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: Let Prayer Lead You | 5 Minutes with Jesus | June 10, 2026
- So as you look at your prayer life this week,
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- A couple things to think about.
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- Number one,
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- Spend time waiting and listening to what god might be saying
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- To you. be still.
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- Number two, thank god for what he said
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- And what he's done and how he's working in your life.
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- Number three, pray for god's will and not your own.
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- Pretty good place to start.
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- Let me ask you a question.
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- How do you pray or talk to god now?
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- Like, do you have a regular time that you like to pray?
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- Is that when you first
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- Get up in the morning or last thing at night?
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- As a child, i prayed at night time
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- And it was the same prayer every night.
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- Jesus, gentle shepherd, hear me.
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- Bless my little lamb tonight.
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- Through the darkness be thou near me.
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- Keep me safe till morning light.
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- Very simple.
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- But as i grew older, prayer changed for me.
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- I read something that corrie
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- Ten boom said once that really impacted me.
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- You might remember her story
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- Or have read her book, the hiding place.
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- She and her father were dutch watchmakers who, during world
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- War two, helped jewish people hide from the nazis.
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- She survived the concentration camp at ravensbrück,
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- Although her
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- Father and her sister betsy did not survive the camps.
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- When corrie,
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- Who lived through such torture and cruelty,
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- Writes about prayer,
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- I want to hear every single word.
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- So she asked this question is prayer
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- Your steering wheel or your spare tire?
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- In other words, is prayer the very thing that direct
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- Your life or simply what you turn to in an emergency?
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- I start with that question a lot.
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- It's easy and tempting to say,
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- Of course it's my steering wheel,
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- But i have to often pause and think about how many times
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- I go ahead and i make plans,
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- And then i simply ask god to bless them.
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- And not only that,
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- But the more i study scripture and look at what prayer
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- Meant to christ, i see it's far more than asking for direction
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- Or bringing our list before our father.
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- For jesus, prayer was life.
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- We've read over and over of times
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- When he would withdraw
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- From the crowds and find a quiet place to pray.
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- Let's look at a few of those.
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- Number one, in the first chapter of mark's gospel, we read this
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- That evening after sunset, many sick and demon possessed
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- People were brought to jesus.
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- The whole town gathered at the door to watch.
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- So jesus healed
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- Many people who were sick with various diseases,
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- And he cast out many demons.
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- But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them
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- To speak before daybreak.
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- The next morning,
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- Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.
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- Think about it.
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- He had to be exhausted, but before dawn
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- He found a quiet place to be with his father.
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- Secondly, in luke chapter six, we read this one day.
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- Soon afterward, jesus went up on a mountain to pray,
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- And he prayed to god all night.
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- This was after he'd healed a man with a withered hand
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- And made
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- The religious leaders furious,
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- Because he healed them on the sabbath.
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- He spent the whole night on the mountain with his father.
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- Wow. the whole night
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- I'm about to be.
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- After he heard the news that john
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- The baptist had been beheaded.
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- As soon as jesus heard the news,
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- He left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.
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- And four.
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- Perhaps the one that we're most familiar
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- With on the night when he was betrayed.
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- Mark's gospel records it this way.
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- They went to the olive grove called gethsemane.
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- And jesus said, sit here while i go and pray.
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- I read an
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- Article online by bill gautier on mark's gospel,
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- In which he writes, the priority of jesus solitude
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- And silence is everywhere in the gospels.
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- It's how he began his ministry is how he made
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- Important decisions.
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- It's how he dealt with troubling emotions like grief is
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- How he dealt with the constant demands of his ministry
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- And cared for his own soul.
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- Is how he prepared for his death on the cross.
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- He also says that although
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- Mark's gospel is the one gospel that feels
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- As if it's going at the speed of a train,
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- You know you can read the whole thing
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- In about 90 minutes.
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- He takes time to help us understand that silence
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- And solitude and prayer with his father mattered to jesus.
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- If they mattered to jesus in all the moments of his life,
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- How much more for you and for me?
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- So as you look at your prayer life this week,
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- A couple things to think about.
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- Number one,
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- Spend time waiting and listening to what god might be saying
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- To you. be still.
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- Number two, thank god for what he said
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- And what he's done and how he's working in your life.
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- Number three, pray for god's will and not your own.
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- Pretty good place to start.
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- Let's pray.
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- Lord, thank you for the example you left of your own life
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- Of a number of times, and we'll never know
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- What those conversations were like with your father.
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- But you wanted to be with him.
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- And if that was important to you,
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- Then, lord, that's important to us.
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- Teach us how to be with you in all the moments of our life.
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- In jesus name, amen.
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