The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
Breaking Free from Disappointment
Can disappointment be the invisible barrier that's preventing you from fully embracing your creative potential and spiritual growth? Discover how unacknowledged disappointment can act like hardened soil, blocking the seeds of inspiration and revelation that God intends for you. Join us on the Thriving Christian Artist podcast as we explore the profound impact of disappointment and how it can lead to bitterness, cynicism, and a disengagement from faith. Inspired by Jesus' parables about seeds and soil, we'll uncover the roots of bitterness and offer insights on how to break free from this cycle that stifles both creativity and spiritual connection.
In this episode, we'll share effective strategies to recognize and release feelings of disappointment, aligning ourselves with God's plan and timing. Learn how repentance and faith, as described in Romans 10, can help nurture the seeds God plants in our hearts, transforming them into flourishing expressions of His kingdom. Protect your heart from the destructive forces of bitterness and regret, and open yourself to the life and creativity God has designed for you. Join us in this inspiring conversation and become the thriving artist God has called you to be.
Join us inside the Created to Thrive Foundations Course and Community for just $27/mo at http://www.matttommeymentoring.com/foundations
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, my friend, welcome to the podcast today. Super glad that you are with me. Listen, I'm having the best time right now, walking several hundred people through our Foundations course in Created to Thrive, and one of the things that I'm learning and just relearning is how difficult getting over disappointment can be in your life and what a blockage that can be. In fact, if you don't learn to overcome disappointment, it can really result in a hardening of the heart and preventing everything that God has for you in your life. You know I was thinking about this the other day and just how many people are struggling with this, not only in their art but in every part of life, and it reminded me of all the times that Jesus spoke about the parables, about seeds and soil and the harvest and all that, and revealing, really, how the condition of our heart determines our ability to receive from him and receive the things he has for us and also grow in faith. But one of the greatest threats to that fruitfulness in our life isn't merely just the you know external opposition that we might be facing. That we feel like is maybe an attack from the enemy or something like that, but it is this internal hardening of our hearts that happens a lot of times through disappointment. You know, a lot of times the enemy doesn't cause something, but he will absolutely use it in a way that he'll want to take advantage of and use as an open door. And I just see disappointment in the lives of artists over and over and over. When it's left unaddressed, it starts to act like compacted soil, if you will. That prevents these seeds that God's putting out there of inspiration and revelation. It prevents them from sprouting and taking root in our lives. And what begins as just simply a moment of maybe unmet expectations or frustration that you should, you know we all would want to be able to move through, that can quickly turn into this pattern of feeling bitter and anxious and feeling a lot of regret and maybe even starting to use things like procrastination and having this unrealistic sort of fear of failure all compacted together just as a result of disappointment. And so if we don't learn how to deal with disappointment in a healthy way, it doesn't just hinder our faith, it doesn't just hinder us walking with the Lord, it can completely choke out our faith and our ability to hear God's voice and follow his lead. And that is a big, big, big thing that the enemy can use in our life to keep us from everything that God has for us.
Speaker 1:You know, hebrews 12, 15 is a really, really important verse when we talk about bitterness and the hardening of hearts. It says see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. That Greek word there, interestingly, is a word called pekiria, which actually means resentfulness, deep-seated hatred or sharp, piercing sorrow. Okay, and so see, when disappointment lingers and festers in your heart, it often transforms into that picaria, right? That bitterness which makes us, can make us resentful toward God, toward others, even toward life itself, toward our calling as an artist. And this root of bitterness most of the time grows unseen, beneath the surface, but its fruit starts coming out in our life, right? Well, how do you know if you've got a root of bitterness? Well, I would say check your fruit right. Are you really feeling a lot of cynicism, maybe distrust, maybe disengaging from faith or dreams that you've had in the past? Really, you know things that you felt like God's promised you. Now you're just kind of holding those at arm's length, wondering if you ever really heard God in the first place or if that's even really possible.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about this today and just as I was preparing for this and this kind of came to me, I wrote it down. I said don't let disappointment, disappointment derail the seeds God longs to sow in the soil of your heart, nor displace the ones he's already sown. And how many of you know that's exactly what the enemy wants to do. He wants to use disappointment in your life, difficult things that you walk through, challenging seasons, challenging situations, relationships, unmet expectations, whatever. He wants to use those to derail the seeds that God's trying to plant in your heart, the dreams and the ideas and the solutions and all the different stuff. And he's wanting to also use that disappointment to displace, to kick out, to dig up the things that God's already sown in your heart and may already be producing fruit. But he knows that if he can get bitterness and disappointment to take root in your heart, it can absolutely begin to derail and displace those things.
Speaker 1:You know, when I think about the fruit of disappointment and this sort of cycle that ends up keeping us stuck in disappointment, I think about the first thing. You know bitterness, right, Something doesn't go our way, something happens in a way that we think it should not have and all of a sudden there can be anger and frustration toward ourself, toward others, toward God. It can show up as regret. You know constantly feeling about. You know, just like you're dwelling on the past and the failures of the past or the ways that you know things didn't go, that you thought they should have gone. Maybe you feel like gosh, I'm getting, I'm getting older, I missed the best part of my life, I've missed the things that God has for me and that that can lead into a lot of anxiety, right, about fear of future disappointments. In other words, I don't want to step out because I don't want the thing to happen last time to happen this time. So you just end up number four, procrastinating, right, avoiding action, so that you don't end up having to go through that bitterness and regret and anxiety and disappointment that you went to. You know that you experienced before and again just that whole general fear of failure and shrinking back from opportunity. See, I found this in my own life and just in walking with others that are walking through things like this.
Speaker 1:Disappointment acts like a sort of like a Teflon coating, if you will, on your heart and on your mind. It literally prevents God ideas, god's promises, god's inspiration from taking root in your heart. And as you journey through life, you have to remember that the fruit of agreement is the manifestation of the kingdom and its fruit and its promises in your life. But the fruit of agreeing with disappointment is what Bitterness and anxiety and regret and procrastination and fear of failure. And so we want to do everything we can to come into agreement with the Lord and out of agreement with the things that the enemy is trying to bring and use to our detriment in our life. So if you want to see the kingdom of God, the fruit of the kingdom, in your life and really kick this whole thing of disappointment to the curb and uproot that bitter root, uh, here really I think five things will will help you do that in a very practical way. Number one acknowledge and release that thing. Just be honest with God about your disappointments and maybe even, as you're with him in prayer and in your imagination, just see yourself giving that to him.
Speaker 1:Repent also for coming into agreement with bitterness. Again, when you agree with something in your life, whether it's positive or negative, whether it's kingdom or not kingdom, you're inviting, you're giving that thing opportunity to operate in your life. And if you've given bitterness the opportunity to operate in your life, just repent, just be like God. I missed the mark here. Thank you for showing me a better way. Lord, I give this to you. I want to be cleansed of this. I come out of agreement with that in Jesus' name, and I come into agreement, which is number three. Come into agreement with God's plan, his timing, his process.
Speaker 1:Number four begin to sow the seeds of truth. Fill your heart with God's word. Guard your heart. Number five protect it from allowing the enemy to use the normal things of life, disappointments and unmet expectations. Use that as an opportunity to say Lord, even though I'm going through these things that have tripped me up in the past, I'm choosing that when I go through those this next time, I'm going to give those to you and not allow those things to take root in my life.
Speaker 1:You know, I like to think of it this way. I like to think of God, you know, maybe sowing seeds and ideas and solutions and inspiration, like little seeds all over the world, all happening all the time right, and he's waiting for us, as his sons and daughters, to have open hearts and hearts full of faith, to be able to receive the things that he has for us, because that's how the kingdom of God gets manifested, not only in our life, but also through our life into the earth. And listen, I just believe there's a lot of great ideas, like seeds scattered along the roadside that are waiting for people like you and me, somebody with faith and openness and a healed heart, to plant those in the garden of their heart and nurture them and bring them in to maturity. Listen, the Bible says in Romans 10,. It says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And listen, we cannot bear kingdom fruit in our life if we are continually feeding on the bitter harvest of disappointment in our life.
Speaker 1:We keep going back to that broken cistern just thinking that the longer we nurture this thing, the better it's going to get. We got to come out of agreement with that. Let the Lord heal that place in our heart and let faith arise. And again, not let disappointment and the normal challenges of life derail the seeds and the potential seeds that God longs to sow in our heart and or displace the ones that that he's already sown in our heart. My friend, god has so much for you and it's learning to examine the fruit in your life. Examine the places where the enemy still is trying to use a place of woundedness or trauma in your life to get a foothold. Give that to Jesus. Walk in the freedom that he's already given you. As you start to do that on a normal basis, using these principles here and maybe the five R's, if you've used that and that I've written about so much and unlocking the heart of the artist or in God's plan for living, as you start to use those kinds of strategies in your life to walk in healing as a normal part of your journey with him, you will see faith arise. You will see disappointment displaced in your heart and be able to overcome these things that normally set us back.
Speaker 1:I love you, my friend. I'm so glad that you're here with me today. Join me again on the podcast. Share this with somebody else if it's been a blessing to you and remember until next time 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.