5 Minutes with Jesus: A Fresh Infusion of Joy
By Sheila Walsh and Sherri Gragg
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About this ebook
We all have days when joy feels out of reach. Maybe it’s because our routines feel mundane or our struggles seem unending, but we end up just trying to get through the day. We forget that Scripture tells us joy—the joy of the Lord—is always within in reach.
Jesus told his disciples to remain in his truth and love so that his joy may be in them, and Sheila Walsh guides women toward this amazing experience in 5 Minutes with Jesus: A Fresh Infusion of Joy. Powerful devotions, encouraging scriptures, and memorable takeaways will inspire readers to draw close to Jesus and live with his joy every day. Spending time with the Savior can make a world of difference!
With contemporary packaging and inspiring content, 5 Minutes with Jesus: A Fresh Infusion of Joy makes a beautiful gift for a friend who needs encouragement and a great self-purchase for anyone looking for a little more joy in her life.
Sheila Walsh
Sheila Walsh is a powerful communicator, Bible teacher, and bestselling author with almost six million books sold. She is the author of the award-winning Gigi, God’s Little Princess series, It’s Okay Not to Be Okay, Praying Women, Holding On When You Want to Let Go, and more. She is cohost of the inspirational talk show Life Today with James and Betty Robison, which is seen worldwide by a potential audience of over 100 million viewers. Sheila lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Barry, and son, Christian, who is in graduate school.
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5 Minutes with Jesus - Sheila Walsh
Choose Joy
What are your first thoughts in the morning?
Coffee!
A desperate wish for a little more sleep
Anxiety about your job
Worries for your family and friends
I can relate to all of these!
But I have learned a valuable secret: I have the power to stop those dark thoughts right in their tracks and choose joy instead. For me, the first step in this transformation is to turn my worry into gratitude.
I thank God for the bed I slept in and the roof over my head.
I thank Him that, in His faithfulness, He awakened me to a new day and has given me a fresh start.
I thank Him for my calling and the ways He uses it to grow me and provide for me.
I tell my heavenly Father how much I appreciate His promise to faithfully care for those I love.
We aren’t able to control our circumstances or the difficulties each day brings, but as children of God we have great power to choose joy by focusing on the ways God blesses us.
Author Henri Nouwen warned us that it is an ongoing temptation to think of ourselves as living under a curse. . . . Jesus came to bless us, not to curse us. But we must choose to receive that blessing and hand it on to others.
¹
And choosing joy in our lives is actually God’s will for us, His children. He speaks very clearly through Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18: Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Ready to give it a try? Open your eyes to greet the new day and throw the doors of your heart open to joy by making a deliberate choice to embrace all the blessings God has lavished upon your life. Pour out your thanks to Him for each of His gifts, big and small, before you even put your feet on the floor.
There is power in your praise!
images/img-9-1.jpg Five Minutes in the Word images/img-9-2.jpg
Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O L
ORD
; you cover him with favor as with a shield.
Psalm 5:11–12
ESV
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the L
ORD
is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100:4–5
ESV
L
ORD
, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.
Isaiah 33:2
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
Psalm 143:8
Yet I will rejoice in the L
ORD
, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Habakkuk 3:18
images/img-3-1a.jpgDo You Know Who You Are?
Have you ever seen the movie The Princess Diaries ?
It’s the story of an awkward teenage girl named Mia who can’t seem to win at anything. Then one day her long-lost grandmother shows up with the earth-shattering announcement that young Mia is actually a princess!
Mia is quickly thrown into the process of being groomed to become the future queen. But Mia doesn’t bring a lot to the table as a princess. She is short on grace, low on manners, knows nothing about governing a kingdom, and her hair is a complete disaster. Not much about her suggests she is worthy of the honorable title. But a princess she is, not because of her appearance or her ability to rule, but because of who she is. Mia is the only grandchild of the queen, and that is qualification enough.
We find a similar story in Scripture, but instead of a princess in the starring role, we have a long-lost prince named Mephibosheth. A descendant of King Saul, he was whisked away by his nurse to keep him safe when another family took over the kingdom. His very identity could mean death and danger.
Once David was on the throne, he sought out Mephibosheth, brought him into the palace, and treated him as one of his own sons. Why? Mephibosheth was the only living child of David’s best friend, Jonathan. God gave this crippled man, who was a prince but felt so insignificant that he called himself a dead dog
(2 Samuel 9:8), one incredibly happy ending.
Now for another example of royalty. Look in the mirror. Yes, look in the mirror. Do you know who you are? You might answer with your name or a role you think defines you—wife, daughter, mother, employee, volunteer. But the most significant answer is . . . you are a child of the King. And that’s a capital K King!
The stories of Mia and Mephibosheth highlight a beautiful truth for children of the King. Our value in this life comes not from what we can accomplish or achieve but in who we are. When Jesus paid the price for our sins, God made us His very own daughters. We can joyfully cry out with the apostle John, What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are
(1 John 3:1 THE MESSAGE). God’s love is a defining love—it changes everything.
I am a child of God.
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You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9–10
In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
Galatians 3:26
To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
John 1:12–13
I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
2 Corinthians 6:18
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:2
images/img-3-1a.jpgThe Wonderful Ordinary
Iwas the least likely to be chosen.
Don’t believe me? Here are some reasons why.
I walked in my sleep until I was almost eighteen. I couldn’t go for more than two miles in a car without throwing up. The school nurse told my mom that I’d probably never be able to travel far from home. My father’s suicide when he was thirty-four years old left a huge scar on my heart and a deep loneliness inside. The word that comes to mind when I think of the first thirty years of my life is sad. When someone you love with all your heart takes his or her life, it shatters your sense of worth. Not worth staying around for . . . on the bargain pile . . .
Even now, dear reader, as I write these words, I am again overwhelmed that God would use such a broken person to bring the hope and joy of Jesus to others. I grew up believing I had nothing to offer anyone.
Have you ever felt like you just didn’t have anything special
enough to be used by God? Well, I have great news for you! You are exactly the kind of person God loves to call into His service.
You see, God doesn’t look at things the way we do at all. We usually pick the gifted, the charming, the people who appear to have it all together for the big jobs. But God would rather use the ordinary people of this world to do His most important work.
I can’t help but smile when I read Jesus’ prayer about His disciples (and notice how Luke set it up): Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things [about the presence of God’s kingdom and the fall of Satan] from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do’
(Luke 10:21).
I can just imagine the disciples hearing these words and thinking, Well, thanks a lot. . . . If they were beginning to have any delusions about how brilliant and fantastic they were, I guess that prayer cleared things right up!
Being likened to children rather than to the wise and learned
might have been a hard truth for the disciples to hear, but it brings me a lot of comfort. I am so glad I don’t have to be the smartest, most eloquent, most polished person in the room in order for God to use me in His kingdom work.
And if the miracle of God using people who don’t have it all together—people like the disciples and me—can bring Jesus joy, how much joy should it bring to me?
God still calls the ordinary to do His kingdom