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: Knowing God as Father | 5 Minutes with Jesus | March 16, 2026
- I don't think that until we're finally home
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- With jesus, we'll ever begin to grasp
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- What the holiness of god is like,
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- Or why jesus had to come and pay for our sin
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- To give us a way back to our father.
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- But i read an interesting quote that contrasted
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- The picture of god as a harsh father
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- With a picture that christ painted for us.
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- Religion says, i've messed up.
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- I dad's going to kill me.
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- Christianity says i've messed up.
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- I need to call my dad.
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- I read a story online about a chaplain
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- In a federal prison who came up with the idea of helping
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- Prisoners honor their mothers on mother's day.
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- A greeting card company furnished mother's day cards
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- For the inmates, and all they had to do
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- Was pick up a card and mail it to their mother.
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- Almost all of the prisoners responded to the opportunity.
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- I think more than 500 inmates requested
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- And mailed the free mother's day cards.
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- Well, inspired by the success of that project,
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- The chaplain decided to do the same thing for father's day.
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- Again, same company furnished the cards and the prisoners
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- Only had to ask for them and mail them.
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- But the result was shockingly different.
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- Not one inmate requested a father's day card for his dad.
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- I find that heartbreaking.
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- Obviously, not
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- Everyone who had a bad relationship
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- With their dad ends up in prison.
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- But it made me think about the impact of a father's life
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- On his children.
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- Not only that, but what impact does
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- That have on how we view our heavenly father?
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- If you had a good relationship with your dad growing up,
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- It seems to be much easier to embrace the idea
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- Of a loving heavenly father.
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- But if that relationship was bad or broken,
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- It would seem that we identify more with
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- How we perceive god in the old testament.
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- Someone who disapproves,
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- Who punishes, who is angry and distant.
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- One of the greatest gifts of jesus christ coming to us in
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- Human flesh was to show us who the father really is.
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- Every time christ reached out and touched a broken life,
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- He was saying, this is what my father is like.
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- I find it very moving.
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- Then when christ knelt in the garden of gethsemane
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- And absolute agony of soul and mind, he addressed
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- His father in the most intimate and personal way.
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- Abba, father.
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- That's actually a phrase you can hear in the marketplace
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- In israel, as children call out to their fathers.
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- I don't think that until we're finally home
- 00:02:46.422 --> 00:02:49.425
- With jesus, we'll ever begin to grasp
- 00:02:49.425 --> 00:02:52.095
- What the holiness of god is like,
- 00:02:52.095 --> 00:02:54.631
- Or why jesus had to come and pay for our sin
- 00:02:54.631 --> 00:02:58.067
- To give us a way back to our father.
- 00:02:58.067 --> 00:03:01.437
- But i read an interesting quote that contrasted
- 00:03:01.437 --> 00:03:04.407
- The picture of god as a harsh father
- 00:03:04.407 --> 00:03:07.410
- With a picture that christ painted for us.
- 00:03:07.410 --> 00:03:10.446
- Religion says, i've messed up.
- 00:03:11.047 --> 00:03:13.983
- I dad's going to kill me.
- 00:03:13.983 --> 00:03:16.019
- Christianity says i've messed up.
- 00:03:16.019 --> 00:03:19.322
- I need to call my dad.
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- I love that.
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- I have a picture on my wall at home of our son.
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- He's about five years old
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- And his face is covered in chocolate frosting.
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- I'll never forget the evening that that photograph was taken.
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- I was speaking at a large event in an arena,
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- And i remember i had on a cream colored suit.
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- I remember because i never wore again.
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- It was our sound engineer's
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- Birthday, and we'd had a party for him
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- Backstage before the event began.
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- Well, christian
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- Managed to get frosting all over his face, in his hair
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- And on his clothes,
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- And i thought that my mother in law
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- Had taken christian
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- Back to the hotel to get him bathed and to bed.
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- But just before i was due to speak,
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- I heard a little voice behind me.
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- Call it mom, and it realized
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- He wanted just one more hug before he went to bed.
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- So i knelt down through open my arms,
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- Even though i knew exactly what was going to happen.
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- That night i had frosting on my jacket
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- And my hair, but it was intentional.
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- It's also why i like working with women.
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- They get the frosting on your jacket thing.
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- But the message i wanted to convey to my son is
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- You don't clean yourself up to come to your mom,
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- Because i wanted him to understand you.
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- Don't clean yourself up to come to your heavenly father.
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- You come just as you are.
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- If you
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- Struggle with relating to god as a loving father.
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- Let me share a
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- Few scriptures with you that you can meditate on.
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- Psalm 103 verse 13 says,
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- The lord is like a father to his children, tender
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- And compassionate to those who fear him.
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- For he knows how weak we are.
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- He remembers we are only dust.
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- I love this promise in psalm 27 verse ten, even if my father
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- And mother abandoned me, the lord will hold me close.
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- In first john chapter three, verse one,
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- We read, see how very much our father loves
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- Us, for he calls us his children.
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- And that is what we are.
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- You are loved.
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- You are loved.
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- You know, if you struggle with the idea of god
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- As a father who loves and accepts you, and you see him
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- More as a god who punishes you, i really encourage you
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- To find a couple of scriptures like that and meditate on them.
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- Spend time.
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- Ask the holy spirit to help you understand
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- Who your heavenly father is.
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- You are seen.
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- You are known and you are loved.
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- Let me pray for you.
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- Father god, what a
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- Joy it is to call you father.
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- Thank you that you are a perfect father,
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- Compassionate and kind and loving.
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- Thank you that we get to come to you as we are,
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- Not as we wish we were, and that you welcome us.
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- Lord, i pray for anyone right now who is struggling
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- With the concept of seeing you as a loving father.
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- Holy spirit, will you bring your healing to those wounds
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- So that we can see our
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- Our father in heaven with clear eyes of love?
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- I ask that we would remember
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- Everything that jesus has shown us, that when he saw someone
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- Who was broken or rejected or tossed aside,
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- He touched them with love and said,
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- This is who your father is, and we thank you in his name.
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- Amen.
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