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: Stepping into the New Year | 5 Minutes with Jesus | December 31, 2025
- In this christ likeness is our confidence.
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- Now i don't pretend to understand everything
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- That you have gone through.
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- But i do know this.
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- I know that you're loved and cared for by a master
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- Refiner who never takes his eyes off you.
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- As we walk into a new year,
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- It's my prayer that god will fill you afresh
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- With an absolute confidence that he is with you.
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- He is for you, and he will guide
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- Your steps.
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- One of my very favorite passages of scripture
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- Is found in proverbs chapter three, verses five and six.
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- You probably know it in the new living translation.
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- It reads this way.
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- Trust in the lord with all your heart.
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- Do not depend on your own understanding.
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- Seek his will in all you do.
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- And he will show you which path to take.
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- I can't tell you how many times
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- God has put on someone's heart to send me that text.
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- Over the years.
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- Several years ago,
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- I was asked to sing and speak at a conference
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- For those from countries
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- Where they would
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- Lose their lives if their faith was discovered.
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- And honestly, it felt like
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- Such a holy privilege to be in their midst.
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- They shared stories of what it's like
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- To live out their faith in the face of great danger.
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- Some even told stories of imprisonment and persecution.
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- And yet the faithfulness and presence of god
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- In the midst of what to me was truly terrifying.
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- Well, after the conference,
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- One of the attendees on a flight back to turkey
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- Wrote a letter in which she shared a prophecy with me.
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- She told me that as i was speaking,
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- God told her several things about my life.
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- It was a powerful prophecy.
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- I have lived to see come to pass.
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- But again, she included the text from proverbs three,
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- Asking me to meditate on it.
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- So as you and i walk into a new year,
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- What does it mean to trust in the lord with our whole heart?
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- Rather than relying on what makes sense to us?
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- How do we seek god's will in every single area of our lives?
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- Well, for me
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- It means building my life on god's promises, on the power
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- Of his word and stepping into each new day in faith,
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- Tozer wrote in his spiritual classic,
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- We travel an appointed way to the child of god.
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- There is no accident he travels an appointed way.
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- I could sit with that one truth for some time.
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- Think about your life through that window.
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- There's no accident.
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- Now, how does that sit with you?
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- How might be different to come to terms with that.
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- There have been many,
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- Many moments
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- That felt cruel or moments that felt out of control.
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- Like, how can breast cancer or a sick child
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- Or any other tragedy possibly work for good?
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- This is a mystery that's worth wrestling with,
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- Because once we grasp the radical truths contained in
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- This promise,
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- It will change how we view every moment of our lives.
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- I mean, think
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- About the journey of joseph that we read about in genesis.
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- He was a prime example of what some call
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- Divine reversal, declaring to his brothers,
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- You meant evil against me, but god meant it for good.
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- If you and i are able, by god's grace,
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- To receive the truth, that every single thing in our lives
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- Will work together for good, it will transform,
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- Not only how we embrace our circumstances,
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- But ultimately the purpose of our lives,
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- Which is to become more like christ.
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- In romans chapter eight, verse 29, the apostle said,
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- For those god for new he also predestined
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- To be conformed to the likeness of his son,
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- That he might be the first born among many brothers.
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- So that's our calling, to be conformed, to be made
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- Like christ.
- 00:03:59.153 --> 00:04:00.754
- In this christ likeness is our confidence.
- 00:04:00.754 --> 00:04:03.624
- Now i don't pretend to understand everything
- 00:04:03.624 --> 00:04:06.727
- That you have gone through.
- 00:04:06.727 --> 00:04:08.662
- But i do know this.
- 00:04:08.662 --> 00:04:10.464
- I know that you're loved and cared for by a master
- 00:04:10.464 --> 00:04:14.034
- Refiner who never takes his eyes off you.
- 00:04:14.034 --> 00:04:17.371
- As we walk into a new year,
- 00:04:17.371 --> 00:04:19.973
- It's my prayer that god will fill you afresh
- 00:04:19.973 --> 00:04:23.444
- With an absolute confidence that he is with you.
- 00:04:23.444 --> 00:04:27.081
- He is for you, and he will guide your steps.
- 00:04:27.081 --> 00:04:31.819
- Let's pray.
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- Father, thank you that we
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- Can walk into a new year
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- Knowing that we do not walk into it alone.
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- That you've promised that you'll never leave us.
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- That you'll never forsake us.
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- And so,
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- Lord, at the beginning of this year,
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- We just want to offer up our lives again.
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- We want to offer all of who we are, our hopes, our dreams,
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- Our fears, our failings, and trust you, lord,
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- That we can walk into our path knowing that
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- There's no accidents, that we travel and a pointed way.
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- And we thank you for that.
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- In jesus name. amen.
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