,
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- And patiently produce a huge harvest.
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- What's clear to me from that parable is that
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- We get to choose what kind of soil our heart is.
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- If health and wealth, for what my mum counted on, to be sure
- 00:03:10.747 --> 00:03:13.916
- Of the goodness of god, she would have struggled.
- 00:03:13.916 --> 00:03:17.186
- But she believed, as i do, that god is good
- 00:03:17.186 --> 00:03:21.024
- And kind and merciful and loving
- 00:03:21.024 --> 00:03:24.260
- And our best days and then our worst.
- 00:03:24.260 --> 00:03:27.597
- She heard god's word.
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- She clung to it with every fiber of her being,
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- And she produced a huge harvest in the lives
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- Not only of herself, but of her children and friends.
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- Let's pray.
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- Lord, that is our prayer.
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- We want the seed that comes from your word,
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- From your holy spirit, to fall on good ground,
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- To teach us, lord, the things that matter and life,
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- The things that will nourish us,
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- The things that will help us to grow.
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- Thank you lord, for godly mothers.
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- Thank you
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- For those who showed us a path and i pray right now, lord,
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- For anyone
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- Who's watching thinking, well, i didn't have a godly mother.
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- My mother taught me nothing about jesus.
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- I pray for that person
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- Right now that you show them that
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- Whether they have children of their own or not,
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- We can decide to be the first in a chain of people
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- To set an example for those who are watching us.
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- We ask it because we want this world to know you're alive.
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- We ask in jesus name.
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