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 See Like God | 5 Minutes with Jesus | January 29, 2026
- It's easy to look with our own eyes.
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- My prayer is
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- God would give us his eyes to see people differently,
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- And that simple acts of kindness would change
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- People's lives
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- Before
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- I went off to seminary when i was 18 or 19,
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- I had the summer at home in our little fishing
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- Village and scotland, and i wanted to do something.
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- I wanted to volunteer somewhere because i had like six weeks,
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- And so i decided to volunteer at a senior center.
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- It was a place where our senior citizens
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- Would come and have lunch and play games and just,
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- You know, have some time to be together.
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- So i volunteered and i would go every day
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- And i would help serve the meals
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- And bring coffees or just do anything
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- That anybody needed me to do.
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- But there was this one gentleman i just could not reach.
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- He would never whenever i called lunch,
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- He would never come to the table and sit with all the others.
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- He would sit with his back against the wall.
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- So every single day i would take him as lunch on a tray
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- And i would say, hey, here's your lunch.
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- I hope you enjoy it. he wouldn't make eye contact.
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- He wouldn't look up. he would say nothing.
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- So one day i thought, you know, i just have to try harder.
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- So i prayed about it that morning that i said, lord,
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- Would you help me to reach this man?
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- Because i don't know what's going on in his life.
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- And so i decided that day, after i brought him his lunch,
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- I would take another chair over and i would sit beside him.
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- So i gave him his lunch.
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- And then i dragged another chair over
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- And i sat down beside him, and he did not look thrilled.
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- But i said to him, hi,
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- My name is sheila and i was born and raised here in ayr.
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- But one day i'm going to go to america.
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- While his face lit up as if he had just won the lottery
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- And he said to me, i'm from america, i'm from america.
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- I'm miss america.
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- And then he said, if you ever go to america,
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- If you ever get to poughkeepsie,
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- Will you tell him that george said hi?
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- I had no idea
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- What poughkeepsie was, but i promised him i would.
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- But here's the lesson that i learned from that.
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- Because it changed him.
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- Because every single day after that, now we were
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- We didn't have a lot of money when i was growing up.
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- We didn't have a car.
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- I had to take a bus to get to the senior center
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- And some days off the bus was late.
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- I would be a little bit late,
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- But the minute i walked through those doors, the minute
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- George saw me, no matter if anybody else was talking,
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- His face lit up and he would call out.
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- She came!
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- Just a little bit of kindness
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- Had unlocked what was going on, because here's
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- What it looked like to me.
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- To me, it looked like he was just
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- Somebody who wanted no relationship with anyone,
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- Who just wanted to come in, get us food and leave.
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- I didn't see that.
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- He was actually just a really lonely man
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- Who missed his home, who missed his people.
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- And by the way, years later, i landed in poughkeepsie
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- And the very first thing i did when i got out of the airport
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- Was i yelled at the top of my lungs.
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- George said, hi,
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- But could you imagine the impact on our world
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- If we chose this year to see everyone we encounter
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- With god's eyes, not with what we see?
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- I love first corinthians chapter 13,
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- Particularly verses four through seven.
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- This is what it says.
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- Love is patient and kind.
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- Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or root.
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- It does not demand its own way.
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- It is not irritable and it keeps no record of
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- Being wronged, does not rejoice about injustice,
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- But rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
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- Love never gives up, never loses
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- Faith, is always hopeful
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- And endures to every circumstance.
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- I think that's one of the
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- Great privileges that you and i have as followers of jesus,
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- That we get to be part of the good news that maybe unlocks
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- What's going on in somebody's life.
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- Perhaps you'll bump into somebody today,
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- Maybe someone you work with, or just someone casually.
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- And on first impressions, it looks like maybe they want
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- Nothing to do with you.
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- Or they're they're in a bad place.
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- Ask god to give you eyes to see what's really going on.
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- You know, i've discovered when i.
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- I don't go around doing this all the time.
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- I try not to annoy people, but
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- But i do often ask people, can i pray for you?
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- I only once has a person
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- Ever said, no, i don't want you to pray for me.
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- I cannot tell you the number of times
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- That people have said, actually, that would be lovely.
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- You know, it's easy to look with our own eyes.
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- My prayer is god would give us his eyes
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- To see people differently, and that simple acts of kindness
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- Would change people's lives in jesus name.
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- Let me pray for you.
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- Father, i want to thank you
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- For your outrageous kindness that you've set on us.
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- Lord, we don't deserve any of it.
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- And yet you're constantly
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- Gracious and kind and merciful and loving.
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- And so, lord, we do ask for your help with that today.
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- Would you help us to see beyond what seems to be going on
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- In somebody's life, to what might actually be going on?
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- Help us to be part of the good news on this earth, lord.
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- Help us to be part of those who bring your love
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- And your joy and your peace and your grace.
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- And we ask it all in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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