294. I’m So Tired of Hiding This From You…

In this deeply honest episode, I return from maternity leave not just refreshed, but transformed. What made this postpartum season my best yet? It’s more than frozen meals and napping (though those help). For the first time, I open up about something I've never shared on this podcast: a raw, vulnerable look at the emotional wiring that kept me stuck in people-pleasing, and how I'm finally breaking free.

You’ll hear the story behind the circuit in my brain that stole my peace… and the powerful tools I discovered to rewire it. We’re talking about Emotional Brain Training (EBT), the science-backed system that’s changing how I approach health, stress, and even spirituality.

I also tackle something rarely talked about in wellness spaces: the intersection of faith and healing — not religion, but spirituality as a vital part of personal transformation.

If you’ve ever felt like you “know what to do” but still sabotage your progress… if you’ve struggled with stress eating, snapping at loved ones, or just feeling like you’re not you anymore… this episode might be the wake-up call (and relief) you didn’t know you needed.

Come for the postpartum update — stay for the truth bomb that might just set you free.

>> Video Version of Pastor's Message

>> Dr. Laurel Mellin's Episode

Resources From This Episode

>> Insulin Resistance Diet Blueprint - https://www.zivli.com/blueprint?el=podcast

>> Free Low Insulin Food Guide - https://www.zivli.com/ultimatefoodguide?el=podcast

>> Join the Zivli Program Waitlist - https://www.zivli.com/join?el=podcast

>> Test Your Insulin at Home - https://www.zivli.com/testing?el=podcast

Have a question? Email us at: support@zivli.com

Transcript

Now, if I was to take an orange and squeeze it, what would come out? What kind of juice? Why would it be orange juice? All because that's what's inside. You can learn a lot about what's inside of a person by what comes out when they are squeezed.

Hi, I'm Dr. Morgan Nolte, founder of Zivli. As a geriatric physical therapist, I saw the heartbreaking effects of insulin resistance. At Zivli, our mission is to help you prevent and reverse insulin resistance for long-term weight loss and disease prevention through a low insulin and inflammation lifestyle. Each week on this podcast, you'll learn simple, actionable tips to lose weight, keep it off, and get healthy.

If you're ready to create a body and life you love, you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Well, hey there and welcome back to another episode. I'm your host, Dr. Morgan Nolte and I am very thrilled to be back here with you today. This is my first recording after maternity leave. I'll give you a little bit of rundown of what I've been doing on leave and gosh, I can't wait to get into this next season. This next season of the podcast, this next season of our business, I'll be sharing some things with you today. And again, I'm just so excited.

You can hear it in my voice. I was ready to come back to work. Before we dive into the meat of this episode, I just wanted to take a moment and give you a little bit of an update on what's been going on over the last 10 weeks, because for my regular listeners, you probably feel like you're a friend, and that's how I hope you feel. I want you kind of in the ins and outs of things ⁓ just to kind of connect with you.

So people have been asking, how has that been going from two to three kids? Like how is your postpartum experience? And I'll tell you what, this has been the best postpartum experience out of all three. And there's about three reasons that I can identify that that has been the case. Number one, I got the epidural. Going into childbirth, my baby was breech. And so they recommended I get an eversion so they could flip the baby.

And then go into labor right away. So he didn't have a chance to flip again. And in order for that to be, ⁓ as successful as it could be, they recommended an epidural. So I was completely numb and I was so nervous, man. was nervous about a lot of things for that day. Of course, when you're going to have a baby, but especially when you're having a baby in a way you've never had one before my first two were completely natural and unmedicated and hurt like the Dickens. And, ⁓ it's hard, you know, when you're in pain for like,

13 to 16 hours and your body is just under a tremendous amount of stress, it hurts postpartum. I remember every part of my body was sore. After Dawson, especially, my husband has a funny story. He's very funny in labor and delivery. ⁓ He said after Dawson, our oldest, was born, he said, I hate to tell you this, Morgan, but I'm pretty sore too.

I thought you've got to be kidding me. But you know, he was supporting me on the birthing ball and stuff like that and pushing into my back. And I guess he got sore too after the first one. ⁓ so anyways, I did the epidural this time. And if I had known, if I had known how lovely it was to have a baby with a properly working epidural, probably would have done it for the first two. Because man.

It was one, it was just great. guys like, can't even tell you how was your postpartum fantastic because I knew I had a pretty low bar to compare it to. So Logan is so sweet. He does have a club foot on the right. So we've been doing a lot of trips up to children's in Omaha to get casting and he might need surgery for that and long-term bracing. It's kind of a moderate case. So not super severe right now. We don't think there's anything else.

you know, wrong per se with him. So we're grateful for that. he's just so sweet, know, so sweet, so chunky, ⁓ sleeping better than any of our other kids. That might just be conditioning on our part to get our kids to sleep better. And, ⁓ we've just had such a joyous postpartum, but yeah, the first thing that made it the easiest was the epidural for sure, because then I wasn't so sore after. The second thing was meal prep.

Man alive, like my mother made me so many frozen meals. We are still working through them 10 weeks later. And so I don't even think I cooked for like a month because I made a bunch of food. My mom made a bunch of food. My mother-in-law helped out. And then that was the third thing that really made the difference was help. Man, accepting help, especially with the older two kids, my mother-in-law and my mom and my husband were just so.

helpful and it let me rest. I napped. Do you know, I never nap. I did not take maybe more than three naps postpartum with my other two kids. And I took like one nap a day for the first month. I was in, I was just really rocking and rolling because I was getting more sleep and I was getting more help. So yeah, it's been wonderful. And then the other thing that's been going on

is just rebuilding my body. know, like after going through pregnancy and childbirth, your body's just a little bit wrecked. ⁓ I lost strength, even though I exercised throughout my entire pregnancy the best I could. When you're pregnant and early breastfeeding, especially, your appetite goes up. So I've had to really work on tightening back up my eating habits.

And it's all going great. Like the weight is coming off. I've had so many people tell me like, wow, you look so good. Like you're, you're just not even that far along long postpartum. And it's like, yeah, but I feel good. I feel good. And that is what matters most to me is that I feel good in my body. I feel strong in my body. I feel no pain, you know, no low back pain or anything like that, that a lot of people get postpartum, no pelvic floor pain.

So I'm just feeling really grateful over here. Really, really grateful to have had that. And then the last thing, number four, I didn't want to forget my team, my team, Kendra, Beth, Lydia, Sasha, they have been so helpful and so supportive while I was on maternity leave. And they really held down the zivli for it for our members, all the content that we produced and batched ahead of time. So those four things, man, I'm just.

sitting over here so grateful to be able to come back to work very refreshed and with a new energy and spark in me. So what I wanted to cover today is very personal and it's gonna be my most authentic and vulnerable episode yet because I have been holding back.

Now my regular listeners and my members especially, they might think, well, I already know that about you, Morgan. Like I know that, but I've still been holding back. And it has to do with spirituality and the role that I believe God plays in our health transformation and in our life.

I'm just gonna tell you straight up, I'm not here to evangelize and I am not here to convert anybody. I will speak about my faith, I will speak about my spirituality because it is important to me and because I think it can be transformative to you if you're also on a personal development journey. Why have I waited so long to be so transparent about this?

Well, I have a lot of little t-trauma around religion. I'm not talking about religion today. I won't really ever talk about religion.

I don't need to get into the trauma. when I say little t trauma, it's not like I was abused or anything like that. There's that big t trauma, like the abuse, sexual assault, that kind of stuff. And then the little t trauma, which is periods where you don't feel safe, periods where you might feel abandoned. That's what I'm talking about. And I've had several.

periods where I made a choice to go to a certain church or to be a certain Christian denomination that led to direct like persecution, feelings of abandonment, ⁓ feelings of disapproval, and then sometimes just like straight up broken relationships over that trauma, like that hurts.

If you've ever felt that, I feel you. I'm sorry, because I know that that can hurt so deeply. And so I'm guessing that you can imagine if I've experienced that abandonment and rejection. Rejection, I think, is the emotion I'm trying to express from my closest friends and family members.

What would happen if I shared this side of me with strangers on the internet, listening to my podcast or my members, my Zivli members who I care so deeply about. They might reject me. I might get a negative podcast review. I remember one time, man, talk about like email trauma. Someone emailed me and asking like, this was years ago.

and asked more about our program and she saw that, you know, spirituality was a component. And she sent me the nastiest email back. Like, I would never patronize a business that does that. Like, I'm agnostic and I'm like, okay, like no harm, no foul. Like you asked a question and I answered. But you can hear in my voice, there is still unresolved trauma that I will actively be working through.

And I finally, I finally have the tools to do that. I will be sharing more with you about emotional brain training or EBT. It was created by Dr. Laurel Mellon. She's been on the podcast before. While I was on maternity leave, she did a mindset coaching call with our Zivli members that I usually host that once a month. She was a guest host.

And I am getting certified in emotional brain training and it is, wow, it's mind blowing. Like I have not been this obsessed about something since I learned about insulin resistance. And I really think it's the missing piece for so many people who are struggling with some sort of block. Like, all right, I know what to do and I wanna do the right thing, but I get stressed out and then I don't do the right thing.

whether that's emotionally, whether that's drink, whether that's ⁓ speak unkindly to your spouse or your kids. It's like you just snap and you can't control your actions anymore. EBT gives you the tools to figure out why you do that and to rewire those deep emotional subconscious circuits is what they are to think differently. And what I realized was aside from the religious trauma that I faced,

growing up and in my adult life. ⁓ There was some other childhood trauma about where I get my security from, where I get my sense of safety from. And it stems all the way back. I did some deep work on maternity leave to when I was about eight years old. I'm not gonna tell you the story to protect the privacy of the person involved, but essentially,

I had a traumatic experience that led to a circuit being formed in my mind that said,

You get your safety and you get your security from making other people comfortable with your decisions.

Okay, so I kind of grew up until now basing a lot of my decisions around what made other people comfortable.

what didn't offend other people.

And often, unknowingly, because these are subconscious, I was doing that like at the expense of expressing my own authenticity, like I am right now.

And once I figured out that that was just a circuit that I could rewire and I used the EBT tools to rewire it, I was able to get over that people pleasing circuit. And now what I tell myself every day in my morning mindset routine to reinforce the new circuit is I get my security from connecting with the love inside me, with God inside of me.

I don't need external love or validation. That's why I'm showing up today. That's why I'm talking about this because I have regained personal freedom that I lost because I had an old circuit.

And I wanna ask you the same question. What old circuits do you maybe have even without knowing them that are robbing your freedom? We're gonna get into this stuff. Like we are gonna be going very deep. As I learn more about EBT, will share. ⁓ Members get super excited because EBT is going to be part of Zivli. ⁓

We're not exactly sure the structure, like how we're gonna teach it to you guys yet. I think we know, but we have to, I'm gonna finish up the certification process and mull it over and really say, how can I teach us in the most effective way possible? Because it's life-changing. know, Zivli, if you don't know, Ziv is to live in Croatian and the LI stands for low insulin, low inflammation lifestyle.

fantastic, right? That's like the strategy side of things. And it works. It absolutely works. But we also have this mindset side of things. And you cannot lose the physical weight without also losing the mental weight. And EBT is also a lifestyle. Like it is a way of thinking, a way of moving through stress to joy.

It is specific processes that you use based on your stressed state. And I'm going to give you a very concrete example here coming up from my own life recently to just help. mean, gosh, like you can, you can probably hear it in my voice, the relief that I feel having discovered that people pleasing circuit and broken it. And it's like, gosh, I want that for everyone.

Now the very important thing about EBT is it's geared towards reducing your baseline level of stress and increasing your joy set point ⁓ for a few reasons. Number one, like when you're stressed, your cortisol's up and that dysregulates the eight major hormones ⁓ responsible for your weight and drives weight gain. You're gonna be hungrier. When you do eat, you're gonna be less likely to be full. Your cortisol's up, so your insulin goes up, so you store more fat.

this low grade chronic stress caused by these circuits in our mind that are not serving us, that were created, unintentionally created, but that are still sabotaging us. We have to break them. And then the nice thing too is, you have a like a lower stress set point, so your hormones are better balanced. But then you also just have tools to reduce stress eating, which...

I don't know about you, but I'm a little bit more likely to overeat or eat sweets when I'm stressed, when I'm anxious, when I'm nervous, when I have some sort of negative emotion, whether that's like anger or fatigue, you know, I don't like, I'm not like super happy or calm. And then I'm going to have some ice cream, like, you know, and I think intuitively everybody listening knows that they have stress that they haven't dealt with. And that is affecting their eating behaviors and their weight.

So that is why we are going to be rolling out EBT towards Zivli community and why it's gonna be included in like upcoming programs and everything. So if you're already a Zivli member, you will be getting more education about that, probably with this next reboot. So our next round of enrollment is at the end of August. And so at that time, kind of, I think we'll get to it around like November of this year is when we're really gonna be diving into EBT.

We're also just talking about ways we can support our members. Like I have been running two things through my mind pretty regularly. How can we get our members better, faster results? And how can we get more members? Because we want to help as many people as possible transform their lives. Like reshape your health, right? Like that's physical health, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health. It is all tied together. That's why I just like.

put my hands on my face like they are right now and take a deep breath when someone tells me that they're taking a semaglutide to lose weight or weight loss medication. Because yeah, that might, you know, increase your fullness stimulates like GLP one, which is one of the eight hormones responsible for weight, but doesn't do anything to the other seven, not directly anyways. And if you really want lasting weight loss, you've got to learn how to control.

all of those eight hormones with natural lifestyle changes, which really comes into learning the right strategy. Okay. And finally, thanks to EBT, learning the right like mindset processes to get yourself out of stress and into joy. I'm just so excited. So going back to the topic of today's episode.

I am going to be sharing something that I've never shared on here before because I was too afraid, you know, but here we are. That doesn't get us anywhere. And I was in church, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago. And before church, I had had a little breakdown. My first snap postpartum, if you will. And I am proud to say it lasted about two hours.

It did not last a day, it did not last two days, it did not last a week. I have some triggers for sure that I haven't dug into yet, but I will with the EBT tools, some circuits ⁓ that made me snap at my husband and not proud about it. I'm sure everybody listening has moments like that too. And that's what we call level five in EBT.

Toxic stress like I am definitely stressed out. I'm gonna pull up the levels of stress here and just kind of give you a brief overview Okay

So in EBT, stress is like on a five point scale, all right, with one being very low stress and five being like high stress, toxic. I just can't even deal right now, okay? So one is very low stress, two is low stress, three is moderate stress,

four is high stress and five is a very high stress. And this can change moment to moment, right? Like again, if you have a trigger, you might move from like two to five very quickly. And when that happened a couple of weeks ago, I just, did not have the EBT tools to stop it. Like it was just like uncontrollable word vomit towards my husband, bless his heart. And that's hard. That's hard for both of us. ⁓

And there's a tool essentially like a process that you go through with each of those five levels of stress to help you move through the stress, feel the emotions, but then get back to joy. Now with level five, because it is so instinctual, it has to be a very simple tool. So the tool that you use for level five, if you have that moment where you're like, my gosh, I just can't even handle right now. Like where you, like you just want to explode at someone or like you just feel very triggered.

It's really simple. So here's a little tip. What you're gonna do is say to yourself over and over until you don't need to say it anymore. Do not judge, minimize harm. This will pass. Do not judge, minimize harm. This will pass. Now, when I say do not judge, that means don't judge yourself for your emotions that you're feeling and don't judge the other person.

Don't judge the situation, just do not judge, minimize harm. So what I should have done was don't judge myself, don't judge my husband, minimize harm by removing myself and going to a different room and reminding myself that this will pass, this will pass. And then there's other tools as your stress level starts to calm down, there's other tools for those other levels that you can use to move even up closer to that joy state. And the joy is just really that deep sense of connection.

to you, to your core, to your purpose. ⁓ It's not necessarily like this elated, like, I'm happy, I'm joyful. Like, you know, I think we all can kind of picture somebody who's like that, who's actually a little bit annoying. ⁓ So it's not like that falsely inflated sense of joy. It's just that connected, deeper purpose and contentment, right? That's what joy is. All right, let's keep moving on here. So we talked about EBT.

We talked about the five levels of stress. We talked about how I didn't have that tool, but I wish I had had that EBT tool when I was in that situation. And then here's what happens. So this is, you might be like, okay, you're wandering Morgan, like bring it together here, land the plane, I'm landing the plane. Okay, so after that episode where I snapped at my husband, I had two choices to make. Well, one choice, two options.

choice number one was I could have a personal day. I could go off, I could go to my parents' house, I could work, I could go do whatever I wanted and Justin would watch the kids all day for me. Okay, it was Sunday, mind you. So in our family, that's a Sabbath and that's a holy day of rest and connection and practicing by going to church as a family. So if I had chosen that option, that would not be an integrity with

sabbathing with my family, which is my ultimate goal. Option number two was to suck it up, get over it fast. Not like suck it up in a bad way, but a good way. ⁓ Just get over it. Go say sorry, get over it, and go to church together and connect together and have a wonderful rest of the day. Just because you had a crummy two hours doesn't mean you have to have a crummy rest of your day.

And that's exactly what we did. And the sermon you're about to hear is the sermon that I heard that day. And I knew it would be, I knew it. I'm like, God just does this. He just gives us the right message at the right time. And before we get there, I just wanted to preface it just a smidge more, because again, I'm not here to convert, I'm not here to evangelize. I think that...

Religion and spirituality are not the same thing. You can be religious and not be spiritual. I think we all know people like that. Those would be the Pharisees that Jesus talked about. They follow the rules, they do everything they're supposed to do, but they don't really have love in their heart and they don't really have a connection to God or whoever, whatever you wanna call it. And then there's deeply spiritual people who practice no religion.

And they have so much wisdom and so much love, so much grace and forgiveness. But they don't necessarily say, I'm a Christian or I'm a Jew or ⁓ whatever other religion or denomination within that religion. They don't really associate with any of that, but they're highly spiritual. For me, practicing religion has always been part of my life. ⁓ I grew up in the Christian faith.

And I won't get into denominations here, and ⁓ I'll just leave it at that. And practicing that Christian faith, reading the Bible, going to church, absorbing messages, that has deepened my spiritual connection to God more than anything else in my life. And it is one of the, like it's a highlight of my week. Going to church is the highlight of my week.

because I get to sit with my family and my children and cuddle them and sing and worship and receive messages like what you're about to hear. So, you when I talk about spirituality, I'm talking about connecting to the God within you and the love within you. If you're not comfortable with that language, use whatever language you're comfortable with and the love in other people.

Like that to me is what spirituality is connecting to the love or the God within you because according, you know, to the Christian beliefs that I grew up with, God is love. Like love is God. can't like, that's just what it is. So connecting to the God within you or the love in you and the love in other people, this is required for personal growth. This is required because taking care of your body,

taking care of your mind, taking care of your relationships, that is an act of love. And that's why we can't neglect this spiritual side of things, okay? So with all of that in mind, I know that was kind of a long intro, but I wanted you to just know where I was at.

know what's coming and get really, really excited about EBT stuff, especially if you're already a Zivli member or if you're joining us this fall. And ⁓ you're gonna see a shift. Like you're gonna hear a shift in my voice. I'll be sharing more about ⁓ my spirituality, I guess. I mean, I do a little bit, but there might be a little bit more of it. Depends on ⁓ how I'm feeling for that week.

The other thing that I really want to do on these podcast episodes is ⁓ they call it a fan mail on our podcast platform, but you can submit a question. There's like a hyperlink at the top of every podcast description and you can just send us a text and we are collecting questions. And someone had a really good question that I'm going to be answering coming up about she had normal blood sugars, but she's 60 pounds overweight. What should she do? Like how should she eat? And I'm, I love answering questions like that.

So I'm glad to be back. And I'm excited for you to hear this message that I needed on that morning when I had a level five stress. A level five circuit was activated in me. I did not have the tools that I now have to control my emotions or like feel them without spewing negativity on other people. I have that now, which I'm really grateful for. And I hope that you find some

in this message, even if you're not a Christian, I don't care. Like again, this is about growing spiritually, not growing towards a certain denomination or a certain religion. That's not what I'm trying to do here. But let the words just kind of hit your soul. And I think with all that background in mind, you're gonna know how impactful this one was for me.

There's one other message that I've heard this year that I really want to share on the podcast, but I don't know when we're going to be doing that. So yeah, if you're liking this new direction, if you're excited about EBT and the mindset side of things, shoot me a message on Instagram. I'm at Dr. Morgan Nolte. Let me know your feedback. ⁓ Yeah, I hope you enjoy it. really, this message was exactly what I needed to hear. And while I was listening to it, I thought,

Ugh, this needs to go on my podcast. More people need to hear this message. It's scary because some people might reject me and some people might be mad that I'm talking more about spirituality or sharing anything Christian. But, you know, I try to listen to God and when God puts something on my heart, I try to do it and I try to do it now. So I got permission from our church and we're doing it now. Well, as you've heard this weekend, we're starting a new series called

under construction. Our building is not the only thing under construction. To live a life of faith is to live a life under construction. Because we have a God who's at work in the world and in our lives, restoring what's broken, tearing down what's not good, building a beautiful new community and holding us all together. To help us participate,

In the process of God's construction, we're going to be reading through the Sermon on the Mount over the summer. Found in Matthew 5 through 7, this is the sermon that Jesus gave to kick off his ministry on earth. Now, keep in mind, Jesus is speaking to his new group of disciples who frankly needed a lot of work. Among the disciples were failed fishermen, two brothers with anger issues,

A notorious sinner, ⁓ a violent political activist, just to name a few. And Jesus is also speaking to a world that frankly needed a lot of work. A world that had lost its way from God and had become turned all upside down. So with this sermon, Jesus casts a vision for how God wants to turn things right side up again.

But I'll be real with you. God's construction project can be messy, inconvenient, even uncomfortable at times. And yet we participate in the process out of excitement for what's ahead when God is at the head of the construction process.

Before I tee up what's coming in the Sermon on the Mount, I wanted to start by giving you a word of encouragement for the journey. This word of encouragement comes from someone who's very familiar with what it's like to be part of God's construction project. Writing to the church in Philippi, the apostle Paul shared this word of encouragement. Would you read it with me? I am certain that God

who began the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Hear this word of encouragement.

God's not done with you. Turn to the people around you and tell them, God's not done with you. Friends online, type it in the chat, God's not done with you.

This is true whether you feel like your life is a mess or whether you feel like you're mature in your faith. God's not done with you.

I wanna start by encouraging someone who's listening who feels like your life is a mess.

God's not done with you. God does some of his best work in messy places. Think about the apostle Paul who wrote that word of encouragement. His life was an absolute mess before beginning a relationship with Jesus. He didn't believe in Jesus. He hated everyone who did. He was angry, vindictive, violent. He would hunt down Christians to have them arrested and killed.

Paul was present when an early believer named Stephen was stoned to death. That's a pretty messy.

but it's not too messy for Jesus. God wasn't done with Paul. One day as he's traveling to hunt down some more Christians, he has an encounter with our risen Lord and Savior that completely renovates his life. Jesus appears to Paul in a bright light and asks, why are you persecuting me? The light is so bright that it blinds Paul.

And Jesus calls a Christian named Ananias to come and visit with Paul. Ananias shares the grace of Jesus with Paul. He prays over him and Paul's eyes are opened. He offers him forgiveness and the chance to begin anew through faith in Jesus. Paul believes and is baptized. And that's when Ananias shares the truth of Jesus with him. He says, guess what? God started a good work in you and is committed to carrying it through.

God has chosen you to be his instrument, to share the grace and the truth of Jesus with the world. And God transformed Paul into one of the most loving, faith-filled human beings to ever walk the earth. He traveled the world, starting churches, sharing the good news, including the church in Philippi to whom he's writing. I mean, talk about an extreme makeover.

Have any of you watched some of the home makeover shows ever?

So over the years, I've watched shows like Extreme Home Makeover, Fixer Upper, Love It or List It, Property Brothers. I recently watched a show called Dirty Rotten Cleaners. Have any of you seen that? my gosh. It takes messy to a whole new level. But here's the thing. The cleaners, they're not afraid of the mess. They get to work.

and they don't quit until that home is completely renovated. See, that's what Jesus wants to do in your life and mine. He's not afraid of your mess. He's not done with you. God began a good work in you and is committed to carrying it through to completion. I remember when that truth came alive in my life.

I'd been a Christian for a while at that point, but I messed up really bad, and I caused a mess in my life. I started to feel like, I guess God's done with me. There's no way that God would want anything to do with me after this. One day, I read Ephesians 2 10, and it was like the words just jumped off of the page.

and into my heart. It says, for we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. And all of a sudden it was like, my gosh, God began a good work in me and is committed to carrying it through to completion. And it's Jesus through whom I have the grace to begin anew.

and the power to live into my God-given destiny. And the same thing is true for you. Because let's be honest, we all have messy parts in our life. I know in our social media culture, we like to show the best parts of our life and hide the messy parts, kind of like the apple in this picture.

But let's be real, we all have messy parts in our life. And thank goodness, God does some of his best work in messy places.

And so if you feel like your life is a mess, I want to encourage you. God's not done with you. Torrin Wells wrote a beautiful song called God's Not Done With You. And in the chorus he sings, even with your broken heart and your wounds and your scars, God's not done with you. Even when you're lost and it's hard and you're falling apart, God's not done with you. It's not over, it's only begun, so don't hide.

Don't run, because God's not.

to the person listening who feels like your life is a mess. Help me out, say it with me. God's not done with you.

Now, I want to encourage those who might feel like you're mature in your faith. Maybe you've been walking with Jesus for a while. Maybe you've experienced his transformation and his growth. That's awesome. But guess what? God's not done with you. God has more in store. It's important to understand the two different ways God's at work in our lives.

The first is salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. And the moment you trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He instantly saves you from sin and death and fills you with His Holy Spirit. That work is done in a moment. But there's another part of God's work that continues, and that's called sanctification.

This is the process by which the Holy Spirit is transforming us to look more and more like Jesus. And with Jesus as the standard, there's always room to grow. The church in Philippi that Paul was writing to, they'd come a long way. From their fledgling start as a new church plant, they had grown into incredible partners in ministry for Paul. They helped him spread the good news of Jesus. They supported him.

when he was in prison for sharing his faith in Jesus. And in his letter, Paul gives God thanks for how far they come. But he also prays that God would help them to continue to grow. He says, I pray that your love will overflow more and more and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return.

May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation, the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ, for this will bring much glory and praise to God. God was not done with them. God had more in store. God wanted to increase their capacity to learn and to love. God wanted to deepen their understanding and their character so that they would overflow.

with godly fruit in their life. Now, if I was to take an orange and squeeze it, what would come out? What kind of juice? Why would it be orange juice? Right, because that's what's inside. You can learn a lot about what's inside of a person by what comes out when they are squeezed.

I want you to think for a moment in your life. When you're under pressure, when you're bumped and pushed and bruised, when you're struggling, when you're hurting, what comes out of you in your words, in your actions?

And does what come out reflect Jesus and glorify God?

If not, perhaps there's room for growth. We get to see the evidence of Paul's growth by what comes out when he's squeezed by life. Shortly after starting the church in Philippi, he's arrested for sharing his faith in Jesus. He spends a whole night in prison doing what? Singing praises to God, thanking God for the privilege of suffering with Jesus.

trusting in God to get them through this difficult situation. And now again, as he's writing this letter to the church in Philippi, he's in prison for sharing his faith in Jesus. And Paul could have allowed these trials to make him bitter, but instead he uses it to make him.

He takes that time to thank God and to pray to God. He uses the opportunity to encourage others. And Paul could tell that the church in Philippi, they had room to grow based on what was coming out of them when they were squeezed by life. We all have room for growth. One growth area that really stood out for me was patience. Moving to a new city, starting a new job,

takes time and patience. I have the type of personality where like, I wanna get things done now. And I realized when life squeezed, came impatience.

I wasn't being very patient with myself. And I'm embarrassed to admit that in my frustration, I wasn't always very patient with my wife or my kids. That's not the kind of fruit that I want coming out of my life. And rather than beat myself up about it, I'm choosing to encourage myself. God's not done with me. I'm still a work in progress.

And thank goodness I have a God who's committed to seeing that good work carry through. I'm so grateful that spiritual growth is not a DIY project. I'm terrible at do-it-yourself projects. I know some of you are like super handy and you can fix anything. It's not my gift. My wife and I have tried several DIY projects. It's never as simple as they make it seem. But sometimes don't we?

We approach spiritual growth like a DIY project, like, here's what I'm going to do, you know, by my own strength and my own power. It doesn't work that way. This is a DWG project, a do with God. This is something we do with God's help and by God's power. And as we read through the Sermon on the Mount together, we're going to see God gives us everything that we need for spiritual growth. Our theme verse for this series,

It's Matthew 7, 24. Jesus says, anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Jesus is telling us that he's our firm foundation, like these concrete foundation blocks. Anything else we try to build our life on eventually is gonna crumble beneath us, like shifting sand.

But when we listen to Jesus and live by His truth, even when the storms and the struggles come, we are secure on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. And in His sermon, He gives us spiritual tools for the construction project. He gives us a sledgehammer to tear down unhelpful thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Like Matthew 5, 43.

Jesus says, you've heard the law that says love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. In his sermon, he lays out the master blueprint of how to live a life that's truly blessed. His list of beatitudes begins in Matthew 5, 3. He says, God blesses those

who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Jesus also includes some safety gear in the sermon, warnings to protect us from things that can harm us or harm others. For example, Matthew 6, 1, Jesus says, watch out, don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others.

for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. Or a little bit later in Matthew chapter six, he says, don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them, where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy and thieves do not break in and steal. I'm gonna be real with you. God's Construction Project.

It's going to be messy, inconvenient, and even uncomfortable at times. And yet, we participate in the process out of excitement for what's ahead when God's at the head of the

Thanks for listening to the Reshape Your Health podcast today. To learn more about Zivli, our online course and coaching program to reverse insulin resistance for long-term weight loss and disease prevention, check out our website at www.zivli.com. That's z-i-v-l-i.com. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a rating and review on your listening platform and share it with a friend.

I'll talk with you at the same time, same place next week. Bye for now.