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: Reignite Your Prayer Life | 5 Minutes With Jesus | June 8, 2026
- God is not looking for fancy words.
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- He's looking for a heart that loves him.
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- And prayers that come from a heart
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- That loves and recognizes their need for god.
- 00:00:07.020 --> 00:00:10.423
- One of my favorite prayers, honestly, is simply one word
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- Jesus.
- 00:00:15.028 --> 00:00:16.796
- He loves you so much and wants to have
- 00:00:16.796 --> 00:00:19.099
- A daily, real, and authentic relationship with you.
- 00:00:19.099 --> 00:00:22.502
- One of the most important ways to get closer to the father
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- Is very simple prayer.
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- Let me ask you a question.
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- Do you ever struggle with prayer?
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- A couple of years ago, when i was about to start
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- Writing a book on prayer,
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- I went onto my facebook page and i asked this question.
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- When i say the word prayer, what comes to your mind?
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- I said, no, don't tell me what you think i want to hear.
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- Tell me what honestly comes to your mind.
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- Some of the answers made me smile.
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- They were answers i expected.
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- You know,
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- I get distracted, i'm
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- Halfway through praying, and i think, did
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- I defrost the chicken for dinner?
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- Or i feel as if
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- I just pray the same things over and over again.
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- Or why bother praying
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- If god already knows what he's going to do?
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- But some of the answers were more heartbreaking.
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- I asked god to restore my marriage
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- And it fell apart anyway.
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- So why would i pray again?
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- Even worse, i asked god to heal my child and he died.
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- Why would i ever even talk to god again?
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- First, in the midst of all these questions,
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- The good news is that prayer is really just talking to god.
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- Deepening your relationship with him daily and asking that
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- His will be done in your life.
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- And what i want to understand something as important as prayer
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- At a deeper level.
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- I want to know and study what jesus said about it.
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- And he had a lot to say about prayer.
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- Some of the passages need unpacking because on first read
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- They can sound a little confusing.
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- But let's start with matthew chapter
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- Six, verses seven through nine.
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- This is what jesus said when you pray.
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- Don't babble on and on as the gentiles do.
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- They think their prayers are answered
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- Merely by repeating their words again and again.
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- Don't be like them, for your father knows
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- Exactly what you need even before you ask him.
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- So what was jesus saying there?
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- Is there a right way and a wrong way to pray?
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- Are there certain words we should use or certain words
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- We should avoid?
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- And it also seems to speak to the whole.
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- If god already knows what we need, why pray at all a thing?
- 00:02:29.729 --> 00:02:33.366
- But i don't believe that's what jesus was saying to the crowd
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- When you studied jewish customs of the day.
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- And in fact, until now.
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- Prayer was all an incredibly important part of life.
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- But as with many things that are daily habits,
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- They can become repetition without thought.
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- I love what author john bunyan wrote in prayer.
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- It is better to have a heart without words than words
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- Without a heart.
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- So for every god honoring jew,
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- There were two things that mattered every single day.
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- Number one, the first one was the shaima,
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- Which as a command or imperative, means to hear,
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- Which is actually a recitation of three passages
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- From the old testament, which basically all proclaimed
- 00:03:15.141 --> 00:03:18.511
- This truth here, o israel, the lord our god is one god.
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- These three short passages
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- Were to be repeated morning and night.
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- So hearing and proclaiming who god is.
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- Well, the second one is called something called the 18.
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- 18 beautiful prayers
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- That are still a part of a synagogue service today,
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- But were to be repeated three times a day by devout
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- Jewish men.
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- For some, these prayers were prayed
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- With great passion, reverence, and honor.
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- But just as with you and me,
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- Sometimes our spiritual habits become so familiar
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- That were just one more thing that we do every single day.
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- And great rabbis would say this if a man says his prayers
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- As if to get through a set task, that is no prayer.
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- So again, it's all about relationship.
- 00:04:05.858 --> 00:04:08.761
- So how do we reignite our own prayer life?
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- Number one, god knows our heart.
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- He knows when we treat prayer as something to tick off our
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- To do list, as opposed to our prayers coming from the.
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- This is who i am in christ list to pray.
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- Knowing that you are a child of the king of kings.
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- Number two start simple.
- 00:04:28.314 --> 00:04:31.017
- God is not looking for fancy words.
- 00:04:31.017 --> 00:04:33.553
- He's looking for a heart that loves him.
- 00:04:33.553 --> 00:04:35.521
- And prayers that come from a heart
- 00:04:35.521 --> 00:04:36.956
- That loves and recognizes their need for god.
- 00:04:36.956 --> 00:04:40.360
- One of my favorite prayers, honestly, is simply one word
- 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:44.731
- Jesus.
- 00:04:44.964 --> 00:04:46.733
- He loves you so much and wants to have
- 00:04:46.733 --> 00:04:49.035
- A daily, real, and authentic relationship with you.
- 00:04:49.035 --> 00:04:52.438
- One of the most important ways to get closer to the father
- 00:04:52.438 --> 00:04:55.508
- Is very simple prayer.
- 00:04:55.508 --> 00:04:58.444
- Let's pray.
- 00:04:58.444 --> 00:05:00.947
- Lord, i love that we get to come to you
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- And all the moments of our life
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- When we understand what's going on
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- And when we don't understand what's going on.
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- But you encourage us to come as we are to be real
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- And authentic in our prayer.
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- Holy spirit, help us
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- So that it's not just something that we go through.
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- The motions, but it's coming from our hearts.
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- And we ask that in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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