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.
Closed captions
Show Timecode
| Sheila Walsh: When God Says No | 5 Minutes with Jesus | April 24, 2026
- Just want you to
- 00:00:00.623 --> 00:00:01.424
- Know, my friend, you are not alone.
- 00:00:01.424 --> 00:00:04.360
- God is with you even in the silence.
- 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:08.398
- Heaven is watching over you, cheering
- 00:00:08.398 --> 00:00:11.468
- You on with the cross of christ before us.
- 00:00:11.468 --> 00:00:14.737
- We will hold on and not let go
- 00:00:14.737 --> 00:00:20.210
- Because we're holding on to jesus.
- 00:00:20.210 --> 00:00:27.050
- Have you ever prayed for something
- 00:00:27.784 --> 00:00:29.185
- That was really important?
- 00:00:29.185 --> 00:00:31.387
- And god said no.
- 00:00:31.387 --> 00:00:34.090
- That can be devastating.
- 00:00:34.090 --> 00:00:35.925
- I saw that in the life of my mother in law.
- 00:00:35.925 --> 00:00:38.661
- She was a character.
- 00:00:38.661 --> 00:00:40.763
- Eleanor had very particular views on
- 00:00:40.763 --> 00:00:43.466
- Everything from tv preachers to the government,
- 00:00:43.466 --> 00:00:46.569
- To every pastor who'd ever stood in the pulpit of their church.
- 00:00:46.569 --> 00:00:50.540
- But she was silenced when cancer invaded her life.
- 00:00:50.540 --> 00:00:55.011
- Eleanor was diagnosed with cancer in the mid-sixties,
- 00:00:55.011 --> 00:00:58.381
- And she begged god to heal her.
- 00:00:58.381 --> 00:01:01.918
- But heaven seemed silent to her cries.
- 00:01:01.918 --> 00:01:05.221
- She questioned
- 00:01:05.221 --> 00:01:06.289
- God's love for her because she wasn't being healed.
- 00:01:06.289 --> 00:01:09.292
- I remember a conversation we had
- 00:01:09.926 --> 00:01:12.128
- In the middle of the night, not long before her death.
- 00:01:12.128 --> 00:01:15.965
- She told me that she believed that if i was the one
- 00:01:15.965 --> 00:01:19.169
- With cancer, god would have healed me.
- 00:01:19.169 --> 00:01:23.306
- We've wept together
- 00:01:23.773 --> 00:01:24.874
- That night as i assured her that god didn't love me.
- 00:01:24.874 --> 00:01:28.711
- One grain of sand more than he loved her.
- 00:01:28.711 --> 00:01:32.482
- Then she asked me this question.
- 00:01:33.116 --> 00:01:36.786
- And why doesn't he answer my prayers?
- 00:01:36.786 --> 00:01:39.689
- I've been praying for so long.
- 00:01:39.689 --> 00:01:41.991
- I want to be around to see christian grow up.
- 00:01:41.991 --> 00:01:45.929
- We sat in silence for a while,
- 00:01:46.563 --> 00:01:49.732
- Had no words.
- 00:01:49.732 --> 00:01:50.900
- My heart was aching.
- 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:52.902
- I began to sing one of her favorite hymns
- 00:01:52.902 --> 00:01:56.105
- And she joined in.
- 00:01:56.105 --> 00:01:58.141
- Her voice was weak,
- 00:01:58.141 --> 00:02:00.810
- But she was holding on.
- 00:02:00.810 --> 00:02:03.046
- Great is thy faithfulness, o god, my father.
- 00:02:03.046 --> 00:02:07.717
- There is no shadow of turning with thee.
- 00:02:07.717 --> 00:02:11.154
- Thou change is not thy compassions.
- 00:02:11.154 --> 00:02:14.557
- They fail not as thou hast been, but forever will be.
- 00:02:14.557 --> 00:02:20.163
- Great is thy faithfulness.
- 00:02:20.730 --> 00:02:26.569
- Morning by morning, new mercies i see
- 00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:31.007
- All i have needed.
- 00:02:31.441 --> 00:02:33.543
- Thy hand has provided.
- 00:02:33.543 --> 00:02:36.246
- Great is thy faithfulness, lord.
- 00:02:36.246 --> 00:02:38.781
- Unto me.
- 00:02:38.781 --> 00:02:40.617
- A few days later, eleanor
- 00:02:40.617 --> 00:02:42.485
- Went home to be with christ, the one who loved her.
- 00:02:42.485 --> 00:02:45.588
- Even in the silence on the day of the viewing.
- 00:02:45.588 --> 00:02:49.559
- Christian stayed with a friend as he was only three years old,
- 00:02:49.559 --> 00:02:52.729
- And william, her husband.
- 00:02:52.729 --> 00:02:54.030
- Barry and i drove to the funeral home.
- 00:02:54.030 --> 00:02:57.367
- Eleanor looked like she was asleep.
- 00:02:57.367 --> 00:02:59.969
- Her hands were folded over her chest.
- 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.338
- She was wearing the cream and gold suit
- 00:03:02.338 --> 00:03:04.207
- She'd worn to our wedding.
- 00:03:04.207 --> 00:03:06.042
- Her beautiful fiery red hair that never had a single gray
- 00:03:06.042 --> 00:03:10.280
- Had been pushed a little too far back on her forehead,
- 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:13.082
- So i gently pulled it down into place.
- 00:03:13.082 --> 00:03:16.853
- My hand brushed against her face.
- 00:03:16.853 --> 00:03:19.355
- So cold.
- 00:03:19.355 --> 00:03:21.024
- Finally, i pinned a photo of her and christian,
- 00:03:21.024 --> 00:03:23.926
- Which she'd asked me to place in her casket
- 00:03:23.926 --> 00:03:26.462
- On the little satin pillow above her head.
- 00:03:26.462 --> 00:03:29.832
- Well done mom, i said.
- 00:03:30.333 --> 00:03:32.368
- You made it all the way home.
- 00:03:32.368 --> 00:03:35.204
- You held on.
- 00:03:35.204 --> 00:03:37.807
- You know, i wrestled with eleanor's
- 00:03:37.807 --> 00:03:39.742
- Questions for a long time.
- 00:03:39.742 --> 00:03:41.811
- Why would god hold back healing when he can heal?
- 00:03:41.811 --> 00:03:46.149
- Does he love some of us less than others?
- 00:03:46.149 --> 00:03:49.252
- Why is he silent?
- 00:03:49.252 --> 00:03:50.820
- We've never needed to hear his voice more.
- 00:03:50.820 --> 00:03:54.090
- When we study god's word.
- 00:03:54.657 --> 00:03:56.225
- There are so many times when god says no.
- 00:03:56.225 --> 00:03:59.829
- Even jesus, his beloved son.
- 00:04:00.396 --> 00:04:03.466
- As he knelt and prayed in the garden of gethsemane,
- 00:04:03.466 --> 00:04:06.602
- Received a no.
- 00:04:06.969 --> 00:04:10.273
- When we study the story of jobe, we see a man who suffered
- 00:04:10.273 --> 00:04:13.776
- Beyond belief, and god never did answer his questions.
- 00:04:13.776 --> 00:04:17.814
- Instead, at the end, he showed jobe who he is.
- 00:04:17.814 --> 00:04:21.851
- Joke's final chapter is triumphant.
- 00:04:21.851 --> 00:04:25.088
- But that's not always our story on this earth.
- 00:04:25.088 --> 00:04:28.591
- I find what war and we are to be right.
- 00:04:28.591 --> 00:04:30.993
- Very helpful.
- 00:04:30.993 --> 00:04:32.462
- We must not misinterpret this final chapter and conclude
- 00:04:32.462 --> 00:04:37.100
- That every trial will end with all problems solved.
- 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:40.636
- All hard feelings
- 00:04:41.070 --> 00:04:42.171
- Forgiven, and everybody living happily ever after.
- 00:04:42.171 --> 00:04:45.875
- It just doesn't always happen that way.
- 00:04:45.875 --> 00:04:49.078
- But this chapter assures us that no matter
- 00:04:49.078 --> 00:04:52.415
- What happened to us, god
- 00:04:52.915 --> 00:04:55.918
- Always writes the last chapter. i
- 00:04:55.918 --> 00:04:59.222
- Just want you to
- 00:04:59.589 --> 00:05:00.390
- Know, my friend, you are not alone.
- 00:05:00.390 --> 00:05:03.326
- God is with you even in the silence.
- 00:05:03.326 --> 00:05:07.363
- Heaven is watching over you, cheering
- 00:05:07.363 --> 00:05:10.433
- You on with the cross of christ before us.
- 00:05:10.433 --> 00:05:13.703
- We will hold on and not let go
- 00:05:13.703 --> 00:05:19.175
- Because we're holding on to jesus.
- 00:05:19.175 --> 00:05:22.378
- Let's pray.
- 00:05:22.712 --> 00:05:25.515
- Lord, we do ask questions at times.
- 00:05:25.515 --> 00:05:28.117
- We wonder why you would say no one to us.
- 00:05:28.117 --> 00:05:30.987
- It would seem so easy for you to say yes.
- 00:05:30.987 --> 00:05:34.657
- And yet one thing we do know, lord, is that you are good.
- 00:05:34.657 --> 00:05:38.327
- You are god. you are sovereign.
- 00:05:38.327 --> 00:05:40.296
- You have a plan that is so much bigger than what
- 00:05:40.296 --> 00:05:43.866
- We can see at the moment in these situations,
- 00:05:43.866 --> 00:05:47.703
- With our human hearts and minds and understanding.
- 00:05:47.703 --> 00:05:51.107
- So lord, we just want to
- 00:05:51.607 --> 00:05:53.309
- We just want to tell you
- 00:05:53.810 --> 00:05:55.111
- That even in this place, even in this place of no.
- 00:05:55.111 --> 00:05:59.182
- We trust that, you know, comes from the place
- 00:05:59.182 --> 00:06:03.052
- Of a god who loves us as much as your yes does.
- 00:06:03.052 --> 00:06:07.089
- And we thank you in the powerful name of jesus.
- 00:06:07.089 --> 00:06:11.594
- Amen.
- 00:06:11.828 --> 00:06:13.563
- Und.
- 00:06:13.729 --> 00:06:13.729
