The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
4 Habits that Transform Artists
Are you an ENT artist—creating Every Now and Then whenever inspiration strikes? You're not alone. After mentoring artists for over 16 years, I've discovered the critical difference between those who merely dabble and those who truly thrive isn't talent—it's consistent, intentional habits.
The Core4 Focus Framework™ has transformed thousands of artists' lives, and today I'm breaking it down for you. First, Connect with God daily—not as a spiritual checkbox, but as the wellspring of your creativity. When you journal, declare biblical affirmations, and rehearse God's promises, you're establishing the foundation for everything else. As Jesus said, "Apart from me, you can do nothing."
Second, Clarify your focus each day in God's presence. Use your divine imagination as an internal artist's studio where God plants and nurtures ideas. Third, Create consistently—whether it's 15 minutes or several hours. Showing up in your studio is like raising a flag that says, "I'm ready to receive Your blessing today." Remember, inspiration often arrives after you begin, like priming an old pump.
Finally, Cultivate relationships by sharing your work regularly. Your art cannot bless others, generate income, or create impact if it remains hidden. These four habits—Connect, Clarify, Create, and Cultivate—form the ground that God can bless with increase and momentum.
One of the saddest outcomes would be reaching heaven having used only a fraction of your artistic potential. Don't let that be your story! When you partner with the Holy Spirit through intentional habits, your creativity becomes a highway for God's Kingdom to flow through your life.
Ready to transform your creative practice? Join thousands of artists receiving our free Thriving Christian Artist Weekly newsletter, or take the next step with our Foundations Course or Artist Mentoring Program. Your calling deserves your attention—because you were created to thrive!
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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 friend, so glad that you're with me today here on the podcast. I want to jump into something that I think is so vital for everybody and yet oftentimes it's one of the things that we don't think about a lot. You know, as an artist, I think, one of the things from my own life, growing up and not really taking my art that seriously I really loved the whole idea of just shooting from the hip, you know, like doing art when I felt like it and kind of operating in the moments of inspiration and just kind of thinking that that's the way it was. And you know, having the privilege now of being in this thing a long time, over 30 years as an artist over, you know, gosh, what is it now? 15, 16 years of mentoring artists in a full-time capacity through my books and conferences and mentoring programs and all this stuff One of the biggest lacking things that I see in the lives of almost every artist. I don't care how talented you are, I don't care how much you're selling, I don't care any of that stuff. One of the things that very few artists have a handle on is a rhythm of habits in their life, and having habits in your life is really, I think, the differentiator in somebody that's going to be able to take their art into a serious hobby, serious ministry, serious part-time or full-time capacity and somebody that just kind of is what I call an ENT artist. Right, and every now and then you may be saying, oh, that sounds like me. Listen, we've all been there, right, we all kind of start that way in our life. But I think one of the things that happens when you start to realize that, hey, being an artist is not just something that I do on the side, it's not just this little fun thing that doesn't have any meaning, but it's actually a part of how God's wired me and designed me to reveal and release his kingdom in and through my life. Once you start to get that, you start to realize, wow, if that really is true, like if the abundant life for me is tied to my willingness to invest in, lean into and, you know, really be engaged in this whole thing of being an artist, then I've got to take it seriously. You know I say this a lot, but I'll just say it again because it bears repeating. Success as a Christian artist is not just about floating from inspiration to inspiration. It really is about day by day intentionality. And so these creative habits that I want to talk about today, they're not just again, you know just basic habits. These are things that are going to help you to align your mind and your body and your spirit and your artwork and all that God's called you to do, into a rhythm for your life that really becomes your new normal.
Speaker 1:See Proverbs 21.5 says this, and I love this. I love Proverbs. You hear me talk about Proverbs a lot. I love it just because they're all these seemingly unrelated little nuggets of wisdom, right, that got put into the book of Proverbs, that you can just kind of take them one by one and just be like whoa, that's really good. You know, it's not like you don't need a ton of context, you don't need a whole lot of backstory. You can just take these little nuggets, these single verses and, uh, you know, a couple of verses together. You can take them and just go whoa, that is so good.
Speaker 1:And I love Proverbs 21, 5, because it says in the New Living. It says good planning and hard work leads to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. Listen, that's not just talking about money, right? That's not just talking about the way you live your life in general. It really is about your art, about your art practice, about the calling of God in your life. It's more really about fruitfulness and fulfillment and how to flow in that in every area of your life.
Speaker 1:And so I want to give you four things today, four big categories that I call our core four focus framework, which is something I talk about a lot in our artist mentoring program. I've addressed it in our foundations course. It's the foundation of everything that I put out in our thriving Christian artists weekly. By the way, if you're, if you're not getting that, you should, it's totally free, and we're sending that to thousands of artists every Wednesday. It comes out with, you know, creative tips and strategies and prayers that I put out and tech tips for you, a new podcast episode, a featured artist. I mean, it's a great newsletter. You should just be getting it. If you're not getting it. Anyway, I digress.
Speaker 1:The core four is really, I think, the minimum basic thing that every artist needs to be doing in your life if you're serious about being intentional about the calling of God on your life as an artist. So what does that mean? What are the core four? Well, the core four are just high level connect, clarify, create and cultivate. All right.
Speaker 1:So the first one is is in connect. It's really all about you beginning to align intentionally with the spirit of God every day. Because why? Well, everything in the kingdom begins with our connection with the Lord. Right, john 15 talks about you know, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Apart from me, you can do a big goose egg. Right, you can do nothing. I can't tell you how often the Lord meets me in the morning in my comfy chair, as I'm taking time, carving out time to pray, listen to his voice, journal worship. Listen. That's not just a box that we check in the morning. That is the well of inspiration and life that we have to draw from every day and it's in that place, right of stillness, in his presence, where we can hear his voice, receive his direction, have our identity reaffirmed and reestablished in our life and we realign our heart and our mind and our actions with His purposes.
Speaker 1:And so, when you go to journal and when you go to use things like biblical affirmations in your life, listen. These are such a key part of your day because you're not just writing out your thoughts, right, which is good, but you're writing out prayers, you're declaring the word of God, you're rehearsing what God has promised in your life, what is true, what is lasting, what is from the voice of the Lord In those times. You're declaring, right, who you are in Christ and what God says about your identity and your art and your provision and your possibilities and your future. Listen, that's not just hype, that's not positive thinking, that's not any of that new age woo-woo kind of stuff. This is literally sowing the word of God in your heart. This is literally connecting your heart with the spirit of God in order to receive life. And that is listen.
Speaker 1:That's a spiritual strategy for living. See, if the enemy can steal your agreement with God, if he can convince you that you're not who God says you are, can't do what God says you can do, can't have what God says you can have, then guess what. He will absolutely do it. And when you agree with the enemy. Guess what? You get the fruit of that agreement in your life.
Speaker 1:So starting with connection every day with the Lord is absolutely essential, and I would I would go so far to say this If you don't do anything else, if you're like man, I can't do core four, I just got to do core one. Then do core one and do it well, and do it every day, all right. But here's the here's the thing I know the more you're with Jesus, the more you're in his presence, the more you're going to be compelled to step into the thing that God has called you to do. That's just. That's just how it works. So connect.
Speaker 1:Secondly, clarify, and again I would just say this it's much easier to clarify your life and what you're doing, like the focus of what you're doing every day. It's much easier to do that when you do that in the context of his presence. Right, because once your spirit is aligned with him, once you're hearing his voice, once he's showing you the things for the day, it's a lot easier to get focused on my to-do list for this day, this week, this month. It's a lot easier to do what we talk about in the mentoring program all the time, which is envision yearly and then plan quarterly, and then review weekly and then execute daily. Right, that's the rhythm of what we do, but we do that not in a vacuum. We do that inspired and led by the voice of the Holy Spirit and this focus part of every day, clarifying what you do.
Speaker 1:This is a lot of times where I'll really engage my imagination, not as a place of just, like you know, woo-woo kind of fantasy, but you know, the words that the Bible uses for imagination are really the context there is like an artist's studio, like an artist forms clay, like an artist studio, like an artist forms clay. Like an incubator, like a womb, like a seed bed. So it's this place, right, this engine that God has put inside of you to not only, you know, plant new ideas, but also bring to life new ideas and blueprints and creative strategies and next steps for you. And so, listen, god gave you this divine imagination to use as a internal artist studio, if you will right To begin to preview with him and dream with him what he wants to not only bring to you but also bring through you. And so you can ask the Lord questions like Lord what are you dreaming about with me today. God, what's on your heart? God, show me in my imagination the next things that you have for me. God, what's your heart for this painting that I'm working on, or this project, or this new idea, or this conversation, or whatever it is?
Speaker 1:But again, using your imagination in the context of the voice of the Lord, hearing his voice, following his lead, moving with his spirit, sensing those nudges of his heart. Listen, that brings clarity and it brings intentionality, as opposed to you just kind of floating through the day. Well, I'm just going to trust God. Whatever happens, it's supposed to happen. No, that is not how the kingdom of God works. The kingdom of God is based in you seeing and agreeing, decreeing out of your mouth and then proceeding with your feet Right. You see what God's doing, you agree with it in your heart, you speak it out of your mouth and you walk toward it with intentionality. That's how you walk, by faith, and so connect and clarify. That's the first two.
Speaker 1:The third one is then if God's called you to be an artist, you got to go make art, and it's about, I find, being an artist. No matter again, if you're doing this is something you're just coming back to, something that you're doing as a full-time occupation or anywhere in between Right Serious, hobby, ministry, part-time, full-time, whatever. It's about you showing up in the studio every day and creating something. Listen, this is where the rubber meets the road. Day and creating something. Listen, this is where the rubber meets the road. There's a lot of wonderful, beautiful, creative people out there who call themselves artists Maybe you, I don't know, but you don't show up in the studio every day, not even every week.
Speaker 1:You're just kind of hit and miss. How can you expect God to grow the gifting that he's put in you, to mature the investment that he's put inside of you and to use you not only for your benefit and his glory, but for the influence and impact of others? How can you expect him to do that when you're not even showing up intentionally in the studio? And so, listen, I don't care if it's 15, 30 minutes an hour, it is, if it's choosing a day or two a week to show up, you know, all day long or if it's a rhythm. Every day you have to learn to make creativity and creating a lifestyle, not just an every now and then event. Listen, inspiration is great. It's great to feel the goosebumps of woo. I want to create this thing, but listen, we've all heard this a million times from, from, uh, 50, 11 different people.
Speaker 1:The more that you're in the studio, the more that you're doing creativity, the more you're going to be inspired. Right, it is. I like to use the the example of priming a pump. Right, sometimes you go in the studio you don't feel nothing. There's no water running, there's nothing flowing. But when you get in there and you start looking at materials and looking at your sketchbook and you start moving color around or moving materials around or whatever you do, it's like priming an old, old barn pump, an old farm pump. And what happens? The first few pumps that you, that you give nothing may come out, but all of a sudden, what happens? A trickle and then, as a trickle comes, more of it comes and all of a sudden, water is flowing.
Speaker 1:And listen, that's how it works. If you are waiting for these, you know moments of like, oh, I'm now inspired to create. Listen, you may get that sometimes, but nine times out of 10, I can just promise you, cause I've been doing this a long time. You may not quote, unquote, feel anything, but it's as you get in the studio and do it. That's where mastery is going to be developed. That's where unique voice is going to emerge. That's where confidence is going to happen. That's where momentum is going to happen. And listen, some days it's messy, some days it's beautiful, some days it's magical, some days it's awesome, some days you feel like, did I do anything? But listen?
Speaker 1:The habit of showing up in the studio is what gives the Holy Spirit something to work with. In fact, I would go as far as to say this showing up in the studio and doing the act of creating is almost like a trigger for the Holy Spirit. It's almost like raising the flag saying hey, I'm here. I'm ready to receive the blessing that you have for me today. I'm ready to hear your voice. Why would God speak to you? Why would God bless you? Why would God open up creative doors in your life, if you're not even taking the time to show up in the studio? Now listen, I know you're like woo Matt, I may have to hit pause on this podcast. You're like you're like reading my mail. You're like you're calling me on the carpet. Listen, listen to Uncle Matt, all right, I love you. I love you and I love you too much to leave you where you are.
Speaker 1:God has incredible plans for your life, but none of it matters unless you get it in your head and get it in your feet and get it in your hands that, hey, I got to do something with this gifting that God has given me. Otherwise, you know, one of the saddest things I think one of the saddest things is for you to live out all of your days as somebody that loves Jesus and has all that you need for life and godliness in this kingdom, for you to live and die on this earth, and end up in the presence of Jesus and say you know what? I did not even do a 10th of what God had for me in this life. I just chose to not be intentional. What a sad testimony. But listen, that didn't have to be yours.
Speaker 1:So what we've got now is what? Connect with the Lord. Then we've got clarify what you're doing with him every day. Then we got show up in the studio and create every day. Number four is what Connect with the Lord? Then we've got clarify what you're doing with him every day. Then we got show up in the studio and create every day. Number four is what Cultivate? All right, sharing your work and cultivating relationships with others.
Speaker 1:Listen, you cannot expect the art that God has given you in your life to bless others or create any kind of income or have any kind of impact If you are sitting there hiding it in the closet, hiding it in a drawer, or it's just sitting on your phone. Right, you got to make a point to share what you're doing with somebody in some way every day, whether it's a photo, a story, a behind the scenes video on social media, an email, a word of encouragement, whatever it is. An email, a word of encouragement, whatever it is. Listen, engage with the people that God has put in your circle of influence as you reach out to what partners, prospects, potential buyers, fans and collectors, checking in with your clients, whatever that is. You've got to do something on a regular. On the regular, all right, to cultivate relationship with people who need to receive from you and from the art that God's called you to. That's how your creativity turns into impact. That's how your creativity turns into influence. That's how God begins to open doors with stores and galleries and commissions and potential clients. Why? Because people know what you do. You cannot take a passion for art and turn it into any sort of profit machine without this daily habit of cultivating.
Speaker 1:And listen, I'm not saying you got to let social media control your life. I mean, I just did a whole teaching module earlier this year in the mentoring program on how to build your art without using social media, and tons of people are doing it very successfully, right, but there is no world that you can exist in where you do not share your work actively in some way with people on a regular basis and see your work get out there. That's just a part of what God has called all of us to do as creators. So, listen, I don't know what creative habits you have in place right now or ones that you need to start building, but I hope that as you start to think about this core four right of connecting with the Lord, out of that, clarifying what you're doing, showing up every day to create and, on the regular, cultivating relationships with people in the marketplace and in your circle of influence, to share who God is and what he's doing in your life and in and through your art, listen, I promise you that is the ground that God can bless and bring increase and multiplication and momentum in your life. It's not about doing everything at once. It's just about creating this rhythm of day-by-day intentionality. You know why? Because habits, not good intentions. Habits shape your future, habits shape your reality. The habits that you create create the fruit of your life. All right, again, when you partner with the Holy Spirit through this whole process not just try to do it white knuckle and make it happen but when you partner with the Holy Spirit in this creative process, your habits become highways for the kingdom of God to flow in and through your life. My friend, I love you.
Speaker 1:I am always honored to see the thousands and thousands of you that are listening all over the world to this podcast, taking advantage of all the resources that we have inside the Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program, this incredibly transformative foundations course that we have now, and that are reading every week the Thriving Christian Artist Weekly. I just want to encourage you, if you are looking for a place to say, matt, I listened to the podcast, but I'd love to connect with you more. Listen first place. Join the thriving Christian artists weekly. All right, it's free. You can go to the link that's right here in the podcast episode and start getting that weekly newsletter that gives you a rhythm every week based in this core four, uh, to start being intentional about the life that God's created you to be. Uh, and it created you to live as an artist in his kingdom, and once you start doing that, you'll see God open doors.
Speaker 1:Hey, maybe it's time to step in to the foundations course. Maybe it's time to to really get serious and let's jump into the mentoring program or the mastery program and let me, along with our team, help mentor you into things that you need to grow as an artist in God's kingdom. Hey, I love you, my friend. Thanks for being here. Be sure to share this with a friend 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.