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: Learning to Persevere | 5 Minutes with Jesus | January 23, 2026
- When you think about your own spiritual life,
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- I'm sure there have been seasons
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- When the journey has been an absolute joy.
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- Jesus felt so close.
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- Scripture felt alive.
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- But i'm sure two.
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- There have been seasons
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- When it felt as if you were getting nowhere.
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- Maybe god's presence felt distant.
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- And even as you study your bible, it feels just
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- Almost just like words on a page.
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- But that is a challenge of our lives
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- To keep faithfully following on the days will be feel like it.
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- And the days when we don't.
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- Lose.
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- I wonder if you've ever heard
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- The phrase a long obedience in the same direction.
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- It's a title of a book i read years ago by eugene
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- Peterson.
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- He writes about keeping going, walking the long haul
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- Walk of faith on a day after day after day experience.
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- I think as a culture, we don't do well with waiting.
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- We want something to happen and we want it to happen.
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- Now, as a society, we were no less obsessed
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- With the immediate than when eugene peterson
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- First wrote this christian classic many, many years ago.
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- If anything,
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- I think email and social media and the internet may have intent
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- Intensified our quest for a quick fix.
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- But peterson's description for faithful discipleship
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- Remains the same.
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- He calls it very simply a long
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- Obedience in the same direction.
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- Well, tucked away in the midst of the psalms, peterson
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- Discovered what he called an old dog eared songbook.
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- It's called the song of ascents.
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- They were sung by pilgrims on the way
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- Up to worship in jerusalem. there are.
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- These are the psalms or psalm 122.
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- Psalm 134 15 psalms.
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- You might be more familiar with some of them than others.
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- One of my very favorites is psalm 121.
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- Do you know this one?
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- I look up to the mountains.
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- Does my help come from there?
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- My help comes from the lord who made heaven and earth.
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- He will not let you stumble.
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- The one who watches over you will not stumble.
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- Indeed.
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- He who watches over israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
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- The lord himself watches over you.
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- The lord stands beside you as your protective shade.
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- The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
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- The lord will keep you from all harm
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- And watches over your life.
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- The lord keeps watch over you as you come and go.
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- Both now and forever.
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- These 15 psalms tucked into the middle of the psalms,
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- Were written for god's people as they journeyed to jerusalem
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- For the three main feasts of the year.
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- Interestingly enough, when the pilgrims arrived in
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- Jerusalem, there were 15 steps up to the temple
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- And 15 psalms, and these 15 had a theme
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- For those who traveled to worship god years ago.
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- And they have a theme for you and i as well.
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- You and i were on a journey.
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- We're heading home to be with god forever.
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- Heading toward the day when, as it says in revelation chapter
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- 21, god's home is with his people.
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- One thing i know about long
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- Journeys is just that they are long.
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- When you think
- 00:03:24.060 --> 00:03:25.328
- About your own spiritual life, i'm sure there have been seasons
- 00:03:25.328 --> 00:03:27.630
- When the journey has been an absolute joy.
- 00:03:27.630 --> 00:03:30.633
- Jesus felt so close.
- 00:03:30.633 --> 00:03:32.468
- Scripture felt alive.
- 00:03:32.468 --> 00:03:34.404
- But i'm sure two.
- 00:03:34.404 --> 00:03:35.271
- There have been seasons
- 00:03:35.271 --> 00:03:36.339
- When it felt as if you were getting nowhere.
- 00:03:36.339 --> 00:03:39.509
- Maybe god's presence felt distant.
- 00:03:39.509 --> 00:03:42.078
- And even as you study your bible, it feels just
- 00:03:42.078 --> 00:03:45.815
- Almost just like words on a page.
- 00:03:45.815 --> 00:03:48.551
- But that is a challenge of our lives
- 00:03:48.551 --> 00:03:51.220
- To keep faithfully following on the days will be feel like it.
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- And the days when we don't.
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- And honestly, i think that's why community matters
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- When we isolate.
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- It's easy to get discouraged.
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- But i imagine as the pilgrims traveled along and sang
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- Together, that in itself became a strength.
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- Because we remind each other, it's always true.
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- No matter what might be true for a season,
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- There's something about praying the psalms out loud
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- That is such a beautiful discipline.
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- And i don't know whether you have
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- Got out of the habit
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- Of gathering together with other believers.
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- You know, i think sometimes when the pandemic hit in 2020,
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- People kind of got out of the pattern of meaning
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- To gather to worship.
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- And they thought, well, you know what?
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- We can just sit at home
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- With a cup of coffee and join in worship.
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- But it's not the same.
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- There's something so special when we get together.
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- I can't tell you how many times i've been tired or discouraged
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- And just honestly didn't
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- Feel like getting together with other believers.
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- But there's something about when you.
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- When we're in one another's presence,
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- When worship starts and maybe
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- Sometimes you're thinking you don't really feel it.
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- But as you begin to hear brothers and sisters around
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- You lift our voices, lift
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- Our hands, lift our hearts, and praise.
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- That reminds you of what is always true
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- No matter what you might be facing.
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- There's something really beautiful.
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- The psalms are a gift.
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- I think it was, trying to think.
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- Or athanasius in the fourth century said this.
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- Whereas most of scripture
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- Speaks to us, the psalms speak for us.
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- They give us a language of prayer.
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- So why don't you try that?
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- Why don't you try picking up
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- Your book of the psalms and read it out loud, like your ears
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- Hear, for your eyes are reading and remind you of who you are,
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- Who where we're going, who we're following.
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- And because of jesus,
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- We have a lot to celebrate on the journey.
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- Let me pray for you.
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- Father, i want to thank you for your word,
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- And i want to thank you too, lord,
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- That even within the book of psalms
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- You have this little section of
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- Psalms that were used by your people
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- To sing together as they journey towards your house.
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- And lord, i pray for each one of us that we would not like
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- A neglect getting together so that we can worship together.
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- We can read your word together and remind ourselves
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- And remind one another of who we are, of whose we are,
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- And where we are going on our journey home.
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- I ask all this in jesus name, amen.
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