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: God Hears Your Cry | 5 Minutes with Jesus | February 20, 2026
- How do
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- You live an authentic life with god?
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- It always starts with the truth.
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- Telling the truth to christ saves us right there
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- In the middle of our mess.
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- It exposes who we really are and allows our authentic selves
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- And our darkest secrets, shames, and shadows
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- To be redeemed.
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- Do you ever feel as if you're not being heard?
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- Have you ever felt
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- As if those around you are trying to silence you?
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- You know, perhaps you're in pain and they seem to be tired
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- Of hearing it, but you're still feeling it.
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- There's a beautiful story in the gospels that shows
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- That jesus never gets tired of hearing us when we cry out.
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- We read in mark's gospel, mark chapter ten.
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- Well, mark's gospel has a definite rhythm to it.
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- If you read it straight through, which i highly recommend,
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- You can feel the pace picking up as christ
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- Finally sets his face toward jerusalem and the cross.
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- You can sense as you read that there's a clock ticking
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- On the way to calvary.
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- Jesus tries once more to prepare his closest friends
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- For what's ahead.
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- In mark ten, we've read this lesson.
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- He says,
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- We're going up to jerusalem,
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- Where the son of man will be betrayed
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- To the leading priests and the teachers of religious law.
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- They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the romans.
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- They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip
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- And kill him.
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- But after three days he will rise again.
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- Now jesus knew exactly what was ahead of him.
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- He is focused.
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- Jesus braces for the betrayal and agony that lies ahead.
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- But suddenly, there's a cry
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- That penetrates the noisy crowd around him.
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- It rises from a blind beggar named bartimaeus.
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- He cries out, jesus, son of david, have mercy on me!
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- While the quiet the crowd around him tell him to be quiet,
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- But he only shouts louder.
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- Son of david, have mercy on me!
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- That when jesus hears bartimaeus,
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- He stops ignoring those told the poor beggar
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- To stop crying out to the son of god.
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- Jesus instructs bartimaeus
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- To come to him.
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- What do you want me to do for you?
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- Jesus asks.
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- Bartimaeus responds, i want to see.
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- And jesus responds by healing bartimaeus.
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- I love the way that my friend lisa harper expresses
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- The truth of this story.
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- Jesus paused easter to listen to one man.
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- You know
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- He was on his way to the cross, to the grave,
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- To the resurrection, but he stopped
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- For one.
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- Bartimaeus followed jesus after that.
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- He was at the cross.
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- He was there after the resurrection.
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- Church history tells us he became part of the early church,
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- But his relationship began by crying out his need.
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- Even when everyone around him
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- Told him to be quiet.
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- We live in a desperately hurting world.
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- We hear about it every day on the news or on social media.
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- But what if that's where you are right now?
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- You know, something happened that devastated your life.
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- And although people were there for you
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- At the beginning, they've moved on
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- And you feel all alone with your pain
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- And the past.
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- I remember well-meaning people
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- Cautioning me, don't ever tell anyone that you were
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- In a mental hospital or ruin your ministry.
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- But i knew the truth and grew braver about proclaiming it.
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- Over the years, i'm not trying to save my ministry.
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- I'd say i'm trying to save my life.
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- When people back then told me
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- That there's no reason to be so sad
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- Because joy comes in the morning,
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- I would tell them, well, right now it's still night.
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- To me, this is what it means to live a truthful,
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- Authentic life.
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- Through the years, i've found
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- That god always meets me in my authenticity.
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- Every time, without fail.
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- How do you live an authentic life with god?
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- It always starts with the truth.
- 00:04:31.194 --> 00:04:33.963
- Telling the truth to christ saves us right there
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- In the middle of our mess.
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- It exposes who we really are and allows our authentic selves
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- And our darkest secrets, shames, and shadows
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- To be redeemed.
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- Tell them the truth.
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- Pour out your pain.
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- Call out to him like bartimaeus did.
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- Tell him the whole truth as best you know it.
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- Regardless of what your friends or the crowd might say,
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- That's what i've learned to do.
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- And it's life changing.
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- This crying out to jesus brings healing and strength
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- Amid our brokenness.
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- It's bringing me into the realization of the truth
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- That christ longs to love every part of me,
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- Even my ragged, raw, and emotional parts.
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- If you still have one breath and that's not a white chalk
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- Marker on your body, it's not too late to begin
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- Living and loving differently.
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- Authentically.
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- You know?
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- But to me, as this name meant the blind one meeting
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- Jesus changed his very identity.
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- It will change how we see ourselves to.
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- Let me pray for you.
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- All that amazes me that
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- In the midst of the mission that was ahead of you
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- And the crowds and the noise around you,
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- You heard one man's cry
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- And you stopped and you turned
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- And you healed him.
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- God, i want to pray right now for the one person who feels
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- That nobody hears them.
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- That even if they cried loudly, there would be no one
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- Who heard them.
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- Lord, i believe you hear every cry.
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- So i'm asking right now jesus and the power of your name.
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- For the one who's crying out
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- That they will get this deep
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- Understanding from the holy spirit, that you hear them,
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- And you are present to bring healing,
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- To bring salvation, to bring hope.
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- Lord, thank you that you are a god who never misses
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- A single cry because of jesus, in whose name we pray.
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- Amen.
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