Psalm 46:10 (NKJV) “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

**Transcription Below**

Dr. Jill Carnahan completed her residency at the University of Illinois Program in Family Medicine at Methodist Medical Center. She received her medical degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and her Bachelor of Science degree in Bio-Engineering at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She is dually board-certified in Family Medicine and Integrative Holistic Medicine. In 2008, Dr. Carnahan’s vision for health and healing resulted in the creation of Methodist Center for Integrative Medicine in Peoria, IL where she served as the Medical Director for 2 years. In 2010, she founded Flatiron Functional Medicine in Boulder, Colorado where she practices functional medicine with medical partner, Dr. Robert Rountree, author and expert speaker. Dr. Carnahan is also 10-year survivor of breast cancer and Crohn’s disease and passionate about teaching patients how to “live well” and thrive in the midst of complex and chronic illness. She is also committed to teaching other physicians how to address underlying cause of illness rather than just treating symptoms through the principles of functional medicine. She is a prolific writer, speaker, and loves to infuse others with her passion for health & healing!

If you would like to read more about Dr. Carnahan, visit www.drcarnahan.com.

Dr. Jill’s Website

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Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

**Transcription**

[00:00:00] <music>

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.

[00:00:17] <music>

Laura Dugger: This episode was made possible by an anonymous donor to Midwest Food Bank. They paid the sponsorship fee to help spread the word that Midwest Food Bank works to alleviate hunger and poverty throughout the world by gathering food donations and distributing them to nonprofit agencies and disaster sites.

If you would like to learn more about Midwest Food Bank, make a donation, or see what volunteer opportunities are available, please visit them at MidwestFoodBank.org.

You may have already heard of Dr. Jill Carnahan, who is our guest today. She's a leader in the growing field of functional medicine, and she's also dually board certified in family medicine and integrative holistic medicine.

She and I also grew up in the same small town farming community, and I think she even babysat me a few times. She's an incredible clinician, so she is in high demand. I apologize for some of the background noises that you may hear today, but I hope it doesn't take away from this incredible conversation.

Welcome to the Savvy Sauce, Dr. Jill.

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Thank you. Good to be here with you.

Laura Dugger: For those who don't know you yet, can you just share your personal story with us? [00:01:37]

Dr. Jill Carnahan: You bet. We'll jump right in. I always wanted to do something in the wellness field and I ended up going to medical school. I always joke I have the heart of a naturopath because I think much more like natural and holistic and food-based alternatives. But I felt like going into the allopathic world would be the best way to actually get in the system and make a change. So that was my journey.

I got to medical school, was going along fine until my third year when I was suddenly diagnosed with breast cancer at 25 years old. So that was a real turning point in my life. I share faith like you. And so this was definitely a time where God just really was very near to me in that journey and healed me from that cancer.

I used a lot of the holistic principles, nutrition and supplements and food in the journey and so I really became more empowered and passionate about how to heal and help people through more natural means even in the face of something as scary as cancer.

And you know now I'm thriving 17 years later but the truth is at that time, I didn't know if I had six weeks or six months or six years. It was a very scary time. It was really a point of really understanding what it felt like to be the patient in the face of unknown and fear. [00:02:52]

I've always had hope and I've always had a sense of God guiding my life. I feel like that was the first part of my journey and really giving me the knowledge of understanding what it felt like to be on the other side of the office table.

Laura Dugger: Certainly. Maybe that's one of the reasons you come across so compassionate. Because it seems that you encourage your patients to optimize their health and wellness rather than simply treat symptoms. Today, I'd just love to hear your opinion on various factors that impact our health.

Dr. Jill Carnahan: You got it.

Laura Dugger: First, let's just start with water because we always hear that's incredibly important. So why is that and what happens to our body when we don't get enough?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: I love it. Go back to the basics. Something I always teach when I'm talking to physicians is we need clean air, clean water, clean food. Clean water is right in the middle there and such a priority. People forget how important it is. Every single cell in our body is made up of majority of water and so it lubricates and it hydrates and it allows all the enzymatic processes to happen and it helps digestion to occur and helps our blood flow. [00:03:56]

Pretty much every process and every fluid in our body wouldn't be the same without water. I see this in clinic all the time when I see patients who struggle with dehydration syndromes and pots which is an orthostatic type of thing where when they stand up they get dizzy or where they just are thirsty a lot or urinating a lot. Those are all things that affect their hydration and they get very sick from that.

The sources of water are really key.. A lot of times people put a whole house filter like reverse osmosis, which is wonderful because it's clean. But the problem there is it depletes the water of minerals, so they're going to have to make sure they're drinking or eating or taking foods with minerals or mineral supplements or things like that, so they're not too acidic with that water that's depleted of toxins and minerals.

Something I love is the countertop Berkey filter. It's the one I use at home because it cleans the water very well and doesn't deplete the minerals quite as significantly as the other types of filtrations. And just making sure you're drinking water throughout the day.

I'm a fan of a little bit of coffee and some tea. That's okay. But you don't want to use that as your sole source of hydration. And if you have trouble, you can slice, you know, cucumber or lime or all kinds of things and put it in your water for taste. [00:05:01]

I'm also a big fan of European mineral waters because they're really heavy in minerals. So like San Pellegrino, Perrier, some of those kinds, Gerald Steiner from Germany is really high in different things. So those can be helpful too because they're full of minerals, which makes the water very alkaline.

Laura Dugger: Those are great recommendations. Let's talk about exercising. What are the implications of either choosing a lifestyle full of exercise or choosing a sedentary lifestyle?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Movement is huge. It's interesting because I've always been... that's been kind of one of my outlets for stress. I love to exercise.. And usually I'm doing it at a very like either running or high intensity. Something pretty intense.

And I've learned over time for myself and my patients, that's great. Actually high intensity interval training is one of the best things you can do in a short period of time to get a good workout. And all that is, is just when you have a very like maximum capacity put out and then you rest for a bit. Maybe walking. [00:06:02] So you maybe do 90 seconds or let's say 30 seconds of intensity and then 90 seconds of walking and 30 seconds of intensity and alternate something like that.

But bottom line getting back to my point was that a lot of people with our high stress lifestyles actually don't need an adrenaline rush and that will also raise cortisol. So some of the things I often recommend implementing are walking, yoga, just moving.

I know some of my best times in the morning are just walking the dogs. I'm not doing anything vigorous, but I have time to walk it and pray. And that really, really rejuvenates me. Sometimes more than the high-intensity stuff.

Laura Dugger: Oh, that's an incredible suggestion. You had briefly alluded to supplements earlier. So are there any that you recommend to the general population, or is it all individualized?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: I think so a lot of people are at the mindset of why would we need to get vitamin, we should be able to get it all from food, which in theory is wonderful if our soils weren't so depleted. So nowadays the soil contains maybe a fifth of the magnesium and some of the minerals we need.

So an apple today compared to an apple that our grandparents would have eaten is so depleted of nutrients that we really cannot get enough just through food alone. [00:07:10] And it's sad, but that's just the way our world and our soils and everything are. And so I'm a big fan of introducing some sort of a multi-mineral, multi-vitamin. Most people need extra vitamin D unless they're outside in the sun all day long. Then probiotics are really important.

Again, part of this is just because the stresses on our environmental toxic load and our stresses psychologically, they're so much greater than they used to be. So we just need more resources to actually combat the stresses of everyday life.

So probiotic, vitamin D, multivitamin are some of the basics. Most people could take a fish oil or just eat plenty of wild-caught fish. Those are ways to do that.

Then I'll individualize different things like mitochondrial support or liver support like N-acetylcysteine or lipoic acid or melt thistle. Things like CoQ10 for the heart and extra magnesium can be great for the bowels or for sleep. So depending on the problem, there's other little things you can add. That's probably the basics that almost anyone could benefit from.

Laura Dugger: Let's just touch on the topic of sleep as well. How does consistent lack of sleep affect us? [00:08:18]

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Oh, you are hitting on all the good topics. Sleep is so critical. And if I get a patient comes in and they have a myriad of problems, but sleep is one of them, usually I focus on sleep as a huge priority, maybe the number one priority. Because our cells are able to regenerate our liver and body is able to detoxify our immune system is able to find infections and restore and regenerate and all of that happens... a lot of it happens at night when we sleep.

So we really need that time for our brain. Our brain even there's processes that they clean up areas and said that reorganize memories. And so much happens... I remember I learned this, didn't know the science behind it but in college and medical school so many of my friends would pull all-nighters before a big test, and I would study really hard up until 9 or 10 p.m., and then I would go to sleep.

And what I learned is I actually had a much better memory or recall by studying it and then having eight hours of sleep before the test, because my mind would actually go over the material while I slept. I felt like it was cheating, but I realized that that was a really powerful way, way better than an all-nighter, to actually reorganize our brain and our memory and prepare for something that was stressful the next day. [00:09:26]

Laura Dugger: Wow, that is fascinating. And related to this topic, a lot of listeners struggle with insomnia. So what are some of the most common causes and solutions to overcome this frustrating symptom?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Great, because you're right, people are struggling. You can try simple things without knowing the cause. I'll go into a couple of causes in a minute. But things that you might try simply and safely would be magnesium and magnesium glycinate, because of its calming effect, and it's pretty neutral for the bowels. It tends to be my favorite for sleep.

And most people can go pretty high, like 250, 500, even higher doses at bedtime, and it really induces a nice sleepy and relaxed state, and that's easy and safe, and almost everybody can use it. The only contraindications would be if you had kidney diseases or some parathyroid issue or some metabolism issue where you had too much magnesium, which is pretty rare.

Things like melatonin are pretty safe. There's been some news out recently of long-term use and inhibiting production. I'm not really of that mindset that it's a problem in low doses for most people, and especially if used kind of intermittently. [00:10:28]

Children actually do really well on low doses of melatonin too. Then there's so many wonderful herbs. My very favorite is GABA. It's actually not an herb, it's a neurotransmitter, like an amino acid, but it's wonderful. So GABA is really helpful for inducing sleep.

Then other causes would be some people are just really high cortisol at night. That's usually a stress response. And so things that would calm the stress like magnolia or rhodiola or some of these herbs that are calming phosphatidylserine can be incredibly helpful for calming that stress response at night.

Turning off the brain and people who think, you know, and they get caught up in these thoughts and are stuck awake, 5-HTP can be helpful, which is a precursor of serotonin. Then the GABA I mentioned before.

Then some people have blood sugar issues at night. And what happens is they have maybe a bag of popcorn before bed and then the blood sugar kind of rises, and then several hours later, 1, 2 a.m., it drops. And that drop in blood sugar will trigger a response of cortisol, and that cortisol will wake them out of a deep sleep, and they'll be wide awake. [00:11:25]

So one of the things that the blood sugar issues is to eat maybe a tiny bit of snack, but it's a fat or protein instead of a carb before bed, and that can keep them sleeping through the night.

Laura Dugger: Wow, this is so great because it's something that listeners can even apply today if they're having one of those issues. Let's also touch on the impact of technology. How have you seen screen time affect people's overall health?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: The blue light affects our retina and most of our screens are, you know, iPads and our computers or laptops or iPhones. They all have this pretty intense blue light. And that basically tells our body, Hey, it's morning. Wake up.

In fact, one of the strategies where people have trouble waking up is getting a lot of sunlight or blue light in the morning. What you want at night is red light. You can even change the bulbs in your bedroom. You can buy these at Home Depot or any sort of store. Buy just a red bulb and put that in your bedroom light bulbs in your nightstand or whatever your lamps. Those will be red. And then you can still read or do stuff at night but it's calming to your retina to your nervous system and it doesn't induce a state of alertness. [00:12:28]

There are some apps, I don't know all the names of them, that actually change the screen so that they're a little bit more user-friendly at night. That can be helpful if you're really sensitive.

Then there's glasses called blue blockers that you can wear. I have several pairs. I actually don't wear them but people send me their cool products all the time and I've had a few of them that are pretty neat and they can be worn at bedtime or maybe say after 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. so that you don't get a lot of that blue light into your retina before bed.

Some people really swear by these. There's no supplements, no drugs involved. It's just literally changing the light that enters your retina right before bed.

Laura Dugger: And now a brief message from our sponsor.

Sponsor: This sponsorship message is unique because an anonymous donor to Midwest Food Bank paid the sponsorship fee in hopes of spreading awareness. Midwest Food Bank works to alleviate hunger and poverty throughout the world by gathering food donations and distributing them to nonprofit agencies and disaster sites.

Over $11.5 million worth of food is distributed to over 1,700 nonprofit organizations each month. [00:13:31] In 2017 alone, over 132,000 family food boxes were distributed to disaster victims. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the valuable work of volunteers, and most importantly, the blessings of God, Midwest Food Bank shares the blessings worldwide.

More than 3.6 million people were impacted last year. This is done from their eight United States and two international locations. To learn more about Midwest Food Bank, to make a donation, or to see what volunteer opportunities are available, please visit them at MidwestFoodBank.org.

Laura Dugger: What effect does stress have on our health?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Oh my, that's huge isn't it? I love that you ask it because all of us are under quite a bit of stress. There's eustress, which is actually good stress. If we had no stress in our life, we always think, Oh, that'd be great. That would actually be pretty unhealthy because our body does really well with low levels of intermittent stress that are appropriate. [00:14:35]

You know how you've had maybe a project that you need to do and you feel the stress and you need to get it done, but that little bit of stress actually helps you to achieve your goal. So there is some stress that's good.

But what happens to most of us is nowadays we're 24-7 culture. So our email, our Facebook and social medias, they're like 24-7. And I know so many of my patients, the last thing before they go to bed, first thing when they wake up, their phones are by their bed stand and they're checking email or social media. On the weekends, they're checking, you know, their work email.

So it's really hard for people to disconnect, and that's stressful to our bodies. I live in Boulder, Colorado and there's some wonderful hiking trails and biking. And so I recommend for myself and my patients that we get out Get unplugged and really get into nature and enjoy that time away from all of our electronics and the things that are asking us to do more.

Our inbox and our email can be so... Like, if we go just by what the inbox says, we're constantly responding to demands, and that's so stressful.

Then, I mean, people have relationships and children and parents that are getting older, and they have, you know, unexpected deaths in families, and so many of these things are very, very stressful, and work life can be stressful. [00:15:41]

I really suggest with this that you find what your source of strength or resource is. For me, it's two things. It's prayer and meditation, talking to God, and it's being out in nature and being with my puppies. So those things for me, I just make sure that I work them into every single week and sometimes every single day so that I have that outlet.

Other people might be going for a bike ride or taking a class or doing something they enjoy. And then the other thing we found in studies that relates to happiness and satisfaction and lower stress levels is just having a purpose. So having something you're doing, whether it's your occupation or even outside your occupation, that is making a difference in serving others. I find that that is so profoundly helpful in our stress levels and it really makes a difference.

Laura Dugger: Wow, I'm loving all your practical suggestions. What role do genetics play in contributing to our overall level of health?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Genetics are a mixed bag. You know, we've gone through several different eras and genetics for a while were very fatalistic. You get this gene and you're prone, you're going to have this disease. [00:16:41]

Now, there are a few things that genetically are dominant like Huntington's disease. So if you get that gene, you probably will get the disease. But that's actually the exception rather than the rule. And so most genetics can be altered by environmental exposure. And that would include your diet, your sleep, your stress levels, all these things we're talking about.

So, the good news is, most of the time, gene expression is determined a lot by what you do, how you live, the stress reduction techniques you take, the food you take, the vitamins and nutrients. I often, with patients, will help them find ways, whether it's nutritional supplementation or changes in diet or sleep to actually alter their genetic expression.

To me, that's exciting because you don't have to be deterministic or fatalistic about what you are born with. I, for example, I have had a history of breast cancer, which I mentioned, Crohn's disease, and about four years ago now, I had a mold exposure that made me very sick, and all of those had to do with my dysfunctional genetics with relation to I have a celiac genetic, I have susceptibility to infections and toxins like mold.

And all of these things could have taken me down. But what I did is I chose to live really clean, eat really well, do whatever I can to take care of myself, and I actually function pretty well despite my genetics. And I teach patients to do the same. [00:17:57]

Laura Dugger: I think that offers a lot of hope as well. What about lifestyle and community? How do you see relationships impact your patients' overall health?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Oh, this is huge, because it's kind of like the idea that here at the office, our underlying mission is loving people, because people want connection and people need connection. And there's so many studies that show, even from infants and newborns on, that if they're not held and touched, and physical touch and connection with human beings is absolutely essential to our health.

So what I see is, you know, some patients will have patterns that may be dysfunctional childhood or where they didn't feel completely loved. Those things can be changed, but we have to reprogram all of that stuff in order to get well and to find health and healing. So dealing with those things are important.

Then also currently in your life, making sure you have good friends. It doesn't have to be a spouse or a boyfriend or girlfriend. But you do need to have friends and people that you can rely on. And if you don't have a significant other, you need to have friends that you can hug and that you can actually have a physical touch with a friend. And that's perfectly appropriate and incredibly important for our well-being. [00:18:59]

Laura Dugger: I second all of that.

Dr. Jill Carnahan: One more thing about relationships. I wanted to mention because we talked about all this great stuff hug and touch and connection. But one thing I've learned is that most of us who are in this kind of profession, maybe your listeners too, are empathetic, they feel deeply for people. And that's a really incredible trait to have.

But you're very prone to people called energy vampires. So the other thing you need to do is make sure that you limit contact with people that are just not, you know, not good for you, not healthy and maybe draining. You can be kind, but you need to set good boundaries. And that's actually really important as well as the connection.

Laura Dugger: And sometimes people think that food choice is the hardest to change to make an effort toward moving toward a healthier lifestyle. So what are some baby steps that listeners can take as it relates to their nutritional intake?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Nutrition-wise, I recommend a mostly organic, 100% if possible, non-GMO, so not genetically modified, free of pesticides, chemicals, all of that, which would go with organic. Lots of local, if possible. It's not always possible. Whenever I can go to the local farmer's market and get things that are just picked or cut from the garden, that's the best. [00:20:06]

Then lots of leafy greens, plant-based, is ideal. I'm actually what most people would consider paleo. But when people hear the word paleo, they think of all this meat and bacon and eggs. I don't do that at all. I'm actually a very, very plant-based, like salads and leafy greens and all kinds of fruits and vegetables.

I only eat meat maybe three times a week. But I still consider myself paleo because I'm grain-free, legume-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free. For most of my patients who are super sensitive, gluten is the most important thing to eliminate, but many of them have to eliminate dairy, egg, and sugar as well. Other things that are common culprits are corn and so and alcohol. That tends to be the kind of diet most of my patients are on.

Laura Dugger: Are there any other factors that affect our health of which we may be unaware?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah. So not many people are talking about electromagnetic radiation. That could be from cell phone towers or from a building with a lot of Wi-Fi. And not everyone is completely sensitive to this, but especially the higher we go from 4G to 5G, these are having a bigger impact on our bodies. [00:21:06]

I have a lot of patients that are extra sensitive and can really tell when they're in a high Wi-Fi area and they don't feel as well. So those are the things that you can't see, you may not even be able to feel, but can be important.

Some simple things you can do, or make sure you don't have a smart meter right behind the headboard of your bed and the wall, on the outside of your house, that can be a real big impact. You can make sure your iPhone, iPad, and those things are turned off or on airplane mode at night. At a very more significant exposure, patients can even turn off their router at night as well, and that can be helpful.

Laura Dugger: Did you know podcasts like The Savvy Sauce are estimated to cost roughly $500 per episode to produce? This cost includes expenses such as equipment, web hosting, and programming, in addition to the many hours our team spends to bring you the high-quality episodes.

Sponsors are not always consistent, and that gives you an opportunity to support conversations you love and make more possible. Our team is so delighted for the opportunity to do this work and get the good news to as many nations as possible. [00:22:08]

Will you consider partnering with us? Go to thesavvysauce.com and click the "Patreon" tab for more information. Thanks for participating.

We're called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so I'd love to hear, Dr. Jill, what is your savvy sauce?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: Wow, I love that. Okay, that's easy. So most people maybe sense this, but I don't always explicitly say it. But the thing that drives me at home in my friendships and work, and especially in my practice in my office, is just a really simple thing. And that's to love God and basically glorify God and love people. So it goes upward and it goes outward to people.

And I even treat each of my staff. You know, if you have all this paperwork and all these calls to make and you don't get any of it done, but you have loved the people that walk in the door today, I'm totally happy as your boss. You have completely done your job.

So that underneath kind of my secret mission in life is really just to love people. I don't always do it perfectly, but my goal and my drive and my secret sauce is to love people better each day. [00:23:16]

Laura Dugger: Oh, that is incredible. And I think you do a great job with that. Dr. Jill, you are not only a brilliant doctor, but also a respectable and exceptionally kind woman. So thank you for spending time with us today. Where can listeners find you online?

Dr. Jill Carnahan: You are welcome, Laura. I loved it. Wish we had more time, but hopefully next time. Listeners can visit me at my website, which is just my name, jillcarnahan.com. I have all kinds of great free resources. If you want to stay in touch, you can sign up for my free newsletter as well.

Laura Dugger: Wonderful. We'll link to all of that in the show notes. Thanks again for joining us.

Dr. Jill Carnahan: You're welcome.

Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him. [00:24:21]

This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.

This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.

We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. [00:25:23]

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him.

At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started?

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. Start by reading the book of John.

Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. [00:26:29] I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.

We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process.

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce

Practical chats for intentional living

A faith-based podcast and resources to help you grow closer to Jesus and others. Expect encouragement, surprises, and hope here. Each episode offers lively interviews with fascinating guests such as therapists, authors, non-profit founders, and business leaders.

They share their best practices and savvy tips we can replicate to make our daily life and relationships more enjoyable!