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: When Your Path Is Unclear | 5 Minutes with Jesus | March 23, 2026
- I don't know where you are in your own faith journey,
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- But that morning in the prayer chapel,
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- I surrendered what made sense to me by faith.
- 00:00:05.829 --> 00:00:08.798
- I prayed. i'll wait. lord.
- 00:00:08.798 --> 00:00:11.267
- I'll wait until you show me the next step.
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- God is not lost.
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- Not confused about your life.
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- He has got you.
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- Have you ever been in a season when the road ahead is.
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- It's just not clear.
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- Maybe you're in a job transition.
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- Not sure whether to stay or to go.
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- You might be in a relationship that you're not sure is healthy,
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- But if you let that one go, what will you have?
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- Perhaps you felt god telling you to take a step of faith,
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- But nothing seems to be falling into place.
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- And you wonder, did i hear god at all?
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- I used to
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- Think that following god's plan would always be clear
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- And make sense, but that's not been my experience.
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- There are times
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- When we are asked to take a step of faith and surrender
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- The outcome to god.
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- I remember being three weeks away from graduating from london
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- Theological seminary, and i had no idea
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- What i was supposed to do.
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- Everyone else had a plan in place and i didn't.
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- I had felt called by god into ministry when i was 16,
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- But i thought that i thought i'd be a missionary in india.
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- I had a heart for the women of india, particularly those
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- Who were seen by their culture as having little value.
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- But god had close that door.
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- Well, there was a little prayer chapel for students.
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- Seminary.
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- And i went there early one morning,
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- Honestly, just to be quiet
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- In god's presence and ask him for help and guidance.
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- I sat for a while in the quiet, feeling.
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- Nothing but one word kept coming to my heart,
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- And it was the word surrender.
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- At first, that didn't really make sense.
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- That was why i was at seminary.
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- I had surrendered my life to following god's plan,
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- And now i was in a place where the road ahead looked dark.
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- I had my bible with me, and i opened it to read about
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- The last week of jesus life on this earth.
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- The word surrender was written all over it.
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- He knew what was ahead.
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- And yet he took the next step.
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- Just one week before good friday,
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- We read a story about jesus encounter with a man
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- Named zacchaeus, as found in luke's gospel, chapter 19.
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- This is what it says.
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- Jesus entered jericho and made his way through the town.
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- There was a man there named zacchaeus.
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- He was a chief
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- Tax collector in the region, and he'd become very rich.
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- He tried to get a look at jesus, but he was too short to see
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- Over the crowd.
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- So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree beside
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- The road.
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- For jesus was going to pass that way.
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- When jesus came by,
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- He looked up at zacchaeus and called him by name.
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- Zacchaeus.
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- He said, quick, come down.
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- I must be a guest in your home today.
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- Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took jesus to his house
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- In great excitement and joy.
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- But the people were displeased.
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- He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner.
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- They grumbled.
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- But meanwhile zacchaeus stood before the lord and said,
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- I will give half my wealth to the poor lord.
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- And if i've cheated people on
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- Their taxes, i'll give them back four times as much.
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- Jesus responded, salvation has come to this home today.
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- For this man has shown himself to be a true son of abraham.
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- For the son of man came to seek and save those who are lost.
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- The greek word here for lost is appollumi
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- Which means lost, ruined,
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- Broken beyond repair.
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- The fact that christ took time out to spend with this man
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- That was basically ripping off his own people, blows me away.
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- And the timing as well.
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- In only one week, christ would be nailed to the cross.
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- And yet he saw one man who,
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- In the midst of his brokenness, was reaching out to him.
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- Christ had surrendered every right to an easy path.
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- He simply took the next step.
- 00:04:16.179 --> 00:04:19.248
- I don't know where you are in your own faith journey,
- 00:04:19.248 --> 00:04:22.185
- But that morning in the prayer chapel,
- 00:04:22.185 --> 00:04:24.687
- I surrendered what made sense to me by faith.
- 00:04:24.687 --> 00:04:27.657
- I prayed. i'll wait. lord.
- 00:04:27.657 --> 00:04:30.126
- I'll wait until you show me the next step.
- 00:04:30.126 --> 00:04:33.363
- God is not lost.
- 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:35.732
- Not confused about your life.
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- He has got you.
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- Let's pray.
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- Father, thank you that you have a perfect plan.
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- That even those things happen in our life
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- And they take us by surprise.
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- Nothing takes you by surprise.
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- I pray right now, lord, for anyone who feels
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- They've taken a step of faith and nothing makes sense.
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- Will you help us
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- To faithfully surrender what makes sense to us?
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- To you in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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