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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#Gratitude
#Trials-HardTimes
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| Sheila Walsh: Gratitude in Hard Times | 5 Minutes with Jesus | November 24, 2025
- Thanksgiving to god is to be given
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- In the worst of times and the best of times.
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- Because god has promised
- 00:00:05.295 --> 00:00:06.729
- That he will cause everything to work together for our good
- 00:00:06.729 --> 00:00:10.400
- When we love him and are called
- 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:11.701
- According to his purpose for our lives,
- 00:00:11.701 --> 00:00:14.671
- To make us more like jesus.
- 00:00:14.671 --> 00:00:17.340
- To be thankful is a fruit of habit.
- 00:00:17.340 --> 00:00:19.742
- So much easier to complain when things are not going well.
- 00:00:19.742 --> 00:00:22.779
- But the intentional discipline of thanksgiving
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- Changes us.
- 00:00:25.615 --> 00:00:30.820
- In first thessalonians chapter
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- Five, verses 17 and 18, paul writes this.
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- Always be joyful.
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- Never stop praying.
- 00:00:38.428 --> 00:00:40.196
- Be thankful in all circumstances.
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- For this is god's will for you who belong to christ jesus.
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- Do you ever struggle with this verse?
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- Always joyful.
- 00:00:49.906 --> 00:00:51.641
- Rejoice always. rejoice always.
- 00:00:51.641 --> 00:00:54.844
- It's actually the shortest verse in the greek new testament.
- 00:00:54.844 --> 00:00:58.681
- Now jesus wept is the shortest in our english bible,
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- But in the greek it's rejoice always.
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- Shortest verse with a big ask.
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- How do we do that?
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- How do you rejoice when you get bad news?
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- How do you rejoice when you're feeling sad?
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- How do you rejoice
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- When it feels as if everything is going wrong?
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- I remember having a hard time with that verse when my mum
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- Died.
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- I'd lost my father as a child and suddenly,
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- Even at my age, i felt like an orphan.
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- One of the greatest lessons i've learned in my life,
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- Though, is whatever.
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- I'm feeling, good, bad or ugly, i bring it to the lord.
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- I don't pretend that i'm doing great.
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- I simply tell him the whole truth.
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- The great composer joseph haden was once asked
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- Why his church music was so cheerful.
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- This is what he said.
- 00:01:52.769 --> 00:01:53.870
- When i think upon god.
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- My heart is so full of joy that the notes
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- Dance and leave, as it were, from my pen.
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- And since god has given me a cheerful heart,
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- It will be pardoned me that i se
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- I love that that kind of joy
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- Has nothing to do with what's going on in our circumstances.
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- But it's a supernatural joy
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- That comes from god and has rooted
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- In our relationship with him.
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- It's a joy
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- That fills our hearts even when things are falling apart.
- 00:02:21.097 --> 00:02:24.234
- You know, joy was one of the marks of the early christians.
- 00:02:24.234 --> 00:02:27.337
- And honestly,
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- It was one of the greatest tools of evangelism
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- Because even though they were experiencing persecution
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- For their faith, they still had a joy that led
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- Many who watched them to put their faith in christ.
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- Paul is concerned for the church in thessalonica.
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- He's worried that their joy might be strangled
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- By what they're going through.
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- So he urges them to rejoice not what was happening to them,
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- But in jesus, their savior and all he has done for them.
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- He urges them to never stop praying.
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- I read somewhere that martin luther, on days
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- When he had more work to do than he could handle,
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- Never used that as an excuse to stop praying.
- 00:03:04.307 --> 00:03:07.410
- This is what he said.
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- I have so much to do that
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- I cannot get on with that three hours a day of praying.
- 00:03:10.079 --> 00:03:13.950
- Honestly, that blows me away and makes me realize
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- How much i need revival in my own personal life.
- 00:03:17.053 --> 00:03:20.757
- So obviously those two things are linked together.
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- Rejoice always.
- 00:03:23.559 --> 00:03:24.961
- Never stop praying.
- 00:03:24.961 --> 00:03:26.529
- It's only when we have a close, intimate relationship with
- 00:03:26.529 --> 00:03:29.332
- Jesus that we're able to rejoice when things don't make sense.
- 00:03:29.332 --> 00:03:32.735
- The closer we are to him,
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- The more we know that we can trust that he is in control.
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- Paul is encouraging the thessalonians to take
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- Hold of god
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- In every single situation and in every moment of life,
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- To draw near to him, especially in hard times.
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- Developing an intimate
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- Relationship with god absolutely changes everything.
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- Think about it.
- 00:03:53.956 --> 00:03:55.158
- The only way to rejoice when life is hard is to fully trust.
- 00:03:55.158 --> 00:03:59.495
- God loves you that he sees you.
- 00:03:59.495 --> 00:04:02.198
- It knows exactly what's going on in your life.
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- Be thankful in all circumstances.
- 00:04:05.201 --> 00:04:07.170
- He goes on to say, but how do we do that?
- 00:04:07.170 --> 00:04:10.106
- I read something that george matheson,
- 00:04:10.106 --> 00:04:12.175
- Who was a scottish minister, and him writer
- 00:04:12.175 --> 00:04:14.677
- Who was almost blind by the age of 18, once prayed
- 00:04:14.677 --> 00:04:18.881
- This is what he prayed.
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- My god, i've never thanked you for my thorn.
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- I thank you a thousand times for my roses,
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- But never once for my thorn.
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- I've been looking forward
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- To a world where i should get compensation for my cross.
- 00:04:29.726 --> 00:04:33.196
- But teach me the glory of my cross.
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- Teach me the value of my thorn.
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- Show me.
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- I have climbed to you by the path of pain.
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- Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.
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- Thanksgiving to god is to be given
- 00:04:46.576 --> 00:04:48.511
- In the worst of times and the best of times.
- 00:04:48.511 --> 00:04:51.647
- Because god has promised
- 00:04:51.647 --> 00:04:53.082
- That he will cause everything to work together for our good
- 00:04:53.082 --> 00:04:56.753
- When we love him and are called
- 00:04:56.753 --> 00:04:58.054
- According to his purpose for our lives,
- 00:04:58.054 --> 00:05:01.023
- To make us more like jesus.
- 00:05:01.023 --> 00:05:03.693
- To be thankful is a fruit of habit.
- 00:05:03.693 --> 00:05:06.095
- So much easier to complain when things are not going well.
- 00:05:06.095 --> 00:05:09.132
- But the intentional discipline of thanksgiving changes us.
- 00:05:09.132 --> 00:05:13.936
- Let me ask you, what are you walking through right now?
- 00:05:13.936 --> 00:05:17.507
- Is it hard for you to find something to be thankful for?
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- Just start where you are.
- 00:05:21.144 --> 00:05:23.112
- Can you bring one thing to mind and thank god?
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- Perhaps you can start with the truth
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- That because of jesus, you are never alone.
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- You will never face anything by yourself.
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- For he is with you.
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- I love the old chinese proverb when you drink
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- From the stream, remember the spring.
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- Let me pray.
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- Father, thank you that
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- You are our source, that everything good comes from you.
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- So i pray right now, lord, for anyone
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- Who has walked into a hard time, will you teach us, lord,
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- How to rejoice not in what's going on,
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- But the fact that you are with us,
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- And to bring everything to you in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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