The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
You Have a Hope & a Future
Ever felt like your emotions and life's hurdles are pulling you away from your true calling? Discover how to fortify your spirit and align your journey with God's promises, even when facing the toughest roadblocks. Join me, Matt Tommy, as I share personal reflections and transformative insights on recognizing and resisting the enemy's lies. This episode is a heartfelt conversation designed to inspire and equip you with practical steps to stay focused on God's true intentions for your life, no matter what challenges come your way.
We'll explore the significance of immersing yourself in God's word and reshaping your inner being to withstand the enemy's tactics. Through my own experiences and biblical wisdom, learn how to navigate seasons of doubt, rejection, and overwhelm. Plus, get a glimpse into my devotional book, "Awakening to God's Kingdom Within," for daily encouragement. Tune in to uncover how to live fully as the artist God created you to be, with unwavering faith and resilience.
Start encouraging yourself in the Lord with my book Awakening to God's Kingdom Within at https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Gods-Kingdom-Within-Encouragement/dp/B0C9S7PH84
Welcome to the Thriving Christian Artist, the podcast where we hope you connect with God to bust through the roadblocks that have held you back for years, create the work you love and really live the life you know. God created you to live as an artist in His kingdom. I'm Matt Tama, your host. Let's get started. Well, hey, friends, so glad that you're back with me. I'm Matt Tommy, your host, and I want to encourage you a little bit today as I'm encouraging myself. So many of these podcasts that I do and Facebook posts and all the things that I do as an encourager of artists really start in my own heart, because how many of you know that you know walking with the Lord and walking as an artist is really part of that. A real core part of that is learning to strengthen yourself and encourage yourself in the Lord, because the enemy is out to get us right. He's out to steal and to kill and to destroy. He's out to do everything he can to get you off your game and pull you in a direction that is not helpful for you, that is not life-giving for you, that is antithetical to the things that God has for you. And so the question becomes for all of us. What do we do in those times? See, I've learned over the years that one of the enemy's really go-to strategies in our life is to use emotion and to use the situations of life that we all walk through. Right, jesus said it rains on the unjust and the just right In this world. You're going to have trouble. You're going to go through suffering. You're going to go through good times. You're going to go through bad times. You're going to go through seasons that you don't understand. You're going to be treated by people that you think you're unjustly treated, by All the stuff. Right, you're going to go through these seasons. You're going to not get in a gallery. You're going to create a piece of art or a series of art that you're like this sucks, I don't even know what I'm doing as an artist. We're going to go through all of these things, right, and so the enemy wants to use these things in your life and in my life to create a mirage of emotion that will get us to buy in to a lie that God's not really good, god really doesn't have anything for us, that we're somehow unqualified or disqualified or not up to the mark in some way. In order to what? In order to get you to give up on the things that God has for you, to give up on his promise, his future, his design, his intentions for you, and begin to come into agreement with the things that the enemy has for you, which, at the end of it, is what to steal and to kill and to destroy. There is nothing else, at the end of the mirage that the enemy puts up in front of you, except for death, except for confusion, except for lack and suffering and all of the stuff.
Speaker 1:And so well, what's the trick in learning to encourage yourself and learning to begin to strengthen yourself in the Lord? Well, it's the trick of learning to focus your eyes on God's true intentions for your life, on his nature, on who he really says that he is. And where do you get that? Where do you get that in the middle of emotion that is so overwhelming that you don't even know where to go? Well, you have to go back to God's word. And what does God's word say? Well, we could spend hours and hours and hours. In fact, if you've not gotten my devotional book that I you know that came out last year, I would really, really encourage you to get that, because it's full of daily opportunities for you to begin to, to understand what God really says about who you are and what you have, and what's possible in your life called awakening to to god's kingdom within. You can grab it on amazon, get off my website, whatever, but learning god's word and what his promises are for you, begin to reshape and strengthen your inner person so that, when the enemy comes, you're more able to easily recognize the truth versus a lie. And see, here's what I've learned over the years God's intention and intentions for you and me never change, regardless of the seasons and situations that you walk through.
Speaker 1:You know you may be walking through a series of months or even years that you don't understand what God is doing. Has God left you? Nope. Has God not for you anymore? Nope. Has God dropped the plan that he had for your life? Nope. His intentions for you never, ever change, and they're never to remand us to punishment and eternal separation from him. No, they're always to remind us of his promises toward us as we learn to walk with him and as we learn to trust him. Walk with him and as we learn to trust him.
Speaker 1:And so that is that learning, that process of developing spiritual grit in your life according to God's word. That is, when things are not going the way you think they ought to go, when things are confusing, when your emotions are wanting to take over instead of going with them down the slide, down the waterfall of emotional overwhelm, choosing to come back to God's word and say you know what. I know what I'm going through. Doesn't feel like it right now, but I know that this is true. I know that God's intentions are for me, to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a hope and a future. I know that, even in the middle of suffering and in the middle of frustration in my life, in the middle of a season that seems like it will never end, that I'm just being pruned and pruned and refined, and refined and refined, I know that God is not trying to destroy me. He's trying to develop in me his nature and his character so that I can walk in and stand in the fullness of the calling and the blessing and the assignment that he has for me in my life.
Speaker 1:You have to realize that at the bottom of every difficulty, through every struggle, at the top of every mountain again good, bad or otherwise there always remains for the people of God, for you and me, a hope and a future. So you have to let and choose to start turning your hope as an act of your will. All right, this is not something that you may feel like doing, right, this is something that you're going to have to choose to do on a daily, sometimes even moment by moment basis. You have to choose to let your hope rest, not in your circumstances, not in the things that you see with your physical eyes, with your natural, not in the things that you see with your physical eyes, with your natural eyes, with the things that you know are true by the Spirit of God, according to His Word, you got to let your hope rest not in your situations, but in the goodness of God and the fact that God uses all things to bring you into the reality of his hope and his future for you. Listen, if you can get this established, cultivated and growing in your life now let's change metaphors right as a garden, if you can get this to be the ground of your life, right, then? No matter what weeds are coming up, no matter what storms are coming up, you are going to be secure.
Speaker 1:You know, I've been in the process of doing a lawn renovation here at our house in Texas and let me just say it is very different than doing gardening and all that in North Carolina. But here is one of the things I was frustrated with the other day. I was like, oh my Lord, there are so many weeds out here in Texas that I've never even seen before. It's like sometimes you walk through life and you're like I'm going through a place I have never been before. This doesn't look like the place of favor and of joy and of fulfillment that I was before. Something's different, ah, and you know what? It was interesting. I was just bemoaning this fact with the Lord the other day on my tractor, actually cutting the grass, and it seemed like there were more weeds than grass and I was just like Lord, what am I going to do? Because this really affects me. I love beauty and I want, I want my, my yard to be beautiful and it's coming, it's coming. But here's what I kept hearing the Lord say kill the weeds and feed the grass. Kill the weeds, feed the grass. Kill the weeds, feed the grass. And you know one of the best ways to kill weeds and to prevent weeds Healthy grass, when you are planting seeds and allowing the seeds of the kingdom of God to grow and flourish in your life.
Speaker 1:When you're watering the things that you want to grow, guess what?
Speaker 1:There's fewer and fewer places for those weed seeds to take root and to thrive. But when you're just going day by day, emotion by emotion, being ruled by this situation or that situation, it is so easy to be tossed by the wind to and fro, just like Jesus said, you know, with the parable of the person that built their house upon the sand as opposed to building their house on the rock. What's the rock? The rock for emotional security, the rock for spiritual security, the rock for being able to walk through any difficulty in any situation, regardless of what it looks like or feels like in the natural, is to let your hope rest in the goodness of God, to put your faith in the goodness of God, in the nature of God, and keep walking, no matter what it looks like.
Speaker 1:My friend, listen, the best artists, the people who have the best businesses, the best lives, are not the people that get it right all the time or not, the people that get it perfect all the time or not, the people that don't have any troubles. They are the people that keep going and, my friend, if you will keep going and allow your hope to rest in the goodness of God and remember that at the end of whatever you're going through, there remains a hope and a future for you, you will win. You'll thrive in everything that God has for you. My friend, I hope this is encouraging for you today. Whatever you're walking through, please take a moment to share this podcast with others that you think it would be a blessing to also make sure you're subscribed, make sure to comment, make sure to do all the stuff so that we can keep encouraging artists just like you to walk in everything that God's got for them.
Speaker 1:I love you, my friend. Thanks so much for being with me and until next time, remember you were created to thrive. Bye, hey. Thanks so much for spending a few minutes with me today on the podcast. Listen. I hope it's been a huge encouragement to you on your journey as an artist. Hey, also, before you leave, make sure to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any of the other episodes of the thriving Christian artist podcast, and also be sure to connect with me on Facebook, instagram or at my website, which is matttommymentoringcom. Until next time, remember you were created to thrive. Bye-bye, thank you.