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: Grace for the Unfinished | 5 Minutes with Jesus | January 22, 2026
- These are
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- The words of the psalmist david from psalm 34.
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- I pray to the lord.
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- And he answered me.
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- He freed me from all my fears.
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- Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy.
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- No shadow of shame will darken their faces.
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- And my desperation i prayed and the lord listened.
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- He saved me from all my troubles.
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- If you're struggling with shame,
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- Take a moment today and bring that to the lord.
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- Let him love you back to life.
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- You know, grace is a word that we use a lot in our faith.
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- We sing amazing grace.
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- But sometimes i think
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- It's one of the things that we understand the least,
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- Because i think one of the most challenging things
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- That we face in life is shame.
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- You know,
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- We start a new year
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- That can skyrocket because we've made
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- So many new pledges to live differently.
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- And, you know, we'll not just join a gym, we'll actually go
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- And we'll lose those 20 pounds and we'll get up and read our
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- Bible every morning.
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- And then, you know, when we fail and those shame creeps
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- In and shame thrives in hiding and in solitude.
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- It really cripples us.
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- But shame is all is a liar.
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- Here's some of the things that shame tells us.
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- You're all alone.
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- You'll never be enough.
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- You'll never change how you think.
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- That the one place
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- Where shame couldn't survive would be the church.
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- But too often that's the place where shame is born.
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- And that's so sad.
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- Think of all the people who've lived shame filled lives
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- Until they looked into the eyes of jesus.
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- And shame was burnt to ashes by his fiery love.
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- Think of those you've read about in scripture.
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- So many women who were shamed
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- By their culture but restored by jesus love.
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- That was a prostitute.
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- The woman at the well,
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- The woman caught in an adulterous relationship
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- And thrown down onto the ground at jesus feet.
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- Jesus looked at every one of them in love
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- And gave them a new beginning.
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- And that hasn't changed.
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- Christ always hates the sin that devastates us,
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- But is crazy passionate about the sinner who is broken by it.
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- I think at
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- Times the church seems to have reverse the trend.
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- We think if we punish the sinner, we'll kill the sin.
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- But that never works.
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- And the truth is, christ nailed the sin to the cross.
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- It's our mission to love the sinner back to life.
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- You know, christianity isn't a country club
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- Where we all have to dress and look alike to get in.
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- Cross of christ is actually the only place where presidents
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- And prisoners, housewives and college students
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- Kneel side by side, knowing that the only reason we are welcome
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- There is because of the one dying in our place.
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- Shame was crucified over 2000 years ago,
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- But we've done a pretty good job of resurrecting it.
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- I differentiate shame and guilt this way.
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- Guilt is about something i've done,
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- But shame is about who i am.
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- And that's what makes shame so devastating.
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- If i've done something wrong, i can try and put it right.
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- But if i believe i am something wrong,
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- My only reasonable option
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- Is to hide a soul crushing message of shame
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- Is that you're not worth loving and you don't belong.
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- And that can lead to a lifetime of isolation
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- Because you don't dare to show up.
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- Or alternatively, a string of broken relationships
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- Because you're desperately
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- Trying to find someone who will make you feel worth loving.
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- The trouble with that is when you despise yourself,
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- You ultimately despise the person you're with as well.
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- That not worth loving, therefore you don't belong.
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- Lye is probably the most
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- Devastating message that a woman or a man can believe.
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- I live by that belief for so many years
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- And it was miserable.
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- No new outfit, new haircut,
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- New relationship with the power to erase
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- What i believed about myself at my core.
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- The only thing, the only thing that changed
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- How i saw myself was the cross of jesus christ.
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- Did that happen the minute i became a christian? no.
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- I gave my life to christ when i was 11 years old.
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- It was 25 years later before i grabbed
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- Hold of the truth that jesus thinks i'm worth
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- Loving or just loving enough to die for.
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- I was raised a good baptist, so i knew that he died for
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- The world.
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- Just took a long time to understand that he died for me.
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- You know,
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- If a girl grows up with a good relationship with her dad,
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- She knows that she's loved just because she's his daughter
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- And he's her dad. she didn't earn it.
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- She just got it the first minute
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- He looked in her big brown eyes or blue eyes.
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- But if you grew up like me without a father, well,
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- What if you had a disapproving father?
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- You think you always have to
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- Bring something to the table to make yourself worth loving?
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- And that can leads
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- A lot of young women into in indiscriminate
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- Sexual relationships, which leads to more shame.
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- That wasn't my chosen path. no.
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- I threw myself instead into working for the lord.
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- Do you know you can work for god and be miserable?
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- Because you'll never feel as if you're doing enough?
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- You feel like you're adding drops of water to the ocean.
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- It doesn't make a difference for me.
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- The bad news about myself and the good news
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- About myself came in the same package.
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- I wish i could take you to that moment inside a small church
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- In washington, d.c.
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- One day, as i lay face down in front of a simple wooden
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- Cross, his heart to convey the power of that moment.
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- Because honestly, i never felt less worthy.
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- But i never felt more loved
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- At that lowest point in my adult life.
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- I came face to face with two truths
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- That changed everything. one.
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- I'll never be good enough to win god's love. two.
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- I don't have to because he loves me right now, just as i am.
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- That kind of love takes a long time to get used to.
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- We'll never be able to experience
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- Anywhere else on earth.
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- Even our best relationships are flawed.
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- We disappoint one another.
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- But i want you to know you don't disappoint god.
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- Our marriages have our highs and lows.
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- God's love is constant, unfailing, unfaltering.
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- Some days our children think we hung the moon.
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- And other days they think we've ruined their lives.
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- God's love is constant, unfailing, unfaltering.
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- On your worst day.
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- With soup on your shirt, hair and your chin.
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- God thinks you're beautiful.
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- I truly delights in you.
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- I promise you, his love is constant, unfailing,
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- All faltering.
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- Jesus took our shame so that you and i can live shame free.
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- If you're struggling today,
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- These are the words of the psalmist david from psalm 34.
- 00:07:14.590 --> 00:07:18.528
- I pray to the lord.
- 00:07:18.995 --> 00:07:20.596
- And he answered me.
- 00:07:20.596 --> 00:07:22.064
- He freed me from all my fears.
- 00:07:22.064 --> 00:07:24.600
- Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy.
- 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:28.971
- No shadow of shame will darken their faces.
- 00:07:28.971 --> 00:07:31.741
- And my desperation i prayed and the lord listened.
- 00:07:31.741 --> 00:07:34.944
- He saved me from all my troubles.
- 00:07:34.944 --> 00:07:38.648
- If you're struggling with shame,
- 00:07:38.648 --> 00:07:40.449
- Take a moment today and bring that to the lord.
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- Let him love you back to life.
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- Let me pray for you.
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- Jesus,
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- I will never begin to understand on this earth
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- What it meant for you to take our shame on yourself.
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- That you are willing to be hung on a cross.
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- That those who walked past you that day
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- Thought you were a criminal.
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- The fact
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- They put your cross in the center
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- Made people think you are the worst of the three
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- Who were being executed that day.
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- You are willing to do that because you love us.
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- Lord thank you.
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- The shame does not belong to us.
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- So help us by your holy spirit.
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- Give us the grace to bring our shame to the fruit of the cross,
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- And to leave it there in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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