The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
Renewing Your Mind vs Positive Thinking
This episode explores the transformative process of renewing your mind and what that truly means for believers and artists. We dissect common misconceptions about renewal, emphasizing that it's an active partnership with the Holy Spirit rather than a passive occurrence.
• Addressing misconceptions about renewing your mind
• The importance of cooperation with God in the renewal process
• Understanding renewal as a pathway to aligning with God's will
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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 friends, so glad that you're with me on the podcast today. You know I get a lot of questions from students either in my foundations course or in the mentoring program, or even just people chatting me up online asking about this phrase, renewing your mind. Because, depending on what part of the body of Christ that you've come from or maybe you've never heard any teaching about renewing your mind there can be a lot of misconceptions out there about what that actually means. You know a lot of people think well meaning, that renewing your mind is something that happens to you, that something that you can go to the altar, get prayed for and, bam, your mind gets renewed and listen. I wish that was the way it was, but in my experience and in reading God's word, I've discovered that renewing your mind is not something that God does to you, but it's actually something that God does with you. And when you understand the process of how to start renewing your mind and what it's really for, it really is very, very, very empowering. But it's really important to understand a few details, and so I want to kind of break that down for you today. Wherever you are in your journey whether you're an experienced, you know, mature believer or have been walking with the Lord a long time, or you're just kind of starting to learn about what real transformation means in the kingdom I hope this is going to be really valuable for you today. So here's my thoughts on this. I really believe that the transformative power of renewing your mind is not about this sort of magic potion, if you will, to avoid all problems in your life or trying to instantly see all of your desires or dreams materialize, sort of like the new age idea of law of attraction or that kind of thing which we don't embrace, or or this kind of sort of like the new age idea of law of attraction, or that kind of thing which we don't embrace, or or this kind of, you know, living in a state of positive, toxic positivity, you know where, where you don't look at anything bad, that everything's positive. You're always, you know, head in the clouds and not really looking at the reality of life. That kind of approach for me is at best I would say a setup for disappointment in your life. That kind of approach for me is at best I would say a setup for disappointment in your life and at worst it can really be a manipulative sort of distortion of faith and of your relationship with God, sort of trying to treat God like a slot machine or whatever.
Speaker 1:Renewing your mind for me is all about recalibrating, I think, what I call the internal framework of your heart and mind, that is, your mind, will and emotions, what we refer to a lot of times as your soul, and also your body, your physical body, bringing those into alignment with the truth of God's Word, not only through His power but also intentional cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Bible says in Romans 12, too, that we don't conform to the pattern of this world, that is, we don't do life, think about life, interpret life, respond to life the way everybody else does. But in other words, we've got to be transformed, fundamentally changed, as we renew our mind and that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, the good and acceptable and perfect will, In other words, when you learn to think differently, when you learn to discern differently, when you learn to see life through the lens of the kingdom of God, empowered and led by the Holy Spirit, that's when real life changes. And so I believe that real transformation in the kingdom, in accordance with this idea of renewing your mind, is about supernatural transformation from the inside out. It is not listen now, it is not just this admonition to encouragement to think positive. Well, just think positive thoughts and everything will be fine. This is, this is where listen this is so important. This is where new age philosophy and where pop psych, psychobabble and all this kind of stuff can really get mixed up with the truth of God's word. Thinking positive is great, it's wonderful to have a positive outlook on life and everything, but that in itself is not transformative.
Speaker 1:Real transformation happens by the Spirit of God and through His Word. And when you begin to experience that supernatural transformation, empowered by His Spirit, it empowers you to see and hear and walk and respond by faith to the things that God's leading you to, whether you're in an easy time, a challenging time, an abundant time or a time of trial. I mean, remember Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians we don't walk by sight. We walk by what, by faith. And so this power of God that's at work in you and me, and for us and with us, is not, again, not just something God does to us, but it's something he does with us. In other words, it gets activated by your faith-filled yes. See, it's this divine power that happens through the renewing of our mind that enables us to stay the course, that enables us to call those things that are not as though they were. It enables us to rise above life's circumstances. It enables us to continue pressing forward despite setbacks that we may have in our life, difficulties, challenges, all that, Just like Paul said in Philippians 3, he said I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1:How do you keep present when things are going wrong, when you feel like you're walking through a difficult season, a trying season, a challenging season, a season of rainy despair, and you're like, how do you keep going? You keep going by the renewing of your mind, by this power that is working inside of you. This, this is why this is so much more than just well, just think positive. Well, just put your mind on the bright side. No, nobody can do that forever. We can only live. We can only live as artists, we can only live as people called in the kingdom by the power of God, through the transformation that only comes through the renewing of our mind, when we learn to think differently and see differently and discern differently.
Speaker 1:See, renewing our mind allows us to stand firm in this sort of tension, if you will, of the not yet. In this sort of tension, if you will, of the not yet and also the even so, I'm going to praise him. Right, I don't see it yet, but even in the middle of not understanding, I'm going to hold these two things and I'm going to say God is my refuge and strength, and him will I trust. It's the anchor, this renewing our mind process, this principle in the kingdom. It's this anchor in our life that keeps us steady and it keeps us from going off course as we trust his promises, as we believe his word that says I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future. It's an anchor, while we trust in the scripture that says you know, I'm working all things together for your good, because you've been called according to my purpose.
Speaker 1:And it's this transformation, this renewing of our mind that enables us, like Paul says in Philippians 4,. He says, hey, listen, I've learned, in whatever state I'm in, to be content. I know how to be abased, I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I have learned to be full and to be both hungry and both to abound and to suffer need. But I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. But you can't have access, listen, you can't access that strength on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis, unless you are leaning into the process of allowing the Holy Spirit to renew your mind.
Speaker 1:Listen, renewing your mind requires that cooperation, because that's how the kingdom of God operates. In other words, we've got to learn to appropriate by faith what God has already given us by grace. I'm going to say that again. You got to learn to appropriate by faith, that is, take hold of through agreement, the things that God has said in his word, has promised, has given you as a result of the new covenant, as a child of God. You got to learn to grab those things by faith, day by day, moment by moment, and receive the benefits and blessings and responsibilities that God has given you by grace. Listen, this is not something that you got to do on your own. This is not just again. Well, just think positive and everything will be great. We'll just look on the bright side. No, again, nobody can do that.
Speaker 1:Remember, in Ephesians 2, Paul talks about hey, we're leaning into this grace, why we're walking in a grace-filled life, why, so that nobody can boast? None of us can say I made it by myself. I made it because I thought positive. I made it because I manifested my dreams into diaries. No, you didn't. You made it because you learned to lean into the power of God. You made it because you learned that even in your weakness, he is made strong. You learned that, even though you didn't feel like it, God's promises were yes and amen towards your life and they were true. And as you leaned into that, even in a place of weakness, God's power was made perfect in you. Come on somebody, Woo, that's how the kingdom of God works. You just got to remember. And that's all this podcast is about today.
Speaker 1:Remember that renewing your mind is this transformative, God-ordained, Holy Spirit-led process through which we align intentionally our body and our soul and our mind with this spiritual reality that is already ours in the Spirit, because we're new creations. In other words, listen, your spirit's already been made a new creation. But through renewing of your mind, through coming into agreement with what God's word says, who you are, what you can do, what you can have, who he is, what he's promised, as you begin to intentionally align with that, your spirit, your soul and your body come into alignment with what your spirit already, your soul and your body come into alignment with what your spirit already enjoys as a new creation in Christ. Listen, my friend, if that didn't encourage you today, as I say, if that didn't light your fire, your woods wet. I hope that you realize that walking in the kingdom of God and thriving in the kingdom of God will not happen if you try harder, will not happen through all the pop culture and psychobabble of this world. It only happens through the inside out, God ordained process of renewing your mind and leaning into the guidance of the Holy Spirit, learning to hear His voice, learning to walk with Him every day.
Speaker 1:Listen, I want to pray for you, my friend, today, because when you start to get this, major, major change can happen, start happening quickly in your life. And, Father, I just thank you for that right now. Lord, I thank you that you have made a way, you've made provision for us to see real, measurable change in our life, not because we're good enough, not because we did it in our own strength, but because, God, we use the faith that you gave us as a gift to appropriate the things that you've already restored to us by grace, and we thank you that when we do that, your Holy Spirit is there to lead, guide, empower and encourage us along the way. Thank you that this reality is possible for every one of us, because we love you, because we're called according to your purpose, because we're your children. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Hey, listen, my friend, I'm so glad that you're with me today.
Speaker 1:If you are looking to, you say wow, Matt, this is so, so good. I would love to be able to dive more into that. You can absolutely do that in what we call the Foundations Course. It's available right now. It's an on-demand course that's available on our website. You can start at any time. You can join us inside of our Facebook community and walk this journey inside of a community of people that are committed to seeing their lives transformed by the power of God, seeing their art come alive, not through their own you know their own power and their own trying harder but learning how to co-labor with the Lord and what he has for them in their art, in their life, in their business, the way God intended, Again, from the inside out. Check out the Foundations course. All the information is at the link right here you can also, if you're just listening and want to go, you can go to matttommymentoringcom forward slash foundations and find out all about the course Super affordable, available now. We'd love to see you inside and start helping you really begin to break through in these areas so that you can walk in all of the purpose and plans that God has for you in your life.
Speaker 1:I love you, my friend. 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.