The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
Walking in Grace vs Guilt as an Artist
Fear can paralyze Christian artists, trapping them in a destructive pendulum swing between two extremes: the fear that God won't provide financially on one side, and the fear that success will breed pride and damage their relationship with God on the other. This powerful episode tackles this common struggle head-on, offering liberating truth for creatives caught in this cycle.
Drawing from a thoughtful question submitted by a Foundations Course participant, Matt reveals how the enemy strategically uses this pendulum to keep believers stuck, perpetually swinging between scarcity mentality and success anxiety. The solution? Understanding the profound difference between fear-based religion and grace-filled relationship with the Father.
When we recognize that fear drives while the Holy Spirit invites, everything changes. Matt unpacks God's original intention for His children to walk in abundance in every area—unlimited relationship with Him, hearing His voice, walking in authority, and living aligned with His purpose. This wasn't just the design before the Fall; it's what Jesus died to restore us to.
The posture of our hearts shouldn't be fear but sonship—knowing we are redeemed children, joint heirs with Christ, and co-laborers with the Holy Spirit. As William Booth said, "I'm not waiting on a move of God, I am a move of God." When we truly embrace Jesus' words that "it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," we realize that every blessing comes solely by His grace. This recognition transforms how we create, succeed, and live.
Ready to break free from the fear pendulum and walk confidently in your artistic calling? Click the link to join our transformational Foundations Course and discover how Kingdom thinking can revolutionize your creative journey.
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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. Hey, my friends, super glad that you're with me today. I had a great question from a participant in our foundations course the other day that I thought wow, I bet a lot of people are struggling with this and I wanted to really create this as a resource for you so you can understand the real difference that a healthy understanding in the kingdom can really make in your life. The person's question was this, and I'll just read it verbatim. It says hey, matt, I've had a lot of hindrances in my life as far as seeing success in their art business, and she was starting to understand that God had started to show her where some of that root of hindrance was coming from, and it was really based on a lot of fear in her life, and so she said most of my fear is that God won't provide for me financially in abundant ways. In addition to that, sometimes I feel that if I break free from those fears and I do experience, you know, overflowing financial abundance in my life, she starts worrying that she'll become proud and that she'll deeply damage her relationship with the Lord, which is the most important thing in her life. And so she's like I'm just continually kind of back and forth, trying to break out of this, trying to figure out where the healthy place is to walk in this in your life. And she was just asking my wife, tanya and I, how have you guys managed this over the years? Realizing that you guys have experienced a lot of success in your life, it seems. But how are you walking in this in a way that does not elevate the things that you've accomplished or the things that you've created in life but really, you know, elevates your relationship with the Lord and man? I so appreciate that, because I know a lot of people struggle with that whole deal.
Speaker 1:And here's one thing I've learned, I guess, just to start out struggle with that whole deal. And here's one thing I've learned, I guess, just to start out the enemy always wants you to be on this pendulum of one side to the other, right, one side to the extreme, other side, on one side, you know, just like in this situation, he's saying you'll never have anything, financial abundance is greed, you're not supposed to be financially abundant and all that. And so it gets you into all this fear mongering, like you can never have anything. Then on the other side, when you do, you know, start experiencing the blessing of God, the favor of God, walking in the things that he's called you to, he starts sowing fear over there, saying you're so selfish and this is greedy, and you're going to, you know, ruin your relationship with God. And see you, you weren't really, you know, committed to your relationship with him anyway, and he loves keeping us on this pendulum back and forth, back and forth. And so I think it's just super important that you realize if you are more concerned about this sort of fear-based understanding of the blessings and benefits of walking in the kingdom, if you're more concerned about the dangers and the excesses of pride, then you are the empowerment of God's graciousness and the blessings and benefits that he brings you in your life.
Speaker 1:I can just about guarantee that in your life you've probably been more influenced by fear-based religion than you have grace-filled relationship with the Father. That's just. I've seen that in my own life. I've seen that in the lives of thousands of people that I've had the great pleasure of mentoring and walking with in my life, you have to start realizing that the reason we renew our mind, the reason why we want to be in God's word and learn to hear his voice and learn to walk in his ways, is so that our identity, on a subconscious level, our heart and mind, are influenced and shaped not by our experience, not by the lies of the enemy, not by the opinions of others or what we've gone through in our life, but they are to be shaped by the word of God and by what we know about the nature of God from his word. One of the most important things that you can start doing in your life is when thoughts come into your head like is this the Lord or is this not All this fear-based stuff? See, fear drives right. Fear drives you to you. Better, do this, you're going to miss it.
Speaker 1:Fomo, all that the Holy Spirit is always about invitation, right? He wants to invite you into this beautiful reality of the kingdom that Jesus died to restore us to. This was always God's original intention that we would walk in the fullness of His design for us, which was abundance in every area, unlimited relationship with Him, hearing His voice, walking in authority, walking in alignment with His design and purpose and assignment for our life. That's always been the plan of God and the plan of the enemy has always been to what Deceive us, so that we don't walk in that reality, so that we try to figure out things ourselves based on what we can, you know, the knowledge of good and evil. Right, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than receiving everything by faith, because of God's grace, in the context of a life-giving relationship with the Father. That's the whole idea of walking in the blessing and benefits of the kingdom. That's the essence of what God's trying to bring into our life.
Speaker 1:Now, does God want us over on the excesses? No, and certainly, you know. Do we need heart checks from time to time? Absolutely, Absolutely. God will, you know, always bring opportunities for you to check your heart, for you to examine your motives, for you to understand and ask yourself hey, am I really in this for the right reasons? Am I trusting in the gifts more than I am the giver? Am I trusting in the benefits and the blessings more than I am the blesser and the one who gives us. Of course he's going to give us opportunities for that.
Speaker 1:But listen, fear is never to be the posture of your heart. As a person walking in the kingdom, the posture of our heart is what I'm a son, I'm a daughter, I'm redeemed, I'm walking by God's grace. I'm a son, I'm a joint heir with Jesus, I'm a co-laborer with the Holy Spirit in this earth, in my generation, in this time, to see the kingdom of God not only manifested in me but through me, so that I'm not you know, as I believe. It was William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. He said I'm not waiting on a move of God, I am a move of God.
Speaker 1:Right, that's the position of our heart, not this fear-based thing of I don't want to miss it, I don't want to mess up God and I don't want to mess up my life and all this stuff that the enemy tries to put on you. The position of our heart is sonship. The position of our heart is unconditional love and walking in boldness. Listen, when you truly embrace this idea that we find in Luke 12, that, hey, jesus said it's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, and when you recognize that it's solely 100% by his grace that you and I even have the opportunity to walk in his benefits and blessings as sons and daughters in the kingdom. When you start understanding that and you start realizing that all the gifts that he's given you are for your benefit and for the benefit of his fame and his glory and for his kingdom to be made manifest and propagated in the earth, when you understand that man, you realize hey, this is God's story. I'm just here by his grace. I got nothing to be prideful about, right, I'm only here because Jesus made a way for me to be adopted back into the family of God, redeemed, reconciled and restored into the fullness of who God created you to be.
Speaker 1:Listen, when you start walking in that, renewing your mind to that fact, all of a sudden, the lies of the enemy and the grip that he has on your heart and mind, that wants to drag you into fear and comparison and shame with regard to walking in the fullness of what God's got for you. When you get that, all of a sudden, everything, everything changes. See, that's the transformative beauty of God's grace. Right, that's the heart of the kingdom. And I like to sum it up this way Grace is Not guilt should govern how we see God's generous gifts. As you renew your mind, as you get with Jesus, as you spend time in his presence, allow the Holy Spirit to renew your heart, transform you from the inside out and allow you to walk in everything without apology, that God designed for you from the very foundation of the earth. Listen, my friend, that is God's plan for living. I love you. Join me again right here and I'll see you soon.
Speaker 1:Bye, hey, real quick, before you go, if you have not registered for the foundations course yet, I want to encourage you to do that. Messages just like this about renewing your heart and mind, allowing God to heal the broken places in your heart and bring you into the fullness of what he's called you to be as an artist Regardless, if you're trying to make money with your art, do it as a ministry, just do it as a hobby that blesses your life. Listen, the Foundations Course is the most transformational course for artists who want to combine their faith journey with their creative journey. And I've got a special for you right here in the link that's in the podcast description. Click that. Join us inside Foundations and I can't wait to see what God does in your life inside this transformative community. Bye, thank you.